January 25 
PREFACE:
On FNS, John McCain actually criticized Obama’s”close Gitmo in a year “policy” by suggesting John Boehner’s you got to know the logistics first” angle.
On TW. Nancy whispered sweet nothings in George Stephanopoulos’s Gregory’s ears. For his part, Steph was taken aback by how important she is.
On MTP, Larry Summers was almost clueless.
On FTN, Bob Schieffer reacted to Larry Summer’s argument that all government spending is a form if stimulus with silence.
For Sunday, , 2009
FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace talks abut Obma’s start with Ombaphants John McCain and Chuckie Schumerl
This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos talks to Nanch Pelosi.
Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator David Gregory tatlks to somewhere who is incapable of fealking our econmy, Obama economic advisor Larry Summers.
Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer tapos t0 the one time co-champion of the talks shows, Vice President Joe Biden.
State of the Union (CNN): Host John King talks to Mike Bloomberg and nw-frquent blabbermouth, Chuck Chumer.
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It looks like I will have postpone the commence of my review of the CNN show, as my eye-doctor is still telline me that my double-vision will be with me for a few more weeks and will we with me for a few more weeks that will then myseriouslt disappear,
The United States is a nation of laws, not men.
The United States of America is a nation of laws, not men. In our Supreme Court’s first and foremost landmark case, Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137 (19803), Chief Justice John Marshall inveighed those words against Secretary of State James Madison.
“The government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws and not men.”
President Obama affirmed this position in his inaugural address on Tuesday:
America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.
I’m not sure that he is purposefully lying so much as that words do not mean what he thinks they do.
Witness Obama’s selection to be Secretary of the Treasury: Timothy “TurboTax” Geithner. Certainly, Geithner is a tax cheat who will run the Internal Revenue Service. He’s the bumbling constructor of TARP. But, you know, Geithner has been described as “possibly the only man for the job of healing the recession.” There will be a great gnashing of teeth, sayeth the prophet, then Geither will lay hands will lay hands and heal the recession. Heck, he might be better than Benny Hinn.
Alas, as the New York Times forecast last week, Geithner’s personal skill has overcome his persona foibles including his non-payment of the federal income tax during his time working for the IMF. The United States is a nation of Men, not Laws. This is the exception that shatters the rule, and it now means absolutely nothing.
The tally was 18-5, and the tax cheat has received the endorsement of the Senate Finance Committee. The full Senate will accept him today, like a line of comatose old men who can manage only a thrill up their legs.
The United States is a nation of Men, not Laws.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
PREFACE:
On ABC’s This Week this morning, Obama strategist David Axelrod was still campaigning.
On FNS, Nancy Pelosi screeched, cackled, and discussed bipartisanship done her way. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs promised us that he’d never lie. If he was uncomfortable with the truth, he would move on to the next subject.
On MTP, Rahmbo said a lot of stuff to moderator David Gregory, mostly defending a stimulus package of some sort, and then they all went out for Drinks. Gregory was buying.
On CBS’s FTN, Obama economic advisor Larry Summers said that we will see additional job losses will not hit 10%. He did not again hold forth on the stupidity of women.
(Read on for the review.)
For Sunday, January 18, 2009
FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace will talk to Nancy then to that strange Robert Gibbs fellow.
This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos will talk to David Axelrod.
Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator David Gregory will listen to Rahmbo.
Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer will speak with Larry Summers, perhaps about the tax cheat whose Senate trial is scheduled to begin next week.
Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer Obama and Axelrod. Bush and Perino.
~~~~~
The main hindrance to Barry’s real-quick agenda will be from her imperial Speakership, that woman, Nancy Pelosi. Axelrod played a good political game as proven by his ability to sell the American people a blank slate, bill of goods, but I’m sure Steph doesn’t see it that way.
Oh, Inauguration Day is almost here, with Obama ready to greet DC with the most expensive one in history, with Democrats celebrating their worst economy since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Hatch supports Holder because he likes Obama.
On Friday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell indicated that Obama’s Attorney General pick, Eric Holder, would be the most likely of the Obamakins to be blocked by the minority.
“You know, beyond that, I don’t anticipate trouble for the new president’s nominees,” McConnell said on National Public Radio on Friday. “I think most of them are people that we’re familiar with and have outstanding records.”
McConnell said Holder “has got serious questions” to answer about his role in President Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich and “some other matters.”
Some other matters? Like the taxpayer-funded thugs whom Holder helped embolden to deport young Elian Gonzalez to Cuba? And what was his role in burning up that religious cult, the Branch Davidians, in Waco, ‘93? He was Janet Reno’s main squeeze at Justice.
Okay, so many of us, including Senator McConnell have serious questions about Holder and his fitness to serve as Attorney General. Orrin Hatch, though, does not.
These are the talk shows for Sunday, January 11, 2009:
PREFACE:
Obama went on ABC’s This Week this morning, where he and host George Stephanopoulos demanded a sacrifice. From each and every American. For the common good, says he, The once we’ve appeased them, I suppose they’ll demand a second shrubbery, only slightly higher so you get a two-level effect with a little path running down the middle..
David Gregory, on MTP, killed time with tedious roundtables.
On FNS, Brit Hume interviewed the two Presidents Bush.
On FTN, Dick Durbin said that Roland Burris’s paperwork from the Secretary of State was strange; Burris said that it was fine and that he is the junior Senator from Illinois. John Boehner was confident that there will be no tax increases in Obama’s economic scheme.
And on Late Edition, Dick Cheney said that as a conservative, he would always like to see less government spending, except in wartime and in periods of national crisis.. Up next, Nancy Pelosi blamed Bush and the Republican Congress for last and this years’ huge deficits but promised that she will fix everything.
Read on for the show-b-show review:
For Sunday April 11 , 2009
FOX News Sunday (FNS): Brit Hum will be the host this week, interviewing the country’s two Presidents Bush.
This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos interviews Obama then has his roundtable.
Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator David Gregory offers us an entertaining lineup with Bill Cosby and Maxine Waters; he also takjs to DC Mayor Adrian Fenty and Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint.
Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer talks to John Boehnor and Dick Durbin, and also to Illinois Senator-but-for-the-whining Rollie Burris.
Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer chats with Dick Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, and that strange man, David Gergen.
~~~~~
And that’s what they have in store for us on the second Sunday of shows in the Year of our Lord, 2009. This could be a forgettable week, as far as raw and exciting news, unless Maxine says something truly bizarre. She tends to do that, you know.
There are several schools of thought on Chris Matthews’s mind, and given what we’ve seen of this mind, it’s reasonable to conclude that these schools of thought are public schools of the worst quality. To match the man.
Chris Matthews’s brother Jim is boss of Pennsylvania’s Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. (He was also on the Lynn Swann ticket a few years ago when Governor Rendell was reelected.) Jim proclaimed that his brother Chris loves it at MSNBC, loves his job duties, is negotiating a new contract, and thus would forgo a run for the 2010 Dem nomination to challenge Specter, Pat Toomey, or whoever wins the Republican nomination for the seat currently held by Specter.
However, Salena Zito spoke to Allegheny Count Dem chair Jim Burn who said that he spoke to Matthews and the host indicated that he’s still mulling his options. Then again, Matthews told MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, who does a morning show, that his job as a member of the media is to ensure that a President Obama is succefful in his endeavors. Could Matthews best do this as a little-watched lefty pundit or as the potential 60th Dem vote in the U.S. Senate?
Could Matthews, with the right handlers, beat Specter in Pennsylvania if he tried?
We will all be ready to steer our efforts and money wher they are needed in 2010.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) is still a liar, and if he wanted to protect himself and his party from that shame, he ought to stay away from television cameras.
Alas, Reid was the lone guest on NBC’s Meet the Press [transcript], and moderator David Gregory was not shy about the questions he asked. But I had to uncover the most brazen lie myself.
Gregory asked Reid about charges reported at Politico.com this morning that he had called Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to make known that he would not accept Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., Representative Danny Davis, or Illinois Senate President Emil Jones to fill the vacant Obama seat. Those men are all black. Instead, Reid asked for either Illinois Veterans Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, a Thai-American, or Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who is white.
Reid countered:
I have–anyone that suggests there’s any racial bias in this instance doesn’t realize I went to the Clark County district attorney’s office to find a nobody — people thought was a nobody – to become a federal judge, Johnnie Rawlinson. She was a great judge. She’s now on the Ninth Circuit. I did that myself. So anyone to suggest anything racial is part of the Blagojevich spin to take away from the corruption that’s involved his office in Illinois.
Harry Reid is still a liar.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
PREFACE:
Opening ABC’s This Week, Israeli President Shimon Peres asserted that Israel had no desire to crush Hamas or occupy Gaza; rather, they wanted to eliminate terror.
Next up for host George Stephanopoulos was Dick Durbin, who appeared to indicate that he would be willing to seat Burris provisionally until the Senate could investigate and determine if Blago played by the rules in appointing him. That would be an easy out for Harry Reid from his self-made mess.
Then on TW, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pointed out that half of the American public was represented by a Republican Senator, and the GOP would be a part of the process.
On FOX News Sunday, House Dem Leader Steny Hoyer said that the Obama Spending Package (stimulus) will not be “overloaded with earmarks,” but that he will not give the Obama Administration an “informal veto.”
Next up on FNS, former President George Herbert Walker Bush endorsed his son Jeb for the U.S. Senate if that is what Jeb wants: “I’d like to see him be President.”
On MTP, Harry declared that Senators can decide who can be a Senator and who cannot. He denied that he is a racist because a black woman was once his second choice to be a federal judge.
On FTN, host Bob Schieffer went through a partial list of the vacuous lefty lunatic howls and Vice President Dick Cheney withered them with calm and factual logic. So. There.
First on LE, Palestinian (Hamas) “negotiator” Saeb Erekat blamed Israel for attacking innocent Palestinians in Gaza. He called for an immediate cease fire so that the international community could sort things out.
Next up on LE, Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out that Israel could have done a Dresden on Hamas but sought to diminish civilian casualties.
Then Mark Sanford and Jon Corzine were Blitzer’s guest on LE. Corzine argued that Obama’s spending package was a “partnership with the federal government,” not a “bailout.” Sanford argued that it is daft to get the federal government to “solve” a problem by throwing money at it when the government was the root of the problem.
For Sunday, January 4, 2009
FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace will discuss the first 100 Days of Dem Congress, 2009, with Steny Hoyer.
This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos will talk to Senators Roland Burris (D-Illinois), Dick Durbin (same), and Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).
Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator David Gregory talks to Harry Reid about his mounting woes.
Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer has his last interview with Vice President Dick Cheney.
Late Edition (CNN): I think John King will be taking over, and I’m sure he’ll talk to lots of nice folks.
= = = = =
I applaud Stephanopoulos for interviewing Rollie Burris, and contra what I implied, he’s not yet a Senator. It will be interesting to hear what Durbin has to say about this. Reid is addled, but he might say something controversial, and I wonder if Steny will purport to speak for Nancy.
The Sunday Shows return to the Front Page at RedState on Sunday afternoon.
Happy New Year! It’s that in Iraq (quagmire, quagmire, Vietnam); in fact, Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki wishes for January 1st to be a national holiday in his sovereign country. Baghdad’s International Zone (Green Zone) has been turned over to the Iraqis as of midnight, 01/01/09. The Green Zone has long been a symbol, to the Iraqis, of the U.S. military presence, and now it is not.
Saddam Hussein had the palace compound’s main building decorated with giant busts of himself to demonstrate his hold over Iraq. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, the palace came to symbolize the American role in the country, first as the headquarters of the U.S. occupation authority and later the U.S. Embassy. American civilians and troops held “salsa night” dances around the pool behind the palace before retiring to trailers sheathed in sandbags.
When the clock struck midnight on Wednesday, the U.S. returned the palace to the Iraqi government and relinquished formal control over the Green Zone, a heavily fortified six-square-mile enclave on the Tigris River where key U.S. and Iraqi bureaucracies are situated.
Of course, there will be more of a transition from U.S. to Iraqi control of various security issues, such as the issuing of badges (hall passes) for the Green Zone, and some Iraqi lawmakers and the Washington Post (linked above) remain skeptical, asserting “that the Americans will still be in control.”
HOPE. CHANGE. HOPE. Gee, this one’s for real and Bush did it with General David Petraeus, not David Axelrod.
Eighteen-year-old Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has given birth to a 7 pound 7 ounce baby boy, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, the first child of Bristol and fiancé Levi Johnston.
I can only guess with a fair degree of scientific certainty what is going through noted and confused blogger A. Sullivan’s mind:
A-HA! Seven pounds! Seven ounces! Yea, though the number seven rules all, for it is the only integer which cannot be divided into the circle of 360! There were seven vowels in the ancient Greek alphabet! Indeed, Seven is the number, and the number is Seven! For there are seven stars in the Big Dipper! A-HA! Seven. The evil number of a great fraud perpetrated on the American voter!
ERGO, Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnson was switched with Trig Paxson Van Palin, and they are interchangeable with the number seven! Neither baby was fathered by Scott Palin or Levi Johnston, for they were sired by Gary Cherone and Sammy Hagar, respectively. As photographic evidence shows, neither child was delivered from Sarah or Bristol Palin. The mother is Madonna, as was foretold by the seven Sephiroth of the Kabbalah.
Another shot of rum, please, and make it a triple. I shall do the gumshoe bit again to free the Palestinians by getting to the bottom of the birthing of Tzipi Livni.
The world is a happier place for all this, yep.
Apparantly this has never happened before, but a few members of the Republican National Committee have called a bizarre, special meeting of the RNC in order to hear the sundry candidates for their chairmanship debate something or other. This was at the behest of North Dakota Republican Party chairman Gary Emineth, who recently disclosed:
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the public thinks; it matters what 168 of us think.”
That’s the 168 members of the Republican National Committee, the Gang of 168. These 168 people control the apparatus of the national Republican Party, and they’ve frankly made a mess of things. (From my home State of Pennsylvania, we have Republican National Committeeman Bob Archer, a Philadelphia candy maker who most recently trashed our party’s Vice Presidential pick, Sarah Palin, in the press.
If Gary Emineth wants to have a policy debate between candidates for an office from which they can neither enact nor effect policy, whatever. It might do us some psychological good to know that the head of the party’s apparatus believes what he should say. That said, I think the main problem is not who runs the apparatus. The problem is the Gang of 168 itself. Once we clean out the attic, we give the new chairman, who will be a conservative, people with whom he can work to build the party and to help elect more conservative Republicans to office at a time when our nation needs them. Badly.
Sure, I support Mr. Emineth’s proposal provided the Gangg of 168 vacate their offices immediately. They are free to seek reelection in well-publicized primary elections. This is the first time I can recall active political competition for the job of RNC Chair; let us take this opportunity to have such a competition for the committee itself. Remember, an off year primary is the perfect time for the grassroots to speak on behalf of their interests and their party.
(I will not here disclose whom I support for the chairmanship of the RNC, as I don’t want to associate him with my two-cents on this matter.)
For Sunday, December 28, 2008
FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace runs a taped interview with Laura Bush.
This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos talks to ex-WH chiefs of staff Ken Duberstein and Leon Panetta, then he talks to future White House Press Secretary Robinert Gibbs.
Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator David Gregory talks with that nice Axelrod fellow. Of note, one of his journalists on the roundtable will be the Washington Posts’s Michelle Singletary, who, NFL rumor has it, will be asked to continue coaching the San Francisco 49ers next season.
Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer talks to that nasty Paul Krugman fellow and then to Axelrod. Oh, and Illinois Lt. Governor Pat Quinn, part of the Daley-Blagojevich-Obama-Rahmbo Chicago political machine.
Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer will run a bunch of old interviews of which his producers are proud.
= = = = ==
That is the lineup, and the Sunday Show Review will return to this space next Sunday.
Happy New Year.
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Atwater R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.
Secretary of State James Madison was President Thomas Jefferson’s chief advisor and stategist; his biggest effort as secretary was, of course, overseeing the negotiations and ratification of the Lousiana Purchase from Emperor Napoleon’s France in 1803. The man’s memory will have nothing on Hillary.
According to the partisan New York Times, Hillary is already setting herself up to be the most powerful State secretary in the history of our Republic.
As Mrs. Clinton puts together her senior team, [anonymous] officials said, she is also trying to carve out a bigger role for the State Department in economic affairs, where the Treasury has dominated during the Bush years.
The paper reports that she will be “farming out” her increased power to “special envoys” to troubled areas: Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Pakistan, etc. (She ought to send someone to Chicago.)
As evidence that Hillary wants more and more money for her new fiefdom, the paper instructs, Hillary has recruited Jacob Lew to be one of her deputy secretaries. Mr. Lew currently runs hedge funds for Citibank. I don’t suppose they’ll cut Hillary’s rating, though.
Hillary’s rationale for the power and money grab, according to an anonymous advisor through the friendly NYT:
Mrs. Clinton’s push for a more vigorous economic team, one of her advisers said, stems from her conviction that the State Department needs to play a part in the recovery from the global financial crisis. Economic issues also underpin some of the most important diplomatic relationships, notably with China.
Will the United States, through its Department of State, be exporting Obama’s ideology? I suspect, then, that she’s studied the Domino Theory.
Republicans are now evidently in their second month of moping, gnashing, and wringing about what went wrong with their Presidential ticket in November. Why – tell me! – WHY did McCain-Palin lose that race to Obama-Biden? McCain pollster Bill McInturff tells us. Well, he tells USA Today’s Paul Bedard, who, in turns, tells us:
Topping McInturff’s list: Obama was the first black presidential nominee and gave his acceptance speech on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The GOP convention was almost rained out by a hurricane over New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina’s anniversary. And as the economy collapsed, McCain had to endorse a bailout he never would have backed had he not been running for president. Reason: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson begged him to. While he thinks playing up Barack Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright would have worked to hurt the Democrat.
So it was the magical aura/gloss associated with the Obama campaign and it’s National Coming-of-Age back story, and it was Hank Paulson. Did Steve Schmidt or anyone tell John McCain to be John McCain instead of the fellow-who-buys-the-bill-of-goods-from-Hank Paulson? (It was a bill of good when sold to a Republican Presidential candidate, but I don’t know otherwise) .And we find out that McInturff liked McCain’s decision not to exploit the Rev. Wright connection, as that would have been race-baiting and would have “delegitimized his presidency.” (I’d like to have asked him how so, but I’ve moved on.)
No we’re not going to dig this one up and perform another autopsy. I’m more driven to mirthful tears by the demands of those surveyed for ABC News/WashPost.
For Sunday, December 21, 2008
FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace has a recently taped interview with Vice President Dick Cheney.
This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos has a recently taped interview with Joe Biden.
Meet the Press (NBC): Moderator David Gregory will talk to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, probably taped recently.
Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer will talk to Kerry Kennedy about her hyper-qualified cousin, Carolyn no-Schlossberg. He’ll talk to others about this matter: Representative Thomas Reynolds (R-New York), Geraldine Ferraro, Representative Gary Ackerman (D-New York), and Representative Peter King (R-New York).
Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer talks to Barney Frank, Eric Cantor, Laura Tyson, Carly Fiorina, and his usual cast of thousands.
—–
Unless (or until) events shake things up, I’m beginning my Christmas vacation from these shows. The interviews and retrospectives are interesting and entertaining, but there is little or no news in them.
And if they find the temerity to interview the leader of one of these LGBT groups, with a side of fries. I’ll cover that. That would no doubt be awesome TV, in a perverse way.
Of course, “Rahmbo’s” fingerprints are all over this.
President-elect Barack Obama is a product of Chicago politics, and despite being elevated to the highest political post in the nation, he cannot seem to crawl completely out of that particular gutter. His carefully selected chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has been operating under the Chicago rules even as he helps Obama plan to bring Chicago’s politics to Washington.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports this AM:
Emanuel talked with the governor in the days following the Nov. 4 election and pressed early on for the appointment of Valerie Jarrett to the post, sources with knowledge of the conversations told the Sun-Times. There was no indication from sources that Emanuel brokered a deal, however.
A source with the Obama camp strongly denied Emanuel spoke with the governor directly about the seat, saying Emanuel only spoke with Blagojevich once recently to say he was taking the chief of staff post.
But sources with knowledge of the investigation said Blagojevich told his aides about the calls with Emanuel and sometimes gave them directions afterward. Sources said that early on, Emanuel pushed for the appointment of Jarrett to the governor and his staff and asked that it be done by a certain date.
And, sources tell the Sun-Times newspaper,” Rahmbo” and his discussions with Governor Blago, or some of them, are caught on Patrick Fitzgerald’s audio tapes.
