Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

You cannot shame the shameless.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Stay strong, because they are weak.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

You are here: Home / Politics / An Unexamined Scandal / C-Span Gold

C-Span Gold

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For those who do research into the stories of our politics, C-Span has just released a gold mine.

They have put years and years of searchable video online. As I poked around I could trace some mentions in Abramoff billing records to Congressional action on the floor. Amazing stuff.

There were several tapes where Jack himself is a featured speaker.

Here around the 51:00 mark he introduces his longtime co-conspirator Daniel Lapin (who gave him fake awards for piety in one of their many scams). Jack and Daniel are speaking at a Towards Tradition conference, their group to promote an alliance between extremist Christians and extremist Jews back in the 1990s.

Here around the 23:00 mark he gives advice to the 2003 College Republican Conference and introduces fellow co-conspirator Tom DeLay.

And here around the 88:00 mark he follows fellow co-conspirator Ralph Reed to the stage of the 2001 College Republican Conference. (As a side note, around the 92:00 mark Jack gives a shout-out to Ralph Nader for helping to throw the 2000 Election Bush’s way).

If you can stomach watching these weasels, it will give you a good idea of how the Republicans and the modern conservatives actually operate. These are clips of Abramoff pre-scandal and where he is being celebrated as a conservative hero. Little has changed in the conservative movement these days–it is as corrupt as ever. The only change has been that most of Jack’s pals have trouble remembering how closely they worked with Jack over the years. So it goes.

Still, I’m glad that C-Span has given the world a new toy.

Cheers

dengre

Reader Interactions

20Comments

  1. 1.

    mcc

    Holy. Shit. These archives appear to go back further than the online version of the Congressional Record.

    I’d been meaning to try to go to the library and dig out some stuff from their CD-ROM copies of the Congressional Record to find transcripts of the DADT hearings in 1993. This may make that unnecessary.

  3. 3.

    Dennis G.

    @mcc:

    It is an amazing resource. It is a smackdown tool of epic proportions. I was just listening to Dana Rohrabacher defend the sweatshops and human trafficking on the Marianas Islands back in 1997. Jack’s 1997 billing records worked towards that moment and bill for Dana’s spirited defense of the sweatshops.

    I’m sure there are many more such moments in these tapes.

    Cheers

  4. 4.

    gbear

    So how long would it take to put together a compilation video of republicans singing the praises of reconciliation and up-&-down votes?

  5. 5.

    Zach

    Way to get my hopes up that this means they’ve actually digitized more archived stuff and not just made a better search engine. Al Franken’s 1994 and 1996 WH Correspondents’ Dinners are still not available.

  6. 6.

    Zach

    Don’t construe my comment above to mean that this still isn’t awesome. Here’s Judd Gregg saying that Democrats are consigning black children in DC to a life of certain failure with no chance to become a Senator because they’re threatening to filibuster an appropriations bill that includes funding for DC charter schools – c-spanarchives.org/program/ID/120293&start=5175&end=19625

    It would be a fun but pointless exercise to interpolate Gregg’s speech with health care reform talking points.

  11. 11.

    DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)

    @Zach:

    Improving a search algorithm is a big deal, especially to those who desire openness and accessibility to information (not to mention the nerds who did it!). Being able to accurately search video archives can save a lot of time when someone is looking for specific information that they may not be aware of.

    I expect that the nerdier lefties amongst us are going to have some fun with this. I’m looking forward to a ‘Greatest Hits’ compilation of the various scandals and those involved.

  12. 12.

    Yutsano

    Why do I see you rubbing your hands and salivating like a Pavlovian hound? In all seriousness, this sounds like a fantastic resource that future historians (and present-day muckrakers) will be utilizing for decades if not centuries.

  13. 13.

    Batocchio

    @Zach:

    I was just looking for those! One of those was fantastic. I found about 4 Franken videos from the 90s I’ll look at tomorrow.

    In any case, this is pretty cool – a good start by C-Span.

  16. 16.

    ET

    I was wondering how long it would take before I would run across a political geek who wanted into the archives and nearly overindulged.

  17. 17.

    C-Spun

    Maybe now we can see exactly when Dick Cheney’s soul left his body. Maybe not – probably happened WAY before he was in congress.

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