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You are here: Home / Politics / Republican Stupidity / When You’ve Lost Mark Halperin

When You’ve Lost Mark Halperin

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I’m as shocked as anyone about this:

It isn’t every day that a consumate inside-game reporter/pundit type like Mark Halperin aggressively calls out one party for lying, but that’s exactly what Halperin did early this morning on MSNBC, talking about the GOP claim that the Dem financial reg reform bill will lead to a permanent bailout. Per the transcript:

    JOE SCARBOROUGH: Just this once, defend the Republican position.

    MARK HALPERIN: I cannot defend what they’re doing.

    MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Oh, please.

    SCARBOROUGH: Look at you! Look at you!

    [CROSSTALK]

    HALPERIN: They are willfully misreading the bill or they are engaged in a cynical attempt to keep the president from achieving something.

Note how appalled Scarborough is.

Greg says he will have video soon, and that is a good thing, because I need to see this with my own lying eyes.

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  3. 3.

    ericblair

    Wait! You can’t call a bunch of liars liars just because they’re lying! That would be nonbipartisan!

  6. 6.

    Violet

    And yet, even with the large percentage of Americans for some kind of financial reform, the Dems can’t get their message act together. Headlines from TPM right now:

    No Plan B?
    Dems Caught Unprepared To Counter A GOP Filibuster On Financial Reform
    Key Vote Coming As Early As Monday … Dems Don’t Have Unified Response Ready … No Ads In Can … Dems Struggle to Find One GOPer To Break Filibuster …

    Ugh. It doesn’t really matter what Mark Halperin thinks if the Dems don’t have any kind of plan to get this thing through Congress.

  7. 7.

    cleek

    meh. outliers are easily dismissed. all the rest of the press knows better than to make judgments about the truth value of anything that comes out of a Republican’s mouth. they’ll all pretend Halperin was playing the puckish contrarian just to spice things up. they’re not going to reflect on his statement or let it lead them to uncomfortable realizations.

    sure, the Grand Obstructionist Party is selling snake oil, but that’s not news; that’s just politics. and our political press knows they aren’t qualified to do anything more than tell viewers how bad things are for the Democrats.

  9. 9.

    Face

    Halperin, in 3 hours, after being completely Limbaughed and Boortzed: The “they” meant “Democrats”. Go Palin. Uncle!

  12. 12.

    Citizen_X

    They are willfully misreading the bill or they are engaged in a cynical attempt to keep the president from achieving something.

    Two things that are not mutually exclusive.

  14. 14.

    MattF

    Interesting. Back in the old days, telling the truth like this would have been the end of Halperin’s career as a pundit, and no, I’m not exaggerating.

  16. 16.

    Brian J

    Off topic, and I might be late with this, but Bruce Bartlett has written a must-read piece on think tanks. These paragraphs really caught my eye, because they are like a microcosm for the entire conservative movement:

    From Feulner’s vision the Heritage Foundation was established in 1973. Rather than fill its staff with aging Ph.D.s, he hired people with master’s degrees who had perhaps studied with the small number of conservatives in academia. Their job wasn’t to do original research, but to take the research that had already been done by conservative academics, summarize it and apply it to the specific legislative issues Congress was considering. Instead of writing books of several hundred pages, Heritage studies were typically 10 pages or less.

    The basement of the Heritage Foundation, where I worked in the 1980s, had the biggest Xerox ( XRX – news – people ) machine I have ever seen. I once asked why Heritage used such a costly printing system and was told that although offset printing would have been much cheaper, it was too slow. If 1,000 copies of a document were needed then 1,000 of page one would have to be printed, then 1,000 of page two and so on before having one complete copy. A Xerox machine produced complete documents right from the first copy.

    Often, Heritage staffers would grab handfuls of studies as they came out of the machine and literally run to the House or Senate to start distributing them. I know there were occasions when I wrote a quick one-pager on some hot topic and it was in congressional offices the same day. In the Internet era we take such speed for granted, but in the 1970s and 1980s Heritage was operating at light speed, while AEI and Brookings were still using horses and buggies, so to speak.

    …

    Unfortunately, the additional money brought increased donor pressure to produce bottom line results–getting bills passed or defeated–and had a corrupting effect on the think tanks. New ones came into existence that were little more lobbying operations with tax-exempt status. The April issue of Harper’s magazine has a feature on one such organization, the Lexington Institute, which appears to basically be a front for defense contractors. Not surprisingly, the executives of such organizations are paid more like lobbyists than academics. According to the information posted at http://www.guidestar.com, the top two officials at Lexington were paid $360,000 each in 2008.

    Ideology over expertise and distribution methods that resembled the spreading of propaganda instead of actual policy research? Color me unsurprised but still saddened.

  18. 18.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Hmm, the shift begins. Pretty soon he’ll have a blog and be ridiculing Wingnuts and showing pictures of his pets.

    Oh he does have a blog?

    “But,” Halperin added “Needless to say, this is very good news for John McCain”

  21. 21.

    Linda Featheringill

    Go, Mark!

    It would be refreshing to see liars called liars.

    [I became a happier person when I stopped watching the Joe&Mika Mutilation of Truth Show in the mornings before work.]

  22. 22.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

     

    Everybody knows a consultant just handed them that line and they’re just reading it. It doesn’t matter what’s in the bill. It could be a bill about breakfast cereal and they’re going to say this is a bailout bill.

    I keep hoping for a latter day Joseph N. Welch to put in the final word on the bottomless cynicism of today’s GOP. Don’t know if this quote will stick, but it deserves to.

  23. 23.

    Montysano

    Breaking news: Tom Tancredo calls for Halperin to be sent back to wherever he came from.

  24. 24.

    Bender

    Brad Sherman Congressman (D-Calif.), member of House Financial Services Committee :

    (Interview with POLITICO’s David Mark)

    How can Democrats get out ahead of the Goldman Sachs story politically?

    We can say, “No taxpayer money to Wall Street firms, their creditors and the counterparts.” Then we go to the voters and tell them there’s no money for Wall Street, but regulation instead. If you can’t run on that slogan, you’ve got a problem.

    But there are serious problems with the Dodd bill. The Dodd bill has unlimited executive bailout authority. That’s something Wall Street desperately wants but doesn’t dare ask for. The bill contains permanent, unlimited bailout authority.

    Damn lying Republicans who are Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee!

  25. 25.

    MikeJ

    I wonder what Halperin thinks about the fact that the heds on half the blogosphere now read “even Mark Halperin won’t defend them.”

  30. 30.

    Bob L

    @Bill E Pilgrim:Hmm, the shift begins. Pretty soon he’ll have a blog and be ridiculing Wingnuts and showing pictures of his pets.

    sigh, you’re probably right, but we still don’t have to be happy to see it. So how fat is Halprin’s cat?

  31. 31.

    Bob K

    Is Halperin “Dead to the Party” yet? These people should include pop up thermometers so we can be certain when they are done. Maybe he just wants to spend more time with his family or take a walk on the wild side, whatever.

  32. 32.

    Waynski

    Interesting thing for me was to hear Scarborough call Halperin an “Upper West Side liberal”. I’m guesing that will be news to Upper West Side liberals.

  33. 33.

    cleek

    @Bender:

    i agree, Bender: the bill needs to be much much stronger.

    now how about you tell your GOP masters to propose something instead of continuing to act like 3 year olds ?

  34. 34.

    demimondian

    @Anton Sirius: Yup.

    Health Care Reform was a major policy achievement, and it wasn’t going to make good 15 second spots. The Republicans are trying, desperately, to stave off the fifteen seconders that are coming. They will succeed with the 28% crazies. They’ll fail with the 34% Dems. They are betting everything they’ve got left that the economy doesn’t come back strong, because, if it does, they’ll lose 60% of the other 38%, and that would be catastrophic for their electoral prospects.

  35. 35.

    Brian J

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I don’t mean to sound like a dick, but the idea that one of the few moderates in the Republican party will come through in the clutch is starting to resemble my prediction that Obama will tell the Republicans to fuck off and/or start appointing expert firebrands to key positions in the government: it’s a nice thought to dream about, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

  36. 36.

    Osprey

    You know shit is starting to hit the fan when the normally boot-licking loyal media mouthpieces of the right start calling out the Republicans for their bullshit (Frum, now Halperin…others too I’m sure I’m missing). Hopefully this will have a cascading effect on other somewhat sane ‘journalists’ where they will continue to flee far-right Republican stupidity, and we’ll see the hard-core media base become crazier without the saner ones around.

  37. 37.

    jayjaybear

    I love Scarb’s “Just this once”. As if Halperin is a dedicated Democratic shill, or ever has been.

    And Mika? Your daddy is hiding out in his house because the shame of his daughter being such an airheaded, politically idiotic echo to Joe “Dead Intern” Scarborough is too much for him to bear in public.

  38. 38.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Brian J: If you don’t mean to sound like a dick, then don’t sound like one. But seriously, I did not say it was likely, I said it was the best case scenario.

  41. 41.

    Bob K

    @ericblair:

    You should copyright that and put it on a t-shirt. You could make enough money to buy a roll of duct tape to coat the outside of your refrigerator box. Just because you’re a member of the Balloon-Juice I’ll give you this special tip. Go the extra coin for a roll of “Gorilla Tape” – it’s stickier and sturdier than regular duct tape. You’ll have the most styling box under the overpass

  42. 42.

    BR

    They seriously need to use Goolsbee more. The guy knows how to deliver a punch.

    Maybe he should be in charge of their wall street reform media strategy.

  43. 43.

    David in NY

    @Bender:

    I don’t know WTF Sherman was talking about, Bender, but every Congress and President always has permanent unlimited bailout authority. It’s called the power to legislate. Unless you do away with that, which would require an odd constitutional amendment (“Amendment To Do Away With Congress and the Presidency”), there will always be authority to do a bailout.

    What you can get rid of, and what the current bill actually does get rid of, is the likelihood that the need for a bailout will ever arise. Remember, until deregulation of the banksters, there was for about seven decades no need for such a thing. We can end the need for bailouts again by replacing that regulation.

    Does that solve your problem?

  44. 44.

    bkny

    staying home today, i caught the first opening minutes where they go thru the guest lineup for the day. sorkin was on and murdering joe did a debrief on the hoohaw between him and krugman — with scarborough doing a mincing imitation of krugman. shut off the teevee at that point; i loath that asshole. and meeka brezinski is embarrassing in the snide remarks she tolerates.

  45. 45.

    Stroszek

    @BR: Goolsbee is hilarious, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that a random economist in the White House is better at messaging than every Democratic politician in Congress.

  48. 48.

    Da Bomb

    The end of the world is nigh!!

    Halperin is actually taking a stand and not only that, he actually says that the Republicans are trying to keep the President from accomplishing something.

    I feel faint…

  49. 49.

    MikeJ

    Jesus fuck, I just watched the vid. “Let’s pretend you aren’t an effete left wing, upper west side journalist and let’s just pretend you were a down the middle, hard nosed, gumshoe.”

    Why the fuck would anyone go on intern Joe’s show?

  50. 50.

    ABS

    I also remember Halperin putting down Palin when he was on Hardball a few months ago. I think even he has gotten the memo that the Repubs have gone off the rails.

  51. 51.

    Brian J

    @Stroszek:

    He used to do well at national debating challenges, along with Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick I believe, so it’s not a surprise that he can communicate well.

  53. 53.

    LuciaMia

    OT, but just read about this new media network, RightNetwork, that Kelsey Grammer is launching this summer. From their homepage, “Americans who are looking for content that reflects and reinforces their perspective and worldview.”

    So, if you’re not feeling properly brainwashed over at Fox, there’s a new kid in town.

  54. 54.

    feebog

    I live on the West Coast, so you could not pay me enough to get up at 3:00 a.m. to watch this crap. Come to think of it, you couldn’t pay me enough to get up at 6:00 a.m.

  57. 57.

    Osprey

    I’m calling this now, if Palin/Bachmann wins the 2012 Presidential election, Mika will be Secretary of State.

  58. 58.

    Brian J

    @Bulworth:

    I will take the same approach to Kelsey Grammer that my very conservative uncle takes to Alec Baldwin: like him as an actor, hate his politics. And unlike some in my family, I don’t give a shit if they say whatever they wish to say about politics. If I don’t like it, I can ignore it.

    If only more on the right would feel like that.

  59. 59.

    Guster

    @Omnes Omnibus: But wouldn’t a Republican filibuster look like nothing at all? Aren’t filibusters just the absence of anything: I know they don’t involve doing any actual Mr. Smithing.

    So you’d have our ads: the Republicans filibustered our attempt to rein in the banksters!
    And their ads: We filibustered the Democratic attempt to make white Christians sell their guns to pay for bank bailouts!

  61. 61.

    cybrestrike

    That’s the most surreal exchange that I’ve read all week. And it’s bloody Tuesday.

    Halperin? Wicked. Can’t wait to see the video.

  63. 63.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Guster: Well, for one thing they are going to lie anyway, so, if we are going to counter them without lying ourselves, it helps to have them on the record opposing something popular like putting the screws to Wall Street.

  64. 64.

    HRA

    I saw it when it happened. I am not surprised at all. Halperin has not been shoring up Scarborough’s remarks for quite a while now. We probably won’t see him on Morning Joe for a while now or ever again.

  66. 66.

    GregB

    When is Zbig going to pull his daughter aside and tell her that she has a stunning lack of knowledge that is almost embarrassing to listen to?

  69. 69.

    Uloborus

    @TR:
    Heck, we’ve been through it so long it’s more like someone finally stuck their head back out of the glass and said ‘Oh my god, this place is still here!’

    Really, it’s sad when the mainstream news reporting the bluntly obvious shocks us.

  70. 70.

    Keith G

    Speaking of losing it, did anyone catch the two pro gun demonstrators on Hardball last night?

    Putting the nut in wing-nut.

  72. 72.

    rootless-e

    I@MikeJ:

    Well Joe, let’s pretend you are not a bullying, ignorant, fountain of Republican talking points, whose assistant died in suspicious and unresolved circumstances, and just see if you could tell the truth for once.

  75. 75.

    jibeaux

    I wish they would do a bill about breakfast cereal. That shit’s too expensive for a box full of additives and corn products.

  76. 76.

    rootless-e

    @Ash Can:

    It’s really annoying that “progressive” Democrats can’t argue their side without using Republican points. He could have made the case on its own merits and maybe won some people over.

  77. 77.

    mr. whipple

    @rootless-e:

    It’s really annoying that “progressive” Democrats can’t argue their side without using Republican points.

    Witness Josh Marshall’s morning headline, in huge font: “No Plan B?
    Dems Caught Unprepared To Counter A GOP Filibuster On Financial Reform”

    In essence, he replaces the focus from unprecedented lying and obstruction by the gop with a story of ‘democratic ineptitude’. And these folks are on ‘our side’? Shoot me.

  78. 78.

    demimondian

    @rootless-e: So true.

    Maybe there’s no plan B. That would be bad — but the alternative may be that a tactical response is all that’s necessary. Maybe there’s no response to a filibuster threat except doing other things for a while and letting pressure build — or disperse. If the Goldman Sachs business keeps growing, and pressure builds, then make the Republicans filibuster at the end of the session.

  79. 79.

    David in NY

    @Ash Can:

    I think maybe, but you have to go to Politico to find out, and all they have is the quote, no explanation, no nothing.

    I gather that Sherman’s beef may be that “resolution” in the bill, which is provided for failing big institutions, is somehow a support that unfairly gives big banks an edge over smaller banks and doesn’t provide enough punishment for wrongdoers (“moral hazard”). Also an “executive power grab” (this sounds a little wacko to me). The way I understand it, however, “resolution” is essentially a total loss for investors and management, carried out quickly and in an orderly way. Maybe bondholders don’t take a big enough cut (not sure about this at all), but basically from what I’ve heard it’s pretty strong medicine. But it is conceivable, even likely, that Sherman knows a lot more than I do, so I’m sorry Politico goes with only a sound bite.

  80. 80.

    jibeaux

    Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and be on the side of “Obama has probably thought about how we might proceed in the event of a Republican filibuster”. I don’t think it’s exactly 11 dimensional chess to think, “but wait! what if they decide to obstruct without offering any alternative proposals?!?!!”

  82. 82.

    cleek

    but if you read the TPM story, the entire basis for this “no plan B!” story is from the comments of a single “concerned source working in messaging at one of the largest Dem-aligned financial reform pressure groups”.

    so, some anonymous PR flak somewhere thinks the notoriously-uncoordinated Dems could be doing better job coordinating their message ?

    big fucking surprise there.

    +10 hype.

  83. 83.

    mr. whipple

    @demimondian:

    Yesterday he did a story bemoaning how Snowe and Collins were being catered to, and predicting that they would only pull the football. Which of course is entirely possible, maybe even predictable. The thing is, the admin isn’t doing it because they like to made fools of, it’s because they need 60 votes. I wish he’d learn how to count.

  85. 85.

    Nellcote

    @mr. whipple:

    In essence, he replaces the focus from unprecedented lying and obstruction by the gop with a story of ‘democratic ineptitude’. And these folks are on ‘our side’? Shoot me.

    TPM’s headlines have gone Huffpoo-esque the last couple of months. Are they looking for investors?

  88. 88.

    WereBear

    Why not call the bill the “No Bailout Bill”?

    Come on, people! I must not be a professional, because I’m giving it away for free here.

  89. 89.

    jl

    If the Senate GOP hangs together, what could a ‘plan B’ be?

    Anyone know? Seriously, what are the options?

    The only plan B, given the procedural mess in the Senate would be to peel off Snow or Collins. But TPM has already made fun of that as a plan B, perhaps with good reason.

    Other plan B I can think of is to pound the GOP as Wall Street lackeys from the day the bill dies until the election, hoping to beat the odds and win a seat in the election.

    Problem with that plan B is that economists who were right about the connection between the housing bust and looming financial crisis in the summer of 2008 (Stiglitz, Galbraith, Roubini) say we may be facing another one soon without reforms.

    Wall Street financial sector is one of fastest growing sectors of economy, approaching its outsized prominence before the bust, though exactly how much of that is doing anything useful is an interesting question.

    Any suggestions for a feasible and productie plan B?

  90. 90.

    Kyle

    MARK HALPERIN
    MIKA BRZEZINSKI
    JOE SCARBOROUGH

    Two nepotism hires and an intern-killing former hack congressman. A recipe for excellence.

  91. 91.

    Rhoda

    That TPM story is pitiful. TNR, I’m shocked, has a great story about how Lincoln’s derivative reform proposal has changed the game and created a pressure for GREATER reform in it’s wake. This thing is shaking out great for the Democrats and it’d be nice if the concern trolling didn’t happen.

    Yeah, Democrats don’t stay on message like Republicans. But they don’t need a message on Wall Street. First Read had a great point about how saying Wall Street and reform immediatly gets you to 50% in the polls.

    People know they’ve been fucked. And when you sue Wall Street they know the motherfuckers are the ones paying.

    That is pure win.

    ETA: Here’s the story: http://www.tnr.com/article/economy/the-state-play-financial-regulation-edition

  92. 92.

    BR

    BTW, if you live in Massachusetts, call Scott Brown’s office and give them hell on his decision to filibuster.

    I called this morning and told them I voted for Brown (I didn’t) and that I’m an independent (I am) and that he won because he said he was a different kind of Republican – not a Southern Republican, and that Wall Street has screwed over the country and if he doesn’t support the Wall Street reform bill he’s going to be out of a job soon.

  95. 95.

    Kyle

    …he won because he said he was a different kind of Republican – not a Southern Confederate Republican

    Fixed for you. Spread the meme.

  96. 96.

    BR

    @jibeaux:

    None of my (political) friends live in MA. You guys are going to have to spread the word to hammer Scott Brown’s office with calls.

  100. 100.

    different church-lady

    It’s not lying itself a guy like Halperin doesn’t like — it’s being bad at lying. Such a thing is distasteful.

    What Halperin is really saying here is, “C’mon Mitch, that’s so lame even I don’t have enough kitty litter to cover it up.”

  102. 102.

    Chuck

    “Just once, defend the Republican position”

    Me, I would have responded with “No Joe, that’s what YOU’RE paid to do.”

    Although in the history of on-air smackdowns, Mika’s dad did lay down one of the greatest.

  103. 103.

    Comrade Baron Elmo

    OT, but just read about this new media network, RightNetwork, that Kelsey Grammer is launching this summer. From their homepage, “Americans who are looking for content that reflects and reinforces their perspective and worldview.”

    Read: Every project Grammer has signed on for since Frazier left the air (the ten-pounds-of-shit-in-a-two-pound-sack that was An American Carol you already know, but did anyone here ever catch his sad, sad attempt at an improv comedy sketch show?) has gone down like a broccoli fart in a crowded elevator.

    So now he’s angling for a shot at that sweet, sweet wingnut welfare. Color me surprised.

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