If you haven’t seen or heard about it yet, earlier today Jon Stewart, on behalf of ill 9-11 first responders, threw a temper tantrum in front of the cameras during a House subcommittee hearing. Specifically the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. This subcommittee, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, has fourteen members: 8 Democrats and 6 Republicans. And in today’s meeting Congressman Nadler, who is an ex-officio member as the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was also sitting in. At the point that Stewart decided to pitch his fit during his opening remarks about there being an “empty Congress”, seven of the subcommittee members were in the room. Though you could only see six of them in the video because of how the cameras were angled. The subcommittee meets in the same chambers as the full House Judiciary Committee, so even if everyone was there, the dais at the front of the room where the members of the subcommittee sit would look somewhere around 2/3 empty as there are 41 members of the full Judiciary Committee.
If Stewart did not know or did not understand that this was the case, then he’s a moron. More likely, he knew, understood the optics, and used them to gin up outrage. Stewart knew, was counting on, and was not disappointed that 1) it won’t be initially reported that this was a 14 member subcommittee and 2) most Americans will neither know, nor understand that this is why, despite at least half the subcommittee members actually being in attendance at the time he was ranting, most of the seats on the dais are empty.
The House is going to pass the extension without an issue. With an actual large numbers of votes from members of both parties. The vote to move it out of the Judiciary Committee is actually scheduled for tomorrow and it will pass there, and then the full House in short order, with significant bipartisan support. But once it does, it has to go across the Capitol to the Senate. Stewart knows, and if he doesn’t, then he should, that the problem isn’t the House or its Democratic majority. Rather it’s the McConnell controlled, GOP majority Senate. Should Senator McConnell deign to allow this to move forward, given he’s bottled up everything else the House has passed, he’s likely to demand ransom to do so. Why? Because he watched how Stewart manipulated the news media today to hammer the Democrats running the House of Representatives for failing to take care of 9-11 first responders who are ill because of their service on 9-11. Senator McConnell also knows that if he does nothing, because there isn’t going to be an equivalent hearing in the Senate to produce equally negative publicity, that he and his GOP majority in the Senate will take no blame. And because he knows that if it fails, Stewart will simply rebroadcast today’s video, the news media will follow like lemmings, and he’ll have made this a problem for Democrats going into a presidential election year where his Republican senators are defending more seats than the Senate Democrats are in 2020. Senator McConnell already had too much leverage and Stewart’s tantrum today simply gave him more.
Steve Cohen, who chairs the subcommittee, should have stopped Stewart, cut his mic if necessary, and explained that 1) this is a subcommittee with only 14 members, 2) as is standard procedure, subcommittee members would be in and out throughout the hearing as they had to do business, including taking votes in other committees and subcommittees (the ranking member actually did this at one point), and 3) Stewart could demagogue or the subcommittee could do the important business that Stewart wants them to do, but they could not and would not do both.
I appreciate Stewart’s passion. I understand why he’s angry. From his perspective even five year reauthorizations are a potential hindrance and failure to do right by the ill 9-11 first responders. But what he did today didn’t actually do anything to advance the cause he’s fighting for. It did make it easier for Senator McConnell to claim another scalp. Stewart’s bothsiderism served him, those for whom he’s advocating, and the Republic poorly today.
Open thread!
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yeah, Jon Stewart really needs to get in the game here. The problem is the Republican Party, full stop. As I said to my wife tonight, we’re in a cold civil war. I don’t like it, I wish we weren’t, but if beggars were wishes, then horses would ride, as they say. This is how things are, and it’s time for everybody to choose a side. And if you don’t want to choose, or you think the problem is on both sides, then you’re with the Republicans. Again, I wish it were otherwise, but I can’t change that. This is the world we now live in.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
you and Charlie Pierce called him on this, but checking in and out of MSNBC this evening it’s been nothing but star-struck, near-hysterical praise
Patricia Kayden
Is it that hard for Democrats to state loudly and often that it is McConnell and Senate Republicans who are stopping us from having nice things? I don’t understand why Democrats aren’t able to get a clear message across to Americans that they aren’t the problem. Any of the House Democrats could have told Stewart that today.
Gin & Tonic
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Maybe he should just take up knitting, or bake some cookies. He’s a retired entertainer. Why the fuck is he invited to testify before a Congressional subcommittee? Bill Maher’s an asshole too, but he at least has an actual TV show.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Unfortunately. Someone emailed me about this at 3:45 PM EDT. And most of my response to that email is in the post above. As soon as I saw it I knew what was going to happen.
Adam L Silverman
@Patricia Kayden: Apparently it is. The Democrats are great on policy, but most of them are terrible at politics.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: our own DougJ once wrote that he has never gotten as much blowback on this blog as when he was critical of St Stewart. Granted, that was before the wet Broderist fart that was his half of the Rally About Nothing, but a lot of people still got mad about critiques of their cool friend from the TV after that.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Stewart basically runs the public advocacy for these first responders in their attempt to get their health benefits funded. His heart is in the right place. He means well. And, unlike Maher, he’s not a sociopath.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The times that I watched it, I loved the Daily Show when he was on. Just as is the case now with Trevor Noah. But just because I liked the show and think his heart is in the right place on this, doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be called out when he pulls a stunt like he did today.
James E Powell
Stewart was good at ridiculing George W Bush so a whole lot of people thought he was one of us. He is not. He never has been. Remember his big fat “both sides suck” rally some years ago?
I don’t know him personally, but this was a dick move.
Major Major Major Major
Yeah, that was disappointing but not all that surprising.
Leto
And who has been in control of the house since 2010 until this year? Both sides to blame!
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yup, MSNBC hosts were Star-struck. Maddow did point out that McConnell was unlikely to move on the bipartisan bill but it doesn’t help, overall, when you don’t point out that the assholes have been in control for 8 years and never bothered to help. Please, continue to yell at the people who want/are trying to help.
He needs to go back to him farm in Jersey and stfu. He earns enough money off of Colbert’s Late Night gig.
zhena gogolia
@Adam L Silverman:
I saw a screaming headline on YouTube and took a hard pass. Got into Elaine May clips instead.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Who?
mrmoshpotato
@Patricia Kayden:
Everyone who gives public testimony in front of the House or Senate should start by stating the Republican party has been a pile of shit for the past 40 years and doesn’t care about 99% of this country’s people.
plato
Reinventing the
wheelbothsiderism. Fuck him and his shtick.Nicole
Ugh. I was drinking the Stewart Kool-Aid (Flavor Aid? I’m a pedant) until John Oliver took over hosting duties of TDS for awhile. After Stewart came back, I realized how very angry and mean he is. It was like I had to get a break from the toxic relationships to have perspective on it.
This was destructive behavior and the people he ostensibly wants to help are the ones who may well be hurt by it. But hey, he gets to trend on Twitter for the first time in awhile, so I’m sure he’s thrilled with himself.
If he had any gonads he’d take on the Republicans, but he’s scared of them, so he shouts at the Democrats because he’s not afraid of the consequences of that. They’re safe for him to attack. He’s a toxic coward.
(Also, Adam, thanks for this post. Seeing my well-meaning fellow screaming liberal friends on FB post links to Stewart’s screed and fawn over it is making me rage-crazy tonight. To borrow from John Rogers, your post makes me feel less like I’m Kevin McCarthy screaming in traffic.)
Omnes Omnibus
@plato: He didn’t reinvent shit. Bothsiderism has never gone away.
kindness
Meh. Yea Jon threw a tissy and knew what to play to the cameras. The 9/11 First Responders is his hobby horse and they were in tow so Jon put on a show he knew would make headlines. Yes I wish he could do this in the Senate where it actually will get ignored until a bargain is needed. Mitch McConnell is evil. I guess a polite follow up on Jon’s part would be a nice Op-Ed from Jon asking Mitch what he intends to do. That’d be nice. I won’t hold my breath though.
I don’t think Jon left a mark really so I’m not all that pissed at him. I love Jon Stewart.
Jay
Jon Stewart is sadly, an example of how most American’s think that Government works, ( Mr. Stewart goes to Washington, The West Wing, Scandal),
and not how it actually works.
It’s not that hard to research, but mifff, pointy headed intellectuals, I’ll just stunt.
Davis X. Machina
@James E Powell: This always bothered me.
Over time, irony will kill a republic just as dead as tyranny.
This stuff matters.
E
“Bill Maher is a sociopath”? Why? Seriously? How so? Calling the guy who probably has the same political opinions as yourself on 98% of the issues seems a bit deranged on your part. Maher at least calls Republocans out as the evil fucks they are. Stewart on the other hand worships the both sides horseshit
Omnes Omnibus
@Davis X. Machina: Not irony, but cynicism.
LongHairedWeirdo
Yep. The durned SOB acted just like a Republican.
(I neither defend nor *explicitly* condemn him (though the association has a stench that any rational person (who isn’t a GOP stooge(but I repeat myself)) would be revolted), but it would have been far more appropriate in a GOP controlled chamber.)
Patricia Kayden
I’ll just leave this here.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1138505335025676290
I usually love her tweets. Sigh.
NotMax
@ Jim, Foolish Literalist
One thing Stewart does know is what will make for so-called “good TV” – that is, clips which are ready made for airing on the cable shows.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OT:
She said this on Laura Ingram’s show, where she was debating Cornel West, whom I lost a lot of respect for over his eight-plus year tantrum about inauguration tickets, but what’s really shocking is how old and slow and out of it he appears.
ETA: just googled and I’m kind of stunned that he’s only 66
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Classic Nichols & May.
:)
Mike in NC
Never liked that guy. Too chummy with Republicans.
patroclus
Well, I agree that Stewart engaged in uninformed grandstanding and his usual bothsiderism shtick, and I don’t like any of that, but he did get some attention on the 9/11 appropriations extension bill which probably wouldn’t have happened if not for his rant, so there is that. The bill should pass and the Dems will pass it easily in the House; the problem is with the Republican-controlled Senate. We’ll see if he can keep up the pressure on that side of the Capitol.
plato
@Omnes Omnibus: I meant for him, but then knee jerk contrarian bs is your shtick. Meh.
Jay
https://pressprogress.ca/rebel-medias-jason-kenney-coverage-is-being-funded-with-foreign-money-from-an-anti-muslim-billionaire/
The Rebel is the Canadian Hate Farm team that wound up exporting to the US a bunch of Nazi’s, like the Proud Boys, Gavin McInnies, Laura Loomer, Faith Goldy, Jack Probisiec, Laura Southern.
And of course, this has driven global stalking and death threats against Canadian Environmentalists.
Omnes Omnibus
@plato: You really are an idiot.
plato
@Omnes Omnibus: Meh.
Cacti
Jon Stewart has always been something of a hip David Broder.
Mary G
Adam, any truth in the claims that Heshmat Alavi, the Iranian pushing for war in all the “serious” conservative publications, is a fake created by MEK?
Jay
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_J._Shillman
Robert Shillman’s one of the US Tech billionaires funding the global rise of Nazi’s.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: My understanding is that he’s a MEK sockpuppet. Basically, one or more people being paid by MEK to run the social media accounts, write op-eds, columns, and blog posts.
Jay
@Mary G:
https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/heshmat-alavi-fake-iran-mek/
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: Actually, it appears he’s an ultra-Zionist and an Islamaphobe.
Cacti
In a win for humanity, the felony trial of Arizona border aid worker Scott Warren ended with a hung jury.
The jurors deadlocked with 8 voting to acquit, and 4 voting to convict.
The US Attorney’s office can opt to retry the case, but this seems unlikely given that they could only persuade 1/3 of this jury.
Mandalay
@E: @E:
He has sneered at babies and children for years. He’s unmarried, and he doesn’t like kids, and that’s fine. But there is something nasty and creepy about the way he gratuitously brings it up his dislike with glee. He’s been doing it for as long as I can remember.
And while he’s cleaned up his attitude towards women lately, for years he would talk about them in terms of being bimbos or bitches, and having tits, and being objects that men wanted to fuck.
Obviously he’s a comedian, not a politician, and his shtick is to be controversial, but his general disdain for kids and women (as groups of people) is disturbing.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Yup. Suppurating out of Albania.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Mandalay: plus Maher is part owner of the of the New York Mets. It doesn’t get any lower then that.
NotMax
Moderation? Help me, Adam One Kenobi.
NotMax
@David Merry Christmas Koch
Yes it does. He and Ann Coulter doing the sexy time samba.
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: Thanks for reminding us. Now I shan’t sleep tonight.
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
Who also funds Nazi’s like Tommy Robinson, people who have gone full Nazi, and people who use social media to pipeline recruits to the Nazis.
Common cause I guess, sort of.
Jay
@Mandalay: @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
All E had to do was google Bill Mayer, sociopath.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Full service blog.
:)
Omnes Omnibus
@NotMax: To be fair, the thought did quell any desire I had for a midnight snack.
opiejeanne
@Adam L Silverman: Adam, where do I find your email listed on the site? We will be in St Louis on June 27th and wondered if a few jackals would like to meet us someplace for supper. I just can’t locate any front pager’s email, and I think you are the go-to for meet-ups.
opiejeanne
@opiejeanne: Never mind, I found the email addresses.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I know Steward is part owner of the Mets, are you sure about Maher?
Ruckus
@Nicole:
Been there. When the scales fell off, I had to take a long hard look in the mirror and wonder what the hell was wrong with me.
There are toxic relationships of all types. I have a liberal friend who likes Bill Maher and tells me I should watch him. Every time I tried the concept of going out and buying a baseball bat in case the opportunity ever came up to use it forcefully came to mind.
I think a lot of republicans are in these political toxic relationships and just can’t see it. They’ve been republicans for a long time, often for reasons that they can’t even remember and they can’t admit an error or see the toxicity of the party they support. Humans have an inordinate ability to believe things that their own eyes, ears and experience tells them is bullshit, for a lot of reasons, most of which makes no sense. The republican party is like a stone cold drunk, behind the wheel of a very fast car. They finally got it into top gear and they are riding this till they wrap the thing around a tree and it ends up looking like this.
oatler.
I’m resentful I can’t afford HBO also.
Waynski
You know, I can’t prove the swirling, toxic air stew I breathed for weeks after 9/11 will shorten my life, but I do know this: the men and women who rushed into the fire and its aftermath deserve our medical and financial support. I don’t care if their spokesperson and supporter is Weird Al Yankovich or a chimpanzee (not much difference actually). They earned it that day and if some famous person is mugging for the cameras on their behalf, so be it. They raced into the fire risking their lives, even if their spokesperson can occasionally be a fatuous jackass. He’s making their voices heard.
JR
It really all began with that Crossfire episode.
It was Stewart at his best and ultimately his worst. Especially since only one of the two guys on the receiving end would end up a proto-Nazi.
Gvg
@Waynski: No, actually he is short circuiting their voice, and since he is a media professional, that is malpractice. He is also lying for the cameras. The elected Democrats will vote for the funding, and even many House Republicans. Some Senate Republicans would probabilities vote for it too, but they won’t get the chance because of McConnel. McConnel has that power because other elected Republican Senators gave it to him. The 911 responders (and a lot of other worthy people) won’t get helped until that is fixed. The only solution is the voters need to know this. Lying by tantrum and lying by blaming a bunch of people on the responders side, is going to hurt the responders.
Many here have complained frequently that the media uses platitudes instead of calling Trump a liar. In this case Stewart is a liar. I wonder if I have failed to notice other liars, because I didn’t realize Stewart was until I tried to explain what his actions meant.
apocalipstick
@E: Remember Maher’s famous “Gush/Bore” formulation? He’s pretty bad at both-siderism himself.
Nicole
@Ruckus: I think you’re so right, about people being in toxic relationships with their politics, especially with political commentators. I have family who are right-wingers, and I can see what a steady diet of outrage politics does to them, but they cannot hear it. I fell into it back when Keith Olbermann had his show on MSNBC because he was the ONLY political show yelling that the Iraq War was a disaster, but I got sucked into the high of an hour of outrage and started to carry the rage around all day long. So I quit. Stewart’s meanness I didn’t see because he made me laugh, until he put a foul-mouthed Mister Rogers in the host’s seat for a few months and I saw it was possible to be razor-sharp funny and astute on politics and also not be cruel about it.
Trevor Noah is pretty good, too, but it’s hard for me to stay up that late anymore. ;)
Chief Oshkosh
@Adam L Silverman:
No, Democrats are really good at shivving other Democrats. They are outstanding politicians in that direction. They are terrible at going after Republicans and actually getting a scalp (see: Senators Gillibrand and Harris. Senator Sanders, not a Democrat, is also excellent at this).
Part of it is that if you’re really going to represent your voters, you’re going to be at odds with your colleagues sometimes. It’s a big country with a lot of people in it and they have varied needs and interests. However, part of it is because Democratic leadership, such as it it, is not feared (with regards to party discipline – and pretty much anything else). Speaker Pelosi is sort of respected, but Shumer – c’mon – Shumer’s own dog could piss on his wingtips and the Senator would just look over the top of his peepers, sternly clearing his throat, then, worried that he’d been too harsh on the mutt, give one of his leering, simpering smiles and pat the pooch on his head. Ugh.
Bah! I’m cynical this morning…
Ohio Mom
@Waynski: WHAT?! Weird Al is a genius and a total mensch.
Really, you don’t have to enjoy his work (and frankly, listening to most of his songs twice each is enough for me) to appreciate that he is a very, very good guy.
japa21
Very late and probably not better than never but a couple points (and what I am about to say is from a person who is not a big fan of Stewart)
1) The hearing was at the House, not the Senate
2) His biggest point was that this should go through unanimously, and not have to be tied to any other legislation
3) He knows it is going to pass the House and that the Dems are not at fault.
4) After the hearing he very specifically called out McConnell by name as the major obstructionist in this whole thing.
5) He also ripped into Trump.
His comments about people being missing were wrong and he is right to be criticized for that.
waysel
I used to love Jon on the Daily Show. It seemed like he was doing a lot for the liberal agenda, educating youth about current Republican chicanery through humor. He eventually began sliding towards bothsiderism. He had Obama on when he was president, and proceeded to attack him. That was about the last straw for me. I think I did catch Stewart slobbering all over John McCains butt sometime thereafter. That was it for me. Jon Stewart helped elect Trump, to my mind, as he in the end discouraged the young vote with his ‘both sides are the same, and nothing will help’ schtick.
laura
@Waynski: hey, about your smear of Wierd Al Yankovich – You Take That Back Right Now!11! He’s a decent, kind, clever fellow. He sawed me in half with a chain saw at the old Circle Star Theatre in San Carlos back in the day.
Both my roadie brothers toured with him for a few years and they hold him in very very high regard. Why you didnt use Kid Rock in his place in your comment is a mystery, but your use of Wierd Al is wrong right ways to Sunday bro.
StringOnAStick
I have a patient who was a NYC police detective on 9/11; now only 4 are left from that group of 12 (8 died of various forms of cancer) and my patient has Parkinson’s and early onset dementia, no doubt due to all the crap they were exposed to that day. The police union has apparently done an excellent job caring for it’s people according to my patient, but the first responders don’t have near the political pull that the police do.
FlipYrWhig
@waysel: I have long felt like Stewart thought Obama was a kindred spirit — invoking ethics and morality and common sense to transcend division and bullshit, “you go, then I go,” and so forth — and that he had invested a lot of hope in that, and that that was why he felt so sour about him when after becoming president the division continued. It’s an aspect of the BE A LEADER, TAKE A STAND thing that unifies some of the worst “bothsider” pundits and some of the worst “manic progressive” types.
rikyrah
You probably won’t read this, cause I got to this thread late, but
THANK YOU.
See, I’m old enough to remember how this bill was passed in the first place.
It was not CONGRESS – IT’S REPUBLICANS.
So, he can kiss my entire Black Azz trying to say that it’s CONGRESS.
Wasn’t CONGRESS the first time either.
jonas
@Patricia Kayden: I don’t understand why Democrats aren’t able to get a clear message across to Americans that they aren’t the problem.
Because Democrats don’t have a unified messaging/media platform for doing so. Republicans have 1. Fox News 2. talk radio and 3. pundits across the MSM, like the WSJ editorial page, who effectively coordinate messages to amplify an “outrage-du-jour”. GOP propaganda goes around the world three times before Democrats have even finished tying their shoes.
Doug!
Typical of Stewart. His heart’s in the right place but his head isn’t that smart.
Thanks for this post, Adam.
Ella in New Mexico
@Waynski:
I’m sorry. I don’t have the heart to critique the political strategy of Jon Stewart’s appearance to say exactly what should be said about these heroes getting shafted by our government and forgotten by our people. And a lot of the people he called out for not caring or showing up were Republicans, including douchey Matt Gaetz who couldn’t be bothered after his exhausting bomb of a comedy routine for the hearings on the Mueller report the day before. Fuck him.
We were all “Into the Fire” in the days after. Then we simply forgot. If he does a slightly dumb thing and reminds everyone what’s at stake, because this is the first chance with great video coverage he and his group had to do it, then so fucking be it.
Why is it we Dems simply cannot refrain from circular firing squads and naval gazing while the whole Goddamn country burns around us?
mere mortal
Jon Stewart is right.
It is obscene that those injured or sickened due to the attacks must limp to D.C. and beg for their lives every five years, and to be used as bargaining chips in any political game.
How can you believe anything else?
Waynski
@laura:
You may want to see your Doctor to check if you have some manner of prion disease. You probably think Gallagher’s funny too. Al may be kind, he seems so, but I don’t find him funny at all. He’s not my cup of tea. I wish him no ill will, nor you. To each their own. I’m not entirely sure you’re not trolling me.
djconklin
>”Jon Stewart, on behalf of ill 9-11 first responders, threw a temper tantrum in front of the cameras during a House subcommittee hearing.”
But it was okey-dokey when Kavanaugh did it.