David Gregory Out as Host of Meet the Press

Image from source, Politics USA

I started watching Meet the Press (and often one or two of the other Sunday shows, Face the Nation, This Week and FOX "News" Sunday) some time during the George W. Bush administration. Oh, I'd caught it a few times in my life, but not regularly. I thoroughly despised the entire Dubya cabal, and will even cop to having a moderate case of Bush Derangement Syndrome for a little while. So, I was more politically plugged in, and this is one way to do that.

Unfortunately, these shows are also really horrible, in many ways. Awful. Almost every guest (with rare exceptions) is thoroughly rehearsed in their side's talking points, and will steer the argument back to them at all costs. In fact, they'll often go to talking points that don't even relate to the question. Which side is worse about distortion, spinning and even lying probably depends upon your political leanings. But there is no doubt who gets more coverage: Republicans. In study after study, the GOP gets more guests by a mile, regardless of who holds the White House or Congress.

Distressingly, it's the old, (pasty) white, male variety of Republican that gets the most opportunity to

Good luck, dude. You're going to need it

sling their spin, notably John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who appear to be joined at the hip. If the green room had a bridal suite, it would be occupied by those two. If it's Sunday, it's the John and Lindsey Show. It's tired, oh so tired.

David Gregory is not the worst host of this type of show. Chris Wallace is worse. But David Gregory is an odd figure, as these things go: nobody seems to like him. Conservatives think Gregory is a liberal hack. Liberals, conversely think, Are you freaking insane? He's a conservative hack! They may be both right. But I'd rather just say, "hack." His questioning style is very surfacy, and geared toward making his own news, with "gotcha" questions. He very often seemingly frames his questions from the perspective of the opposition's talking points. He's smug. He's smarmy. And I'm not sorry to see him go. As I'm sure everyone is saying about this story, he's no Tim Russert.

You know who else isn't Tim Russert? Chuck Todd. His interviewing style may prove to be better than Gregory's. But otherwise, he seems to be almost exactly the same sort of figure: not liked very well by either side. I suppose an argument could be made that such a quality is a good thing, but probably not if you're looking for ratings.

[Excerpt]
 
David Gregory Is Officially Fired as Chuck Todd Takes Over NBC’s Meet The Press

The axe finally fell today as David Gregory confirmed that he is out at Meet The Press, and is leaving NBC. Chuck Todd will be the new host of the Sunday morning staple.

David Gregory got the boot fast. This was a literal don’t let the door hit you on the butt on the way out. According to CNN, “The sources confirmed widespread speculation that David Gregory, the moderator of the iconic Sunday morning public affairs program for the past six years, will be replaced by Todd. One of the sources said the transition will be swift — so swift that Gregory will not even host “Meet the Press” this weekend. . .”

 

Read more at: Politics USA

CBO Report on ObamaCare Continues to be Misconstrued

Over the last couple of weeks, I'll admit to being a little less engaged than usual. I have paid a little less attention to the changing of the news cycle, having my attention pulled in other directions here at home. Even so, I caught that the CBO report on ObamaCare was initially (gleefully) reported by conservatives as a JOB KILLER!!! And almost immediately, the author of the thing said, no, Right Wing World had gotten it wrong. Again.

But here we were on Sunday morning, with the political shows all acting like the original storyline was the correct one. David Gregory used it in one of his "balanced" setups, as though the wrong conclusion was as equally likely as the real, intended one. Chris Wallace on FOX "News" Sunday lead with it, painting it as conclusively true, by the way he phrased it. I didn't have the stomach for the other networks' offerings.

But it looks like CNN may have gotten it right.

[Excerpt]

CNN breaks mold and tells truth about CBO report


 
It is a forgone conclusion that Fox News would misrepresent the latest CBO report. Sadly even Chuck Todd at MSNBC was less than clear in interpreting the report. He was more concerned with how it would be interpreted. He should have been more concerned with his free press journalistic duty. Inform the population objectively. . .

Read more at: DailyKos

Ted Cruz, Translated for Sane People

Ugh. Image from source, Huffington Post

Yesterday, as I watched the Sunday political talk shows (remote at the ready for zapping through them), I was rolling my eyes so hard, I thought they'd pop out of my head. Republican after Republican bent and twisted their responses to questions to make the "defund Obamacare" portion of the budget bill to be a "compromise," and to make it out that it was President Obama and Harry Reid who want the government to shut down. It's extortion by the GOP, and they're honestly trying to sell it as a reasonable request, and that Democrats are the reckless ones.

Worse than them all though, was Sen. Ted Cruz on Meet the Press. Though David Gregory was uncharacteristically semi-aggressive with his questioning, there remains the problem of Gregory giving Cruz the plum spot on the show, right at the top, with no sparring partner. And then Cruz was the absolute picture of your typical "dance a little sidestep" bob-and-weave politician, that is oh-so-typical on these Sunday shows. Wasn't Cruz supposed to be different, tea baggers?

Mercifully, someone at HuffPo has condensed and translated Cruz's responses into something much easier to follow.

[Excerpt]

Ted Cruz Was On Meet The Press And Struggled With Brevity, So Here's The Short Version

As Cruz has demonstrated troubles with prolixity -- and because these troubles make everyone's life a little harder -- I am going to boil his answers in a Sunday "Meet the Press" interview down into their simplest form so that for once, Ted Cruz doesn't have to be such a long-winded pain in the ass of John Boehner or anyone else. . .

It's good, read more at: Huffington Post

In Case You Missed It: Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press

I was on vacation during this past week's Meet the Press, so I missed it. This would not be a tragedy on most weeks. But I'm glad I caught the recording on my DVR, because it was a rare week where I didn't want to paste David Gregory. And, it included Rachel Maddow as a panelist, going up against smarmy Ralph Reed (Jack Abramoff crony) and proud homophobe Jim DeMint (late of Congress, current of The Heritage Foundation). And despite my mild anger that such horrible people get to appear on network TV "for balance" about gay rights, this was--for me--Must See TV­™.

Now, I think Rachel did a great job, and I'll admit she sometimes gets a bit flustered when she goes head-to-head outside of her own venue. This has an obvious cause, that she finds so much wrong with what her opponent is saying, she can have difficulty winnowing her response down to a pithy soundbite. But she's getting better at that, and this was probably her best performance in this kind of setting. I loved her point about the conservative tactic boiling down to basically the right to discriminate. Because that is the only real effect of their anti-gay campaign; they don't make less of us, they just discriminate against us.


Oddly enough, this very same clip is running around the right-wing blogosphere, as an example of how Rachel Maddow got her clock cleaned by Reed and DeMint. There are also the de rigueur "Mad Cow" and "she looks like a dude" jokes, because that's as deep (and original) as conservative humor gets. Anyway, it's an example of how the right-left divide can be almost uncrossable. I can't watch this and see anyone but Maddow as the winner. Oh, and Reed and DeMint make my skin crawl.

Benghazi-gate Begins to Fizzle

Did you happen to notice that the Benghazi story has mostly been a FOX "News"/Right Wing World thing, until the last few days? That's because ABC News "found" an email that seemed to show multiple rewrites of talking points for Susan Rice to use on the Sunday talk shows, five days after the Benghazi attack. I still don't get the OCD focus on that Sunday, but that's neither here nor there. The ABC email turned this simmering conservative outrage story into a mainstream story. Oddly, a story that was obsessing over the minutiae of talking points. Not preventing future attacks, or fixing problems, but forensically piecing together why the lady said what she said to David Gregory.

Well, guess what? The email didn't say what they said it said. Like, at all. So this big "scandal" was over bupkis. We're back exactly where we were on Benghazi. The question is, will it completely fizzle out in favor of the new IRS/Tea Party and the Justice Department/AP potential scandals? We shall see.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Why are Lindsey Graham and John McCain on EVERY SUNDAY?

I watched--as I often do--a couple of the Sunday shows this weekend. My usual picks are Meet the Press with David Gregory and FOX "News" Sunday with Chris Wallace. Not because I like them, or think they're the best (heavens, no), probably mostly out of habit. FNS I only watch to see what they're up to, but MTP is just as likely to be from a rightward cant on any given Sunday. It has been shown through several studies that no matter which party is in control of the White House or either house of Congress, the Sunday shows tip rightward in their choice of guests.

It's no wonder, when you consider which of these guys apparently live to be on TV. Lindsey Graham and John McCain--seemingly closer than some married couples--will show up on any of these shows on any given week. Sometimes on multiple shows on the same day. It doesn't matter what the topic is, it doesn't matter if they've been absolutely wrong on many previous occasions. It doesn't matter that either is likely to sputter "BENGHAZI!!!" an any moment, regardless of what question they were asked. There they are, the failed presidential candidate who picked a moron running mate, and the fading Southern belle gentleman, every damned week.

I miss Tim Russert as infuriating as he himself could be. I even miss Tony Snow, who could snark without the vaguely creepy vibe Wallace always exudes. I'd appreciate it if Gregory, Wallace, Bob Schieffer and the rest would stop booking lobbyists and hate group leaders for their point/counterpoints. I'd like to see Karl Rove frog-marched out of one of the studios, and Peggy Noonan laughed off the stage for her loopy delivery. But mostly, I want to stop seeing McCain and his little buddy every single week.

John McCain Doesn't Understand Own Conspiracy Theory

This blog post from Rachel Maddow's MaddowBlog asks the same question I've been asking about the Benghazi attack on September 11 of last year. That being, what is being covered up? If you listen any day, almost any time, on FOX "News," you'll hear that there is a Benghazi coverup. Oddly, right-wing world is very, very concerned about what Susan Rice had to say five days later on the Sunday political shows. Why they're focused like a laser on that day, that spokesperson, those facts is something of a mystery, but to them, that is the crux of everything. [Story continues below]

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

To me, it's especially odd that it's Lindsey Graham and John McCain squawking about it the most--unironically--on those same Sunday shows. It would be an easy project to comb through the records of Meet the Press, Face the Nation and FOX "News" Sunday to find misstatements and outright falsehoods from both McCain and Graham on topics smaller and larger than Benghazi.  And yet there is John McCain, still going on about a conspiracy theory, a cover up. But the oddest part is that McCain cannot articulate what the cover up even was. When pressed, he sputters about the four dead Americans. Nobody is happy about four dead Americans, and to allege that you can't be both sad and disinterested in conspiracy theories about Benghazi is just stupid.

[Excerpt]

McCain lost in a fog of partisan rage

Looking back at the tragic and deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last fall, we know quite a bit about what happened. We also know, thanks to an independent investigation, that "Republican charges of a cover-up" were "pure fiction."

But as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) argued yesterday, he can't be bothered with facts -- he has a partisan vendetta to pursue. . .

Read more at: MaddowBlog

Cory Booker Incident Highlights Problem of False Equivalence

Cool guy. Bad day. Image from The Nation.

Mayor of Newark managed to step in it pretty big on Meet the Press on Sunday (in a discussion in an episode I watched, and didn't manage to notice). Cory Booker's problem--besides going against President Obama's message when he is an Obama surrogate--was a classic on: false equivalence. It's one of the most infuriating issues in politics and in modern news-info-tainment. "They all do it." "They're just alike." "Both sides of the aisle are guilty."

 Mama might have told you that there are two sides to every story, but she should have been more precise. Both sides are not always equal. Rachel Maddow is not merely the flip side of Sean Hannity. Creationism isn't as scientifically valid as Evolution. And the Jeremiah Wright "issue" is not the equivalent to Mitt Romney's history at Bain Capital.

[Excerpt]

Et Tu, Cory Booker? The Pathology of False Equivalence

There is a disease spreading across our political punditry, and the beloved mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, seems to have contracted it. On Sunday’s Meet The Press, Booker disavowed the new ad campaign attacking Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, and in doing so, compared the Obama team’s decision to air the ads to the right-wing invocation of Reverend Wright to take down the president. Booker released a retraction video hours later, but the incident indicates just how advanced the sickness of false equivalence is in our national dialogue. The plague has now infected a normally sharp public official unlikely to confuse a thinly veiled racist play against the first African-American president with an examination of the economic track record of his challenger. . .

Read more at: The Nation

Cenk Uygur: "CNN -- Change Everything"

Image found at GoHarrison.com

I've been a fan of Cenk Uygur ever since the first time I saw a Young Turks clip. Unfortunately, with no liberal radio in Las Vegas, no Current TV on Cox Cable, and a day job when he was on MSNBC, I've always had to seek out clips, or online streams. So my fandom has been tempered by practicality. Still, it has been rare when I've seen anything by Uygar that I didn't agree with. This critique of CNN is no exception.

I'd extend the critique to Face the Nation, This Week, FOX "News" Sunday (which barely counts) and especially Meet the Press. David Gregory in particular is guilty of doing the "he said, she said," "two equal sides to every story" simplistic interviews and reporting. It's all horse race and controversy. Rarely if ever do the Sunday political shows do anything more than that. The round-table discussion groups occasionally have someone burst through with a concise truth, but it is almost always met with a counterpoint that dilutes it

[Excerpt]


Friendly Advice to CNN -- Change Everything 

CNN just had their lowest ratings in a decade. They are in disastrous shape. When I was on MSNBC, we would beat them with a stick. Even after "pro-CNN" stories like revolutions in Egypt and Libya, Japanese nuclear meltdowns and the killing of Osama bin Laden (CNN does much better when major news or international stories break out), we still beat them. Now they're doing so poorly I might even catch them on Current. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

Rick Santorum Lied on Meet the Press

Politicians lie, yeah, I get it. It's true of--really--all of them. The ones we like, and the ones we don't. For instance, for political expediency, President Obama pretends to be "evolving" on the issue of same-sex marriage, even though most of us suspect he's either indifferent, or is actually for it.  That's the political expedience lie, and they literally all do it. We shrug our shoulders.

But, when they lie about obvious things; things we just flat-out know are brazen lies? It's pretty irritating, even though they may all do that too. It's even more irritating when hosts of news programs just let the lies fly. "We're going to have to leave it there," is such a cliche, but that's usually where Wolf Blitzer, John King, George Stephanopoulos and Chris Wallace leave it.
[Story continues below]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

David Gregory may be most guilty of all. With his insipid "Trends and Takeaways" segment on NBC's Meet the Press, Gregory is all about the surface of things, and the horse race. He loves polls and percentages, and indulges in the occasional "gotcha" question. But he rarely asks followup questions of any weight. Until Sunday. Rick Santorum tried to put the news cycle onto his campaign's talking points, but Gregory wasn't having it. For what I hope is the first step in a trend, I commend Gregory for his tenacity. Oh, and Santorum (don't Google me!) is a weasel.

[Excerpt]

Rick Santorum Tells Two Whoppers

Rick Santorum tried yet again to pretend on Meet the Press today that he doesn't talk about social issues, and in response he got a swift dressing down from moderator David Gregory. But that didn't stop Santorum from telling an even bigger whopper, claiming no proof exists that he wants to impose his own values on other Americans. . .

Read more at: The Advocate

"Anonymous" Targets the Koch Brothers

Image found at The Green Market

The Koch Brothers--billionaire tycoons who fund many and sundry conservative movements, including the Tea Party--have had a spotlight shone on them of late, as their hand in the Wisconsin labor protests has come to light. Especially after a Buffalo blogger totally punked Governor Scott Walker, posing as David Koch in a twenty minute phone call. The minor ripples this has made in mainstream news coverage is most perplexing. Were the political parties and policies on the other political foot, FOX "News" would have blown this up into the new, new Black Panther Party at least, in the amount of squawking they'd do about it.

The punk'ing wiggled its way into Meet the Press with David Gregory's interview with Walker on Sunday morning, but Walker shrugged it off, and Gregory is not known for tenaciously forcing an issue. Once, twice, still not gonna answer? We're going to have to leave it there. . . But not everyone is ready to let the Koch Brothers lurch off back into the shadows where they'd rather be. The entity known as "Anonymous"--which I'll confess I only heard of about since about a week or two ago--is now focusing in on the Kochs. Good.

[Excerpt]

‘Anonymous’ targets the brothers Koch, claiming attempts ‘to usurp American Democracy’



The decentralized protest group "Anonymous" has a new target: no, it's not a middle eastern dictator, a major bank or even a bit player in the military-industrial complex.



It's none other than tea party financiers Charles and David Koch, who were being targeted, an open letter stated, for their attempts "to usurp American Democracy. . ."

Read more at: Raw Story

ABC's This Week Covers "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

As I usually do on Sunday mornings--though much less enthusiastically than I used to--I watched some of the Sunday political shows. Meet the Press with David Gregory was frustrating as usual, because I've never liked Gregory's interviewing style. FOX "News" Sunday was, as always, a train wreck, this time foisting both Dana Perino and Liz Cheney on their viewing audience.  By far the most interesting of the shows I watched was This Week with Christianne Amanpour, with much of the show taken up with a discussion on the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

The discussion was interesting, but did nothing to convince me that there is any study needed, any implementation necessary or phasing in of a policy change called for. This is rather binary: either end the policy or don't. The "military readiness" claim is malarkey. Gay people exist in virtually every walk of life, and coexist quite well with others. This "homosexual panic" that homophobes like the two on the panel, Lt. Col. Bob McGuinness and Elaine Donnelly (who looks like her entire body is clenched) seem to think straight soldiers suffer from is ridiculous.  The argument is basically saying that the gays themselves aren't the problem, it's the straights who will somehow lose the ability to fight if there is a gay person in their ranks. Ludicrous. Anyway, General Wesley Clark and the rest of the "good guys" on the panel presented themselves well.

I'm liking Amampour's show more and more each time I watch it. Her level of intelligence is obvious, and her approach to political news and commentary is several notches above Gregory's or (obviously) Chris Wallace's.

Sunday Update III: Meet the Press: Boehner and Perkins

Image from MediaBistro

Ugh. I finally caught up to Meet the Press with David Gregory on its MSNBC replay.  The first subject was the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Since we are at 100+ days of this story, and there isn't much new going on, I decided to get showered up and ready for my day. But I got back in time to see John Boner Boehner weigh in on this and other issues. Boehner looks particularly orange this morning, kinda droopy and leathery.  His mouth twitch thing--that goes oddly unmentioned--is being used as punctuation today, for virtually every comma and period in his speech.  He sounded borderline drunk at first, but brushed off the slurring like a pro.  Mostly, he evaded questions he didn't want to answer, and steered his responses to his bullet-pointed talking points.  Worthless. But kudos to Gregory for hammering at him more than usual, even if it is in the effort to get Gregory himself into the news cycle.

Boehner's prattle took up half of the program, leaving the second half to the "round" table. First the economy. Since I'm convinced that nobody seems to have a handle on that, I don't care. I mean seriously, the Republicans are proposing more of the same crap that got us into this mess, and the Democrats are too timid to push hard for the things that might fix it.  Rep. Mike Pence (R-IL) asks, "Where are the jobs?" The actual response is: Big Business (aided and abetted by Republicans and, yes, some Democrats) sent them overseas.  And now that big layoffs and cuts in payroll have happened, and many big businesses are doing better, they're in no hurry to bring the workforce back. They're going to push the current employees to do more for less in less time, for as long as they possibly can.

Pence is talking out his ass, saying there has been no effort by Democrats to be bipartisan.  Hah! This is easily disproven by a two minute Google search.  Harold Ford does what he always does, hewing ever so close to the middle while trying to seem liberal.  Andrea Mitchell. . .made little impression on this panel.

Though the Proposition 8/same-sex marriage issue was teased by Gregory, unless I blinked and missed it, it didn't come up.  Okay, I'm done with this tedium, on to some other things!

Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press with David Gregory

Round tables on Sunday morning political talk shows can be tedious and frustrating. Basically, you gather an even number of pundits/politicians/political operatives--ideally ideologically balanced, but not always--and fire the week's hot political topics at them one-by-one.  Unfortunately, the political knowledge that can be gained by this format is outweighed by politics-as-usual.

Most of the guests on shows like this have a political agenda, and to various degrees have their talking points, hyper-partisan points of view, and focus-tested (thanks, Frank Luntz) verbiage usage.  I'll give you an example.

Republicans are married to a fiscal policy of tax cuts, and reductions in spending. That's their rhetoric, and whether it matches up to political reality or not, they have not shown that this recipe works.  EVER.  "Trickle Down" economics was ridiculed in the waning days of the Reagan Administration, but it is being embraced with gusto by Republicans these days.  On the other hand, economic stimulus (minus the watering down and tax cuts thrown to gain dubious Republican support) does boost the economy.  Unemployment insurance and other "entitlements" as Republicans call them, are some of the best stimulus the economy can get.  People who get these benefits tend to spend them right away, stimulating the economy immediately.

In that example, the second theory can be shown to work in practice, and by logical thinking. The first one (trickle down) can't be shown to work as far as I know. It's wishful thinking.  What do corporations making huge profits really do when they get tax cuts, and thus more profits? Why, they do anything they can to make their profits even bigger, they don't just start hiring tons of new people with all that extra money.  If there's one thing the BP disaster shows us, it is what the culmination of laissez-faire capitalism leads to: Profits above all else, no contingency plans for accidents, no spending on hypothetical future disasters, bogus response plans, shortcuts, dirty deals with government regulators, registering wells in foreign countries for additional tax breaks, more lobbying for further reduced regulations.

But on these Sunday shows, you'll hear the same failed policy ideas trotted out by Ed Gillespie. And David Gregory (or one of the other hosts) set them up, using their own verbiage, and presenting every issue as though both sides are equally weighted.  That's why I love Rachel Maddow.  Sure, you might find her as partisan as Gillespie, and she is. But unlike him, Rachel is not afraid to point out Democrats' failures. She doesn't wear kid gloves around the foibles of the left, and she has a great way of framing an issue that isn't chock-full of "Words that Work" or scripted talking points.  I loved when she said that the Republican mantra of fiscal responsibility was historically "nifty but novel."  In other words, Republicans haven't shown that they deliver what they promise in this area. Brava, Rachel!  Now, if she could just replace Gregory.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rand Paul's Very Bad Week Capped by Standing Up Meet the Press

Rand Paul's week has seen a huge high (winning the Republican nomination for Senator from Kentucky), and a steady stream of lows (capped by a lousy performance on The Rachel Maddow Show).  By the time the Sunday shows rolled around--where Paul would have been a featured guest on Meet the Press--Paul had finally put the brakes on. He cancelled his MTP interview, probably hoping that would staunch the bleeding.

He probably didn't count on David Gregory getting some digs in. I didn't really expect it either, since the show is a shadow of its former self after losing Tim Russert.  As these things go, it was pretty good TV.
Side note: Gregory (and other NBC/MSNBC hosts) really should learn to pronounce Rachel Maddow's name. It rhymes with "shadow."



Clip found at: AmericaBlog

The Meet the Press Duel Between Schock & Maddow

Image from source, SFGate

Confession time: I'm running this bit because a) I am a well-known Rachel Maddow fan, and b) the picture included in this excerpt of Aaron Schock is probably the only known beefcake shot of a U.S. Congressman. Because Scott Brown is a Senator. Still, it's a short list either way.

Now, it should be pointed out that Maddow kicked a little patootie in this bit. But it should also be noted that the right-wing blogosphere sees the clip in a 180-degree light, thinking Aaron Schock won. As Rachel is wont to say, bull pucky.

[Excerpt]

Rachel Maddow embarrassed Rep. Aaron Schock on Meet The Press

The Internet is abuzz with accounts of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's confrontation of Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill) on NBC News' Meet The Press (MTP), Sunday.

Rachel Maddow, in pointing out that Rep. Aaron Schock criticized Democrats for economic stimulus spending programs, then shows up for ribbon cuttings of facilities funded by those same programs, embarrassed the neophyte GOP congressman from Illinois. . .

Read more at: SF Gate

Sunday Update: Politics, Politics, Politics

Here I sit again. . .I said I wouldn't do it. . .but here I am. Watching Meet the Press with David Gregory. First up, Valerie Jarrett for the President's team. Milquetoasty, whisper-voiced, jacked up with political jargon: ineffective. Next was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Shelley the Turtle). He's so annoying. Very repetitive, though he's working in a new response to replace or supplement his claim that the American people are saying "please don't pass this bill." Now he's adding, "let's start over, start from scratch, step by step." He won't answer a direct question--even if it is posed three times (Gregory's limit)--but he will pretend that a) Republicans haven't merely opposed everything from Democrats, and that b) Republicans will work "in a bipartisan" manner if only the President would move to the center, and not from the "far-left."

This is such a load of hooey. There is no "far-left" in this country. There is far-right, right, right-center, center, left-center and left. There is quite simply no counter-balance--at least no vocal one--to far-right voices. I'd love to see a list of "far-left" voices. Rachel Maddow? Nope, fairly straight-down-the-line liberal. Olbermann? Same thing. The political spectrum is so skewed due to the fact that far-right voices like Rush Limbaugh have been proclaimed to be mainstream.

And this President has moved to the center. His approval rating is low because liberals are pissed that he's drifting rightward. I got into a brief argument with my mother the other day, saying my problem with Obama is not that he's done too much, it is that he hasn't done enough. She was incredulous. Because she watches FOX "News" and thinks Obama is far-left. Horse pucky.

I may be back with a part II if I don't throw something through the screen.

Sunday Politics. And Mitch McConnell. Ugh.

Image from IndieDesign

Here I sit, yet another Sunday, watching the political yak-fests. Why do I do it? I don't know. I got into the habit several years ago, and can't seem to shake it. Meet the Press with David Gregory is a dim shadow of the program the late Tim Russert hosted (and it wasn't terrific then). Gregory seems to be asking questions only to hopefully inject himself into the news cycle by asking (or being answered) with a zinger. His problem--and frankly the problem with the whole format on any channel--is the fact that uber-partisans are slated to be interviewed, and then spew talking points, regardless of the question. A follow-up from the host is rare, and even then an actual answer is rarer. It is most frustrating as a viewer. I suppose this is the reason for the "panel" segments featured on most shows, but the results can be much the same.

FOX "News" Sunday airs in Las Vegas at the same time as MTP, so I watch it on the DVR. It is the easiest show to zip through, with the most commercials. Today, the host is Brit Hume, who usually plays the part of lead conservative on their ludicrously named "Power Panel." F"N"S--like MTP--started with the political odd couple of Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and their alliance for help in Haiti. This is the second go-around I've watched (and I assume they've done all of the programs this morning), and it produced little that was newsworthy besides the alliance itself. W managed to not embarrass himself unduly, but I still can barely tolerate the guy.

I haven't gotten to This Week or Face the Nation yet, and I may skip them. My big irritation came from FOX's interview of Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell. He looks like a constipated turtle, and his personality is no better. He pretends that Republicans are only looking out for the best interests of America, rather than merely voting "NO!" to absolutely everything proposed by Democrats. And, of course, he's a talking points machine, sure to work in whatever is on this weeks GOP handout. What was the big talking point this week? My guess is that Americans are supposedly saying (or as McConnell says, "literally screaming") "Please don't pass" health care reform. How do I know it's a talking point? Because he said it at least four times. Repetition may work, but it's annoying as hell.

And looky here. McConnell's misuse of "literally screaming" must be part of the talking point, because he also used it on CNN's State of the Union. . .in freakin' November!

Update: Upon further study, it appears this might be more a Mitch McConnell talking point than a GOP one, though it's difficult to be sure. If you Google "please don't pass" along with "health care" you'll find countless examples of its use. . .almost exclusively by McChinless himself. Which kind of proves my point about these guys on the politics shows: talking points and repetition. What is the point?

Endings and Beginnings

Christmas (and all its attendant festivities, not to mention competing festivals) has come and gone. The week of holiday limbo that follows has likewise been crossed off the calendars. New Year's Day marked the end and beginning of a year and (kinda) a decade. And now most of us have seen an unusual new year's treat--not having to go back to work until the fourth of the month--sneak up on us, even if we've had the previous 8-11 days off.

Personally, I've been off work since Christmas Eve. I've managed to accomplish at least as much as my cat in that time, and in fact have picked up a habit or two from her. Sunbeams do make fun napping places! But there is a counter-inutuitive bit of time perception that happens on stay-at-home weeks of from work. Usually, if you waste time by doing nothing, time crawls. Actually trying to waste time seems to make it go on and on. But when you do this at home--rather than at your desk at work--time actually seems to accelerate. Here I am on day 11 of my break, staring at returning to work tomorrow morning, and I'm thinking, "already?!?"

So, I'm making my last leisurely brunch/late breakfast. I'm on the last day of my waist-expanding project. I'll resume my low-carb diet tomorrow, along with a slightly-better-than-halfhearted attempt at regular exercise. And, I'll try to return the blog to more than a post a day. But that project could be difficult if this morning's Sunday political yack-fests are any indication.

I actually had to check my DVR to make sure that I wasn't watching last week's Meet the Press with David Gregory. Seriously, did nothing happen in the past week? Nearly the entire program was taken up with the Christmas Day attempted underwear bombing. There was absolutely nothing new to be heard, with Gregory (who is turning out to be a piss-poor substitute for Tim Russert) asking the same batch of loaded questions he asked last week. Pathetic.

FOX "News" Sunday with Chris Wallace was no better (as though it ever is). The vaguely creepy host continued to embarass his father by dragging the allegedly "hard news" segment of FOX "News" into the partisan gutter as he does every other week. Wallace also seems to think it is last week, with--as I watch this--nothing that would let you know an entire week has gone by since they talked about the exact same thing. That's 9 days since the non-event "happened."

I may have to zip through the rest of the program with the remote, especially when they haul out the ludicrously named "Power Panel," the rag-tag (surely skeleton crew) group of arch-conservatives and milquetoasty moderates that constitute "fair and balanced" on this stupid program. Then, unless it is preempted by tennis or golf or girls' field hockey, it'll be time for This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Unless they've replaced him. At least he has the "Sunday Funnies" segment, which usually proves amusing. Except all the comics have been on vacation, so good luck with that, George. Maybe my New Year's resolution should be to stop watching these increasingly lame shows? Maybe. But habits are hard to break.

Dick Armey Picks on Rachel "Maddox"

Do politicians forget that we have things called DVRs and YouTube, devices that record for posterity what happened in the past? I've gotta wonder, because it seems every other day or so, some elected official (or a washed up former one) gets busted for either contradicting something they said like three weeks ago, or just flat-out lying. Here is Dick Armey, pretending not to remember Rachel Maddow's name, and then totally misrepresenting what Maddow said when they were on Meet the Press together.

Gotta love Rachel's attitude about the whole thing, and her willingness to play his complete diatribe. Of course she got to rub his nose in it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy