Sure, there is a ton of stuff going on, and lots I could write about, but really, I just want to again post this Rachel Maddow piece from last night:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Why can’t all journalists do this? Why can’t they simply call a lie a lie, and call someone who lies repeatedly a liar? Why can’t they do what Rachel did, which is go through the statements and prove how they are lies? Why can’t everyone do this?
At any rate, I maintain that was the best 14-15 minutes in cable news journalism in my lifetime.
Betty Cracker
I adore Rachel Maddow. Looking forward to reading her new book too.
Ajay
Lying is the norm. Its expected and often appreciated by some(eg base, voters) in society when it comes from certain sect of our political discourse.
For whatever reason, I didnt find anything special in this show. Its probably because I already knew the lies and no accountability by media due to both sides do it syndrome.
Brachiator
Didn’t somebody named Franken or something like that write a book titled Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)?
Agree that this was a most excellent Maddow segment.
David Koch
Speaking of hot sex.
It’s too bad we didn’t listen to our progressive betters and the emoprogs who told us hooker-lovin John Edwards was the only True Progressive™.
Nice job. Way to go.
four years ago the pious professional left lectured the laity that they had cornered the market on politics and it turned out the sages put all their chips on a scandal plagued creep. They even banned/excommunicated the heretics to didn’t follow their all-in support of Edwards like sheeple.
this has to be engraved, for you know the PL (some who are already supporting Ron “let the poor die” Paul), will once again attempt to lecture us on their superiority and demand obedience to their papal-like pronouncements for some loser like Grayson or Edwards.
TK-421
Because calling a lie a lie wouldn’t be balanced, that’s why. SATSQ.
Tonal Crow
But that would mean that the public would become better-informed about what politicians (and especially winger politicians) are doing. That could lead to effective self-government, rather than wingerocracy. Which could lead to Liberty. My FSM, what are you? Some kind of sockialist?
Brachiator
@David Koch:
Politician has sex. Alert the press!
Tonal Crow
@Brachiator: Don’t feed the troll.
vernon
Maddow’s doing an awesome job working the mainstream shift. We’re lucky to have her. Yes, she kills in the above clip, but you almost expect it at this point.
Schlemizel
I’d like to raise enough money to play that as a commercial on every station during the RNC in Tampa.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
Rachel’s is the one show I can watch and consistently learn something new. She doesn’t just expand on the various headlines and short wire reports I see throughout the day; she takes the time to delve into the meaning of the headlines, and tie things together point towards the trends. (I like O’Donnell, too, but it’s more of a guilty pleasure.)
Haven’t seen Maddow in a few days, so I’ll have to watch this clip when I get home.
Cat Lady
Rachel has a way of doing it that anticipates the objection to the word “lie”, so that she neutralizes the objection before she makes her case, then she gets on her roll. It’s so artful, and she’s the only one who can get away with it because she’s wicked smaht and does ALL of her homework.
ETA: I also don’t think she gives one goddamn shit about cocktail party invitations. From what I gather, she goes home to her partner and doesn’t own a TV. Also.
Hill Dweller
She followed that up by going on Andrea Mitchell’s show this afternoon and calling Kay Bailey Hutchinson(and her Republican colleagues) liars and frauds.
Ron Beasley
FOX doesn’t have a problem calling Obama a liar every time he opens his mouth. I guess that’s “fair and balanced”.
David Koch
@Brachiator: I agree. If you’re gonna cheat on your cancer stricken wife, use a call girl. They’re discreet, and if you kill one, no one will notice.
PeakVT
Why can’t they simply call a lie a lie, and call someone who lies repeatedly a liar?
Because the L-word is inflammatory. I think Maddow’s segment was good and Romney deserves to be called out since he is a consistent and egregious liar. But it was clearly an editorial segment. Calling people liars as part of a routine news segments would turn off a lot of people. The same point can be made with other words or phrases. And there’s also the issue that sometimes what looks like a lie is simple ignorance (or willful ignorance a la George Costanza).
Baud
@David Koch: Eh, I don’t like emoprog politics any more than you do, but I’m not going to attack them for Edwards’ personal issues.
David Koch
@Hill Dweller: Here’s the clip you’re talking about: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/mitchell-reports/46823980/#46823980
Mino
Republicans don’t have an exclusive on duplicity, ala Etch-a-Sketch. Blue Dogs are rebranding themselves and running on a balanced budget platform. Remember that when you vote in your primaries, Dems.
cathyx
If they do what Rachel did, then they won’t be invited to the parties and country clubs. Rachel doesn’t go to those parties or country clubs.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
c’mon he is trying to run for office here.
Mino
@Hill Dweller: She would make her point more strongly if she kept Mitt as a special liar, which he certainly is, and wiffed on calling other Republicans such.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick:
For Pete’s sake!
MikeInSewickley
Her work here was the best she has done in a single 15 minute segment IMHO.
How anyone can see this and not realize that this man will do anything and say anything to get elected means that person is stone cold f*** nuts.
Frankly, the way the Etch-a-Sketch is lighting up the Intertubes and TV, I (begrudgingly) have to agree with Joe Klein who says this is Romney’s “I Voted For It Before I Voted Against” moment. This one is going to stick.
The only thing that makes this less delicious is that it may allow Santorum to move into the position as candidate. That really scares me as this country has so many American Taliban that the fool may give Obama a run for his money or even win in the right circumstances. Then it’s time to head to the fallout shelter.
gogol's wife
The New York Times actually devoted a whole article to Romney’s lies about Obama the other day, maybe yesterday. They didn’t use the word “lie” but they might as well have. I only read the print edition, and it was buried at the bottom of an inside page and written by someone you’ve never heard of. Still, it was progress.
Tonal Crow
@Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn: No problem. We’ll just hit the reset button and shake the Mitt-o-sketch!
gogol's wife
Here it is, by John Broder, who uses “misleads,” “unsubstantiated,” etc.:
ttp://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/romney-misleads-on-obama-and-energy-prices/?scp=7&sq=romney obama&st=cse
ETA: I can’t seem to figure out how to put links up here. Just google John Broder.
Thoughtcrime
Rmoney just can’t shake away the Etch-A-Sketch (from the GOS):
Rick Santorum says sticking with President Obama might be better than electing an Etch-A-Sketch:
If you’re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with what we have instead of taking a risk with what may be the Etch A Sketch candidate of the future.
And Mitt Romney responds with disappointment and horror:
I was disappointed to hear that Rick Santorum would rather have Barack Obama as president than a Republican.
By the transitive laws of Republican ass-clownery, I do believe that Mitt Romney just confirmed he is in fact Mr. Etch-A-Sketch.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/22/1076891/-BREAKING-Mitt-Romney-confirms-he-is-Mr-Etch-A-Sketch
David Koch
@Baud: No, I’m indicting them for their harassment of dissenters of their 2008 “there is only one true progressive” pronouncements.
As a pluralist, I can accept different assessments without demonizing people for simply disagreeing and that there are more than one qualified candidates.
As a realist, I know no one is without sin, and not to promote anyone as a messiah, let alone attack non-believers and agnostics for not disagreeing.
And it serves a cautionary tale. It will happen again. The PL can’t help themselves.
El Cid
Rachel Maddow approaches many topics in the sort of mode in which a careful and concerned academic — which she is — would choose so as to properly situate and ground a subject, including anticipating objections and clarifying what would and would not count as relevant evidence. What terms mean. And so forth.
It’s something I really enjoyed about her from the very early work on Air America.
Thoughtcrime
Rmoney v.2012 is a hybrid. Here’s the prototype:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poJhL_THRqQ
Daaling
Yea but Colbert pretends to be a Conservative and Al Gore is still fat so both sides do it.
Mike Furlan
Perhaps Rachel is being naive?
Remember when we thought that Bush jr. being a dumb guy was a bug, not a feature? The people really, really, wanted the dumb guy, and hated the smart guys.
Wouldn’t surprise me that most of our fellow citizens would believe that the ability to effortlessly lie is the mark of a shrewd politician, and that the rest of us goody goody types should just grow up.
Mike Furlan
Perhaps Rachel is being naive?
Remember when we thought that Bush jr. being a dumb guy was a bug, not a feature? The people really, really, wanted the dumb guy, and hated the smart guys.
Wouldn’t surprise me that most of our fellow citizens would believe that the ability to effortlessly lie is the mark of a shrewd politician, and that the rest of us goody goody types should just grow up.
Thoughtcrime
A Democratic leader finally goes there:
House Dem Leader Lashes Out at GOP as Tennessee Taliban
Rep. Mike Turner says extremists have seized control of the state GOP and are trying to turn Tennessee into another Afghanistan.
“They’re preoccupied with sex up here,” the House’s No. 2 Democrat told reporters at his party’s weekly availability. “They’re got a real thing with sex. We’re about ready to put the turbans on, I think, and put the women in burkas here if we keep going at this rate.”
It’s the end of a bizarre week at the Capitol—even for this legislature—with sex education, abortion, the Ten Commandments, guns and creationism all on the agenda. And when Republicans weren’t pandering to their nutty base, they were passing laws to lift the ceiling on special-interest political contributions and giving hugs and fist-bumps to a party member who had just been released from jail on charges of beating up his wife.
“There are some things coming through that just make you think, good Lord! We’re making national news on all these crazy things. It’s just not good for the state of Tennessee. It’s not good for economics here. It’s embarrassing, it really is,” Turner said.
http://www.nashvillescene.com/pitw/archives/2012/03/22/house-dem-leader-lashes-out-at-gop-as-tennessee-taliban
About time.
Gregory
I loved the way she mocked the “he-said, she said” model of journalism at about the 7:30 mark.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
@Thoughtcrime:
Since I can’t “like” your post, I’ll go with, “This.”
Baud
@David Koch
Yeah, I understand. Edwards was not only a PL favorite, however, but also a prominent Democrat. His behavior is a black eye on all of us.
drunken hausfrau
I sure hope the Obama campaign watched that and then took a tape to their ad people saying: “do THIS in 30 second ads.”
kay
The Etch a Sketch thing is huge in NW OH because Ohio Art is based here.
It’s nuts. Crazy-big. The Toledo Blade is covering it and so are all the small rural papers. It will be on every NW OH news tonight.
NW OH includes 4 of the GOP stronghold counties where Romney needs to run up huge margins to beat
Obama.
There’s a “bellweather” county in NW too, Republicans use it to gauge how they’ll do in the general.
Etch a Sketch is bad for Mitt Romney. It will stick here.
MattF
I think the bit showing Noot calling Mitt a liar is a highlight. Noot’s a grifter– so he reads a habitual liar when he sees one, that’s a requirement for the life he leads. And, y’know what? He’s right.
Cat Lady
@kay:
Tweety spent his whole show on it, and waved his Etch-a-Sketch around. Once in a while there’s something that just resonates and it becomes a runaway train. Etch-a-Sketch is one of those things because it’s so simple and accurate and familiar, and that’s what pundits love, and there’s no love for Romney in the press that he can tap to derail the Etch-a-Sketch train. It’s like the Dean scream, or to be more accurate, it’s like his father’s “I was brainwashed” moment. He’s trapped in the damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t place, and he’s got to double down on the conservative rhetoric if he has a prayer to make it stop, which means he has to give up the moderate shtick. Sucks to be him.
kay
Cat Lady, it’s just this amazingly bad luck.
There are 5 GOP counties in Ohio where Mitt Romney will be forever tied to the Etch A Sketch image.
Even if it fades nationally, it will never,
ever go away here.
It’s a rural area, and they’re FAMOUS now. They’re ALL covering the local angle.
Brachiator
@David Koch:
You probably don’t want to post your personal details in a public blog.
gnomedad
The thing I notice is that the GOP makes Romney’s lies seem pedestrian. They all say this shit, so Romney saying it is a non-event.
bemused
So is Eric Ferhnstrom still on Romney’s staff? I have to say that was one of the most bonehead moves I’ve seen a high profile staffer make in maybe never. It was obvious as soon as it came out of his mouth.
Heh, Chris Matthews is on the Etch-A-Sketch fiasco again today.
Anton Sirius
@MattF:
My favorite part is Newt holding up a classic American toy that’s been on the marketplace for decades saying “You have to stand for something that lasts longer than this” because it proves conclusively that Newt is much, much dumber than most people give him credit for being. He gets handed a solid gold attack point against his rival… and he completely screws it up. Way to go, Perfesser.
dww44
@Mino: Where I live, if we even have a Blue Dog running, I am voting for him, her, or it. As long as a candidate runs as a Democrat in this state that candidate qualified as a profile in courage. Particularly out here in the boonies.
I would be thrilled to have a Democratic candidate to vote for next November.
scottinnj
Kthug is regularly over this as well.
David in NY
@David Koch: STFU, one-note jerk, and get a life. Time moves on.
AxelFoley
There’s a lot of butt-hurt in here.
eddi
I’m going to point to Steve Benen (who’s been listing Romney’s top 10 lies of the week for several weeks now) as the brains behind this attack. Well played, sir.
bob h
Obama for America really should have a link to this.
ChrisNBama
I need a cigarette after watching that segment.
Trinity
Did you see her response to this from last night’s show?
Also excellent.
patrick II
@eddi:
With you on Steve Benen. I think I have read some of the very phrases Rachel says here in Benen posts. Good for both of them.