Bob Schieffer, on Face the Nation, responding to John Kerry stating that McCain has completely changed his position on a large number of issues:
“Are you attacking John McCain’s integrity?”
I threw the remote. I like getting my heart rate up while riding the exercise bike and using the treadmill, but for chrissakes Schieffer. I don’t want to have a heart attack.
Zifnab
If John Kerry were to tell Bob Schiffer to go fuck himself…
Scotty
Sprinkles.
pinola
Oh, fuck, I missed Jonah Goldberg and Liberal Fascism on CSPAN, waching that damned Bob Scheiffer! Damn, damn!
Jimmm
Kerry should have replied, “what integrity would that be, Bob?”
Jimmm
ps: Awsome cat. header, “Mainstream Media’s McCain Mancrush,” John!
Dave
I too was annoyed by that moment, but I did enjoy the way Kerry dominated his exchanges with Schieffer. You could tell that Schieffer was frustrated that Kerry would not let him interrupt to interject his “interpretations” of Kerry’s remarks.
My question is: Did you notice how many times that Graham remarked that Obama is “in a box”? If Obama goes missing from the campaign trail for a few days, they might want to check if he’s literally been confined to a box in Lindsey Graham’s office.
gbear
Just out of curiosity, How did Kerry reply?
ThymeZone
I share the sentiment and the outrage.
But, just a couple of TZisms to get our hearts started this morning ….
1. Is anyone surprised by the performace of our press? This is the press that slept through the runup to the Iraq war and never asked any questions that mattered.
2. The press has a reputation somewhat below that of used car salesmen and child molestors. Yes, they are idiots, but they tend to follow and reflect, not lead, opinion. If you doubt this, refer back my previous item. These guys basically acted like a PR agency for government press releases during the runup to war. And continued to do so after the war started, and went to hell. Yet public opinion of the war, and of the president who owns it, have plunged. That should tell you something.
3. Barack Obama is not John Kerry. When he wins, you will all be very thankful for that fact. He is not the sort of fellow who will sit back and let the likes of Bob Schieffer and Wolf “Concern Troll” Blitzer define him.
4. John, make sure you get some vacation time and time away from BJ this summer. You need the respite, and the blog is going to need you to be on your game this fall.
myiq2xu
What ever happened to “Vote for Obama, he’s more electable because the media loves him?”
Dave
KERRY: I’m challenging Senator McCain’s judgment. His judgment that says, There’s no violence history between Sunni and Shia. That’s wrong. His judgment that says, This is going to increase the stability of the Middle East. It hasn’t, it’s made it less stable. His judgment that says, This will be the best thing for America and the world in a long time. It’s the worst thing we’ve done in a long time.”
SCHIEFFER: All right.
gil mann
Yeah, you four people in the entire continental U.S. that were making that argument, answer the question!
DannyNoonan
It happens every general elections. Republicans somehow dominate the moral high ground and get the press to act like the candidate is their own father. “Are you questioning my dad’s word?” Meanwhile, the Republicans run around and make wild statements about Al Gore and the Internet or Kerry and swiftboating. It reminds me of a story by Hunter Thompson:
Back in 1948, during his first race for the U.S. Senate, Lyndon Johnson was running about ten points behind, with only nine days to go. He was sunk in despair. He was desperate. And it was just before noon on a Monday, they say, when he called his equally depressed campaign manager and instructed him to call a press conference for just before lunch on a slow news day and accuse his high-riding opponent, a pig farmer, of having routine carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows, despite the pleas of his wife and children.
His campaign manager was shocked. “We can’t say that, Lyndon,” he supposedly said. “You know it’s not true.”
“Of course it’s not true!” Johnson barked at him. “But let’s make the bastard deny it!”
Dennis - SGMM
It never stops: Joe Lieberman on “This Week” stating that Iran is gonna’ get the bomb and that it represents an existential threat to Israel. He went on to state that after doing Israel, Iran will come after the US.
Israel, according to a lot of best guesses, has at least 200 deliverable nuclear weapons. The US has several thousand.
I’m so scared Joe. Despite growing up in the Fifties and seeing the US face down the USSR with its several thousand deliverable nukes I now agree that we should be so afraid of a country with none that we should create utter chaos in the ME by bombing Iran.
Is it so important to Harry Reid to maintain the illusion that he controls events in the Senate that Lieberman can’t be stripped of his committee appointments say, Monday?
mcd
it’s like the old adage, “people who read the comics first live longer.”
put down the remote and get outside. there’s nothing remotely interesting happening on sunday morning tv. never has been!
Crusty Dem
I think you got that a little wrong:
If HRC were the nominee, the NYT would be running pictures of her in a full witches outfit and every oped writer but Bob Herbert would be talking about her “coven”. The Washington Post would be running a 24/7 retrospective of the 90’s, rewritten entirely from the perspective of Bill Clinton’s penis. And the ghost of Tim Russert would still be pimping John McEscher.
gbear
Thanks Dave. All right.
Punchy
Shorter Shieffer: Senator Kerry, have you stopped raping Obama’s wife yet?
I’ll say it again — Obama cannot win if the media is so in the tank for McCane. The hit pieces will get worse, the spin will make JMM’s head explode, and every single utterance will be twisted to make O look weak and/or inconsistent. The media needs McCane to win, for reasons I cannot fathom.
Krista
Punchy, don’t you get it? This is about the media.
McCain will continue the mutual media-Preznit fluffing that has been taking place over the last 8 years. The media is now a part of Washington’s inner circle now, as opposed to being on the outside, looking in. And they really, really like it.
Obama has made it pretty clear that he thinks that the media’s job is to report the news, not be the news. McCain invites them to tea and tells them what good boys and girls they are. Who do you think they’re going to like more?
They know goddamn well that if Obama gets in, the mutual ball-licking party is over. And they’re damn determined that they want to keep the party going. It’s not about what’s best for the country, it’s about them and their comforts.
GSD
We de know that Lyndsey Graham has never been “in a box”, now don’t we?
-GSD
Richard S
I know he couldn’t say it but Kerry should have said that McCane has integrity but just can’t remember what his last opinion was.
Wilm
As a newcomer to the Democratic Party, this is one fight I think you might want to refrain commenting on, at least until you have a couple electoral cycles under your belt. This isn’t about ideological purity. The 60s have been over a long time.
This is about the fact that Democratic politicians have been selling out their constituencies wholesale for about 40 years now. Hell, Bill Clinton turned this into his core political philosophy. The result is a country that has gone so far to the right that it’s about to tilt off the axis.
So, there’s not a whole lot of trust left. Obama’s better than McCain by a whole lot of country miles and the vast, vast majority of those bitching will vote for him. But he does not have a blank check and the Democrats will not salute and march in lockstep in order to give him space to sell them out. I’m sorry if that makes you angry, but this is the result of four decades of bitter disappointment.
The FISA issue raises the hair on the back of my neck not just because I think the substance of the issue is pretty damn important, but because it’s the first time I’ve seen Obama take a stand that flies in the face of his public image. This is a man who taught constitutional law and campaigned on the premise that he was a repudiation of the “politics of fear.” That’s worrisome. It may also be a sign that he’s taking the fearmongering briefings and inside info that he’s getting from the Washington powers-that-be now that he’s the nominee to heart.
The best illustrative example of this is the story of Clinton abandoning his electoral promises wholesale after being elected to his first term because of the advice he got from insiders. Alan Greenspan sat Clinton down and told him there was no money to pay for his promised social programs and that he had to focus on paying down the debt.
As a result, Clinton failed to deliver on his promise, his public support tanked and the country elected Newt and his Republican Revolution. After Clinton narrowly won a second term, his accomplishments shrank to passing Republican initiatives and managing not to get driven from office. A president later and Bush is spending trillions on wars of choice and Greenspan is cheerleading his destruction of the economy.
So, to make a long story short, give it time, John. You’ll see exactly where these Democrats are coming from.
ThymeZone
I dunno, it was one of several hundred idiotic things you said during the primary season that never made any sense. Hollary Clinton tried to float that idiotic meme, and look what it got her. LOSER. It was the SheBeast who couldn’t stop saying that the media was favoring her opponent. That would be the same media that a month earlier had declared her the preseumptive nominee.
Go figure.
Davis X. Machina
Bob Schieffer never mentions that Bob Schieffer’s brother was appointed US Ambassador to Australia, does he?
matt
Are you attacking Bob Schieffer’s integrity?
TR
Are you implying he has some?
Paid Cash
These MSM people, they all read from the same script. Is it mind control? Something in the water?
Oh, I forgot…it’s because they are the liberal press. How stupid me. Of course Kerry was attacking McStupid’s integrity. He’s angry because of the Swiftboaters and it’s the only way he can get revenge.
matt
I’m challenging his judgment.
MattF
Appropriate responses:
“Are you a lying scumbag?”
“Why are you attacking the foundations of American democracy?”
“Good bye.”
Ted
That’s fine if you want to sing your concern trolling. It’s better than your usual rambling.
Queixada
What’s with the Hissy fits. Kerry should have just said YES. I AM. Or even just snarked and said “there’s no integrity to be attacked.”
Even democrats give too much of a fuck what republicans think. If they only knew how much more support they would get, if someone just finally said: “you know what… FUCK YOU! FUCK THIS POLITE SHIT!”
TR
Someone needs to tell the media that that mean ol’ Spiro Agnew is dead, and he can’t hurt their poor widdle feelings no more. So they might as well come out from under the bed and actually do their jobs again.
Delia
I stopped watching those Sunday morning talkie shows a couple of years ago. I realized they got my Sundays off to a bad start and I never learned anything.
TR
Me too. Instead, I spend the morning playing with my two-year-old daughter. She’s much smarter than any of the pundits on the morning shows, and so much more cheerful.
gbear
The problem with that response is that the talking head thinks it proves them right because they’ve hit a nerve. It’s a ‘win’ in gotcha politics. You have to just keep coming back with facts, a cool head, and an abilty to state your point while being continually interrupted. Rachael Maddow is good with this. Kerry can sometimes be good with this when he’s starting to lose his cool but keeps spitting out fact-based answers instead of insults.
JR
John Cole read, hear and listen to what Wilm said. And Wilm, thanks.
The Dem base might actually be growing a spine: that is a good thing.
Janus Daniels
Good answer; did he ever talk like that in 2004?
I wish he’d finished by asking, “… so, Bob, why bring up McCain’s integrity?
El Cid
Did Schieffer stammer and nearly cry like he did in his last McCain hissy fit when Schieffer was blubbering at Wes Clark?
Punchy
Republican Congress — no FISA w/ immunity
Democratic Congress — fucked up FISA, w/ immunity and probably a blow job for all the Senators who vote ‘yea’
I say kick out Liebs and give control back to the Rs for the last 5 months. Watch them fuck up the FISA vote and deal with dickhead Joey L. Win-win for everyone.
tballou
WTF is up with Scheiffer? For a while I thought he was the only Sunday morning pundit worth watching, esp when compared to Russert.
Bruce Moomaw
I wish Kerry had been quick-witted enough to ask Schieffer whether he was questioning Obama’s integrity.
(But then, during 2004 I very frequently found myself wishing that Kerry was more quick-witted.)
zuzu's petals
So, any chance they brought up McCain choosing a Swift Boater to speak on his behalf?
Nah. Silly of me.
Tim (The Other One)
“I stopped watching those Sunday morning talkie shows a couple of years ago.”
Me too. Now, I just read about ’em.
Davis X. Machina
I say kick out Liebs and give control back to the Rs for the last 5 months.
Lieberman’s membership of the Senate Democratic caucus is not needed for Democratic control of the Senate.
If he left, or was kicked out, it wouldn’t change anything. The rule voted at the beginning of 20087 under which the Senate is organized gives majority status to the Democrats regardless of changes in party distribution.
This all came up when Sen. Johnson of South Dakota was stricken.
The Senate Democrats want Lieberman in their caucus — there is nothing keeping him there.
Lynn Lightfoot
The word “integrity” implies that the possessor of it should be “of one mind,” and that one mind should be a high-functioning one. There is a very real possibility that John McCain is suffering from one or more disorders affecting his brain.
wagonjak
I used to be a fan of Bob’s…believing he was one of the last independent, truthful voices on Television…between this week’s attack on Kerry and last week’s attack on Wesley Clark…both over statements that were truth and NOT attacks…
I’m beginning to think Scheiffer is just another BushCo teat-sucking, herd following hack.
I’m having a hard time watching any of the Sunday talk farces anymore, they’re so loaded with Conservatives, Republicans and liars and pandering Corporate newsworms. And the authentic voices like Rachel Meadow are seldom heard and never given their own shows.
cleek
i refuse to get up early enough to watch that nonsense
Chris Johnson
“Hell, yes. It ought to be attacked. Or searched for. John McCain is no longer missing in action. Wish we could say the same for his integrity!”
…in a better world.
I don’t even know what he did say but it’s gotta be hard. It’s like these people are not even pretending to be openminded. They have their preferred images for everybody, and to hell with you if you suggest it’s all crap. And it is all crap.
Andy
Kerry should have replied:
“John McCain’s integrity committed suicide years ago. I’m just performing the autopsy”
(paraphrasing some blogger whose name I’m currently blanking on)
Phoenix Woman
DXM: He’s also currently ambassador to Japan:
http://mediabloodhound.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/story-of-the-da.html
El Cid
I would look Bob Schieffer in the eye and ask, “Look, can you even pretend to be a grown up, real journalist for just a few minutes even?”
Phoenix Woman
John, let’s do an experiment.
Let’s Google to see how many times “obama iraq flip” or “change” or whichever GOP frame word is being used by the press and easily-played bloggers in regard to the non-existent Iraq Obama scandal.
Then let’s Google to see how many times the press references the burgeoning McCain gambling addiction scandal. If this had happened to Obama, his campaign would be done. But since it’s McCain, he’ll get off scot-free.
wasabi gasp
“Bob, there you go plastering on the makeup like a trollop, you cunt.”
liberal
wagonjak wrote,
Huh?
liberal
Dennis – SGMM wrote,
Let me introduce you to two guys named Mearsheimer and Walt.
Jay
If Schieffer gets shuffled into Katie “Epic Fail” Couric’s chair in a year, that will be a shitstorm.
My gut says Keith Olbermann gets it, though.
HyperIon
exactly.
real life turns out to be a lot like high school.
El Cid
It’s really great that Joe Lieberman gets to be on national television every week giving his astoundingly insightful analyses on so many subjects.
As a Senator without a Party, it’s only fair that Lieberman be on TV as much as the other Independent Senator, Bernie Sanders of Vermont — hey, you can hardly watch TV without seeing every major news organization seeking him out for his opinions.
One can only admire the news organizations’ commitment to such principles of intellectual fairness & independence mindedness.
Delia
Hey, Bernie Sanders. Now that would get me watching morning teevee shows.
kathleen
kerry should have said: “senator mccain opposed bush’s tax cuts before he endorsed them. he said he didn’t know much about economics, then denied he’d said it. he called pat robertson an agent of intolerance, then embraced him. i could go on, but that’s not the point. i am not putting a label on this–senator mccain’s integrity or lack thereof. i am just stating facts.”
afterwards is always easier.
Phoenix Woman
Same here.
El Cid
However, Bernie Sanders is not supporting John McCain, so having him on TV would be attacking John McCain’s service record & integrity. This must not be permitted.
Chris Johnson
Bernie Sanders is MY senator. I’m so fuckin’ proud. Not a snark, that. I just wish there was more he could do.
I’m constantly seeing him and Pat Leahy on the right side of things, with few exceptions (Leahy is supporting the big orphan-works thing which is a total hosing of all small copyright holders).
Delia
Another thing putting Bernie Sanders on the air would do. It would make clear that Barack Obama is not the most liberal Senator in the US Senate. Heads would explode all over the place. There would be no one left to clean up the mess.
Krista
By the way, John, your crappy spelling is continuing as well. ;)
Svensker
Did Kerry actually say that? Good for him, if so.
sully18
“We de know that Lyndsey Graham has never been “in a box”, now don’t we?” -GSD
Of course we know that Lindsey Graham has not been in a box,but in the closet.
batbird
Bob Schieffer: “Are you attacking John McCain’s integrity?”
John Kerry: “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!”
As he rolls over out of his chair.
captain-murphy
How can you attack something that doesn’t exist?
Taint
what do you mean? Lindsey was the “gimp” in “Pulp Fiction”
wobbly
Kerry’s been doing way better speaking for Obama than he ever did speaking for himself.
What the hell?
JL
Practice makes perfect
MH
The Dem BASE has had a spine for a long time. The Dem LEADERSHIP has not.
truth machine
First he should have noted that Schieffer has never asked that question of anyone who has attacked Obama’s integrity. In fact, Schieffer has done that himself, as well as attacking Wes Clark’s integrity.
truth machine
The same way you just did — with dishonest innuendo, asshole.
truth machine
Oops, forget that last comment … I got confused about captain-murphy’s target. (Still, that’s not an honest tactic.)
truth machine
Another approach for Kerry: “I’m stating facts about him. Any conclusion about his integrity is your own.”
truth machine
That’s like saying you’re beginning to think that Fox News isn’t fair and balanced. The only difference between Schieffer and the assholes at Fox News is that he isn’t at Fox News.