Here’s the top story on The Page right now:
Cheney tells “Fox News Sunday” DOJ interrogation misconduct investigation is “a terrible decision” and “clearly a political move.”
I happen to think that having Newt and Cheney on the Sunday morning shows ever week is terrible for the Republican party. If I were Haley Barbour or MIchael Steele, I would do everything in my power to stop it. So my objection is not political per se.
I just think that the media’s celebration of unpopular, discredited old Republican men is another sign that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Tom65
It’s Fox – what did you expect?
Max
I agree. As long as Cheney is out there, we can run against him in campaigns.
He’s not going to be any more popular in 2010.
RE: Sunday Shows. They just don’t even try anymore. Thankfully, they are becoming less relevant by the day.
I wish MSNBC would do a Sunday Show with a host like Ana Marie Cox, or Sam Stein, or Larry O.
eric
What do you expect from a country with a president that hates white people and a major political party seeking out he aryan youth vote.
We have been failing our ideals ever since we declared people of color 3/5 a person, allowed coal companies to shoot striking miners, interned the Japanese, and fire bombed families in East Asia.
We doing better now than ever and the reactionaries are fighting for their selfish hypocritcal lives.
Fuck them.
Eric
burnspbesq
OT, but holy shit: the LDP, which has been in power for 50 years, got massacred in the elections for the lower house of the Japanese parliament. The Democratic Party is going to get to form a government for the first time ever.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-election31-2009aug31,0,124330.story
Brachiator
Gee, I think that the authorization of torture was a terrible decision and clearly a political move.
.
Sadly, there is a core of citizens who believe in Newt and Cheney. They also think that it is somehow “unfair” to hold politicians accountable if the politicians claim that whatever they did, they did to protect the country.
And, more cynically, Newt and Cheney are perennials. They can appear at a moment’s notice and can be counted on to at least be articulate.
Also, I figure that the GOP thinks that it is better for Cheney to defend the Bush administration rather than have upcoming Republicans taint themselves by having to defend the discredited old regime. And Newt clearly is having fun serving now and then as a proxy for Sarah Palin.
T. O'Hara
Didn’t you also think Palin’s facebook page was terrible?
Davis X. Machina
Thankfully, they are becoming less relevant by the day.
We’re not the intended audience for any of this. It’s all social signaling. It’s this or some ritual display of chest feathers.
If Washington is one big ‘team meeting’*, then the Sunday shows are still the agenda, and it helps to know what’s on the agenda when the meeting starts, even if it’s just to time the trips to the potty…
* The spell that will kill anything isn’t in any of the Harry Potter books — just say ‘team, process, workshop’.
Davis X. Machina
I did not bold that. Does a single leading asterisk turn on boldface? If so, how does one escape an asterisk?
SGEW
@Davis X. Machina: Beats me. Nowadays I’m forced to use an alternative, less pleasing [1] format for footnotes around here. I suppose it’s possible that Mr. Cole just doesn’t like footnotes and wants to subtly dissuade us from using them [2].
[1] Yet still effective enough.
[2] You’ll pry my footnotes from my cold, dead hands!
ominira
Slightly OT: In 2007 and 2008, when I’d go to get my car serviced at the dealership, the waiting area would be packed with people watching Fox news. Every time. Since January 2009, I’ve been to that dealership 3 times. The waiting area has been packed with people watching ABC news or CBS news. No Fox. It’s basically the same people waiting and Fox hasn’t been dropped from the cable lineup. I wonder what happened.
ominira
Someone should ask Cheney what he thinks of former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert’s indictment on corruption charges today. I want to see the look on Cheney’s face as he responds.
cmohrnc
It’s not just Dick Cheney and Newt tooting their crap on the networks.
I’m astounded by the frequent inclusion of daughter Liz Cheney in talking-head media such as ABC’s “This Week” when one of the major topics for round-table discussion will be the torture investigations. Given the normative expectation on such shows that members of a discussion panel will maintain polite civility, her presence is a significant inhibiting complication against any other panel member from speaking frankly about the egregious lies and criminal disregard for the rule of law and civilized norms that father Dick Cheney embodies. I realize it’s too much to expect on such shows that if she wasn’t there, anyone will explicitly say what they’re thinking and would say in private off-the record conversations: that Dick Cheney is a scumbag of a human being who, in a just world, would be in a jail cell for the rest of his nasty life. But they would be much less inhibited from frankly saying in more genteel terms what amounts to the same thing.
ellaesther
the media’s celebration of unpopular, discredited old Republican men is also, as someone here pointed out last week, a sign of who says “yes” when the cable news shows call.
Funkhauser
Shorter Mark Halperin headline:
Why should I care?
@burnspbesq: Small niggling point: this is the second time the LDP had failed to form a government. It happened in the early 1990s too, though not as dramatically.
But yes, this is historic.
whatsleft
I had to turn off the tube and do deep-breathing exercises after L. Cheney reported that “waterboarding is not torture” to absolutely no rebuttal, followed by chat by all parties on the whether the information obtained by waterboarding was very valuable or only somewhat valuable.
me
I’m sure Cheney is more of a Bibi fan, Olmert probably isn’t enough of a warmonger. Although, Bibi seems to be more talk then action, thankfully.
Chad N Freude
@Davis X. Machina:
Welcome to the John’s Wonderful World of WordPress GOTCHA (which is not a new HTML variant).
Regardless of what polls show about the popularity of individual politicians in general and the Ancien Régime de Bush in particular, I doubt that they are doing anything to hurt the party. The believers will continue to scarf up the slop they dish out and the fearful-of-change will cling to what they say for stability. The latter are the people I worry about. The only people the venom spewers turn away from the party are those already trying to get as far away from the party as they can. They’re not doing anything to help the party at all, but I don’t believe they’re doing any damage to it. If anything, they are solidifying their base.
DougJ
1
August 30th, 2009 at 11:33 am edit
Tom65
It’s Fox – what did you expect?
I mean that Halperin is fronting it.
Max
From the Great Orange Satan… Top 10 Signs you Might Not Be a Libertarian…
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/30/773243/-Top-10-Signs-You-Might-Not-Be-A-Libertarian
Because, Libertarian is the new black.
wasabi gasp
That cat needs to call it quits on American Grandstand and move on to Dick Cheney’s New Fears Electroshocking Eve.
Chad N Freude
@Max: Nice DKOS piece. I don’t get the “new black” reference. I would say that Libertarian is the new Real American.
cleek
to be fair, this is not default WP behavior.
OriGuy
@burnspbesq: The wingers will say that this is a defeat for liberalism, as if the name Liberal Democratic Party had anything to do with American liberalism, or the Democratic Party.
Ash
I get what you’re saying, but really, no one gives a shit about the media. Just because they’re retards doesn’t mean the country as a whole is.
ellaesther
@me: As an American-Israeli peace advocate and writer who has studied, written about, and lived the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for more than a quarter of a century and has already seen Bibi in action a time or two (quite a lead-in! What’s she going to say next?!), I will say that in this case, “inaction” is action.
For change to come over there, someone will have to do something radical, rather than keep on keeping on, letting the machinery of occupation and settlement just keep chugging along. Bibi doesn’t need to do anything — to get what he wants, he needs to keep doing nothing.
Of course, I am of the opinion that if Bibi and the Israeli right “get what they want,” they will also, ultimately, achieve the dismantling of the Jewish State and establishment of a one-state solution. Which, as a left-wing Zionist for whom nationalism (any nationalism) has come to appear more and more nonsensical as the years go by, I’m not 100% convinced is (ultimately) a bad thing — but it should be nice if we could all become all Kumba Ya and post-nationalist through peaceful methods, rather than whatever hellish upheaval is bound to come from continuing down the path that Bibi has us on.
Not that I’ve thought about this much at all. Or anything.
ellaesther
@Funkhauser: Hey! I just noticed your username — is your last name, by any chance, Hauser? Cause mine is!
PanAmerican
None of the assorted great white hopes of the GOP hold elective office.
Max
@Chad N Freude: Girl thing… Every year, fashion related, we are told “brown is the new black” or “orange is the new black” or “denim is the new black”.
someguy
The only problem with bumping Newt and Cheney off the newsers, is, who is Steele going to get?
It’s a country with 300 million people. Of that number, maybe 100 million are Republican. Of that… well… I’m trying to think of any sane, non-batshit Republicans in politics or that I know in my personal life. There are none that I can think of.
I think the best bet for Steele wouldn’t be trying to replace Speaker Cheater and Evil Dick. It would just be to ask all Republicans to avoid speaking, ever. Frankly, they would have a much better chance of winning elections if they would maintain silence. The party has nothing to offer the country except war, oligarchy, moral hypocrisy and turmoil, and whenever they talk it only reminds us of that.
JenJen
Cheney specifically told Chris Wallace that yes, they broke the law, and no, it doesn’t matter:
http://www.considerthisnews.com/index.php/site/thefeed/cheney_ok_to_break_the_law/
“Consider this news,” indeed.
bob h
When the Secret Service finally gets around to arresting one of these lunatics who threaten Obama, Cheney presumably will get on Fox the next day to praise him? And have his porcine daughter do the same?
McCain contradicted Cheney, but said nothing about the pro-assassination Arizona pastor, or the Arizona militias who brought guns to the Town Halls.
Chad N Freude
@cleek: Why should we be fair? And who is at default for this?
pcbedamned
@ominira:
The best thing that I ever did was to quit watching Fox sometime around Feb or March. Their whole agenda became strictly ‘anti-Obama’, and the hate that began frothing from their mouths was beyond obvious. Since then, I am a calmer, happier individual and my kids are not afraid of being bombarded by whatever happens to in my hand as I rant and rail.
cleek
@Chad N Freude:
because it makes no sense to blame WordPress for something that is caused by an add-on of some kind.
mutt
Well,its the liberal WaPo- what can you expect?
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/08/the-washington-posts-support-for-torture-ctd.html
Chad N Freude
@Max: Aha! Clearly I need to see the documentary about Anna Wintour.
wasabi gasp
@Chad N Freude: It’s a WP plugin called Even The NSA Won’t Bother to Read Your Shit Now.
feebog
If anything, liz Cheney is more batshit crazy than her evil and twisted father. This woman needs to be put in a padded room and locked away.
JGabriel
When Kennedy died, I knew that wingnuts, with their infallible tropism for projection, would accuse Democrats of politicizing Kennedy’s funeral. I knew that Republicans would accuse Democrats of being mean to them. And I knew that conservatives would would still be making Chappaquiddick jokes at Kennedy’s funeral.
What I didn’t know was that their penchant for projection would extend so far as to accuse Kennedy himself of making and loving jokes about Kopechne’s death.
That’s just a whole new level of projection and slur that I never even considered.
Conservatives: Every time you think they’ve hit bedrock bottom, they find whole new levels of lower evil to explore and mine.
.
gbear
I don’t quite believe that it’s bad for the republican party. Even if they’re wrong, they’re ALWAYS on the news shows spreading the message. I do think it’s awful for the country as a whole. All this bullshit just keeps getting repeated week after week after week with no pushback. Even if people tune out, it becomes the standard boilerplate message.
Newt, McWalnuts, and Cheneys still own the message as far as all of the sunday news shows are concerned. I wish there was some way to drive their ratings down to zero.
JenJen
@JGabriel: That’s interesting. Allahpundit was screaming that all over Twitter yesterday, and I had no reason to even explore what he was alleging, because he’s Allahpundit (although I did want to yell JAMIL HUSSEIN at him just because).
Thanks for the link to where he got his flawed information from; it all makes sense now. I also knew they’d use Kopechne to attack Kennedy’s supporters by proxy, just because he meant so much to all of us. But, and I’ve been telling myself this all week, they simply can’t undo the good he did, much as they apparently would like to. And that’s satisfying to me.
JGabriel
JenJen:
Of course, I just didn’t expect Conservatives to accuse Kennedy of enjoying the disgusting jokes about Kopechne that they’ve been promulgating for the past four decades — and then acting shocked at their own bon mots.
Scumbags, really.
.
Splitting Image
I see it as evidence that cable TV is a lagging indicator, not a leading one.
For years, people have pushed the idea that public opinion follows TV (e.g. violent TV makes people more violent) while the counter-idea was that TV shows are produced with already-existing public opinion in mind. The behaviour of the cable news crews strengthens my belief that the latter is true.
Comrade Jake
Sully unloads.
General Winfield Stuck
I couldn’t make myself watch the Cheney interview on Fox this morn. But have read most of the transcript and have changed my personal priorities on what the Obama administration should pursue.
Therefore, the investigation and prosecution of the architects of the evil incarnate Cheney/Bush torture program must take center stage. Since Health Care reform is already on the queue, it should continue to it’s completion, whatever that turns out to be. Then forthwith, the appointed special prosecutor should begin in earnest with the idea of putting the spotlight of Herr Cheney and his band of fellow sadists, toward learning what happen and sending these arrogant mad shitheel behind bars.
I don’t care if lower downs (pun intended) are spared prison so long as they give up the King and His bloody court.
It is apparent that the torture proponents and apologists are attempting to fold into our national psyche and legal underpinnings the notion of conducting war crimes in the name of security and general acceptability , in the name of state security. If it is not stopped dead in it’s tracks and soon, we are, as a people, in danger of losing our collective souls in a permanent way.
I don’t care if it’s bad politics and hurts Obama’s chances for re-election, or the dem party in general. Some things must be sacrificed in the short term for the greater good.
And may your shit filled soul rot in purgatory for the duration of forever Richard Cheney.
That is all. Gone Galt.
licensed to kill time
I think having Cheney on Fox News Sunday is a terrible decision and clearly a political move.
Chuck Butcher
It doesn’t seem quite right that DougJ didn’t gut the NYT for this and I did.
Brain Hertz
Cheney is 100% correct here; the investigations being conducted are, in fact, a terrible decision, and most certainly are a political move. Not only that, but every last political pundit on the teevee knows it. They know it very well.
They know that, if there were no politics involved in the decision, there would right now be an invetigation of Dick fucking Cheney. And the fact that there isn’t is, in fact, a terrible decision. And everybody knows it. They just don’t care, because it works for them.
GusThePrimate
I’m all for people like Cheney — disliked by 9 of 10 Americans — being the public face of the GOP. Along with the Palin fanboys, the tea partiers and the armed I’m Proud To Be Uneducated folks showing up at town hall meetings, being a Republican is on the way to being something you do in the dark when you’re alone.
On Newt: I’d bet that more than 50 pecent of Americans couldn’t pick him out of a lineup. Don’t forget that Fox, and the rest of the right-wing media machine, is first and foremost a fundraising activity. First, for Murdoch and the other owners, then for the hosts and the talkers, and, not least, for the politicos who feed the machine. Gotto keep those direct mail lines working.
The investigations: Are they political? Of course. That’s a good thing. Political support for going after a Big Fish won’t exist until and unless the LIttle Fish start pointing their fingers.