The Rant & Vent about the Right Wing thread

[SFGuy]

It's going to be interesting to see how the GOP responds to Scott McClellan's book.  I saw part of his interview on Today this morning.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/29/national/w043328D00.DTL&tsp=1

I think a few have already said he has an ax to grind and is trying to make some money.

[RGMike]

Assmussen weighs in on McClellan:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/30/DDASMUSSENBR.DTL&hw=don+asmussen&sn=001&sc=1000

[Gazoo]

It's going to be interesting to see how the GOP responds to Scott McClellan's book.  I saw part of his interview on Today this morning.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/29/national/w043328D00.DTL&tsp=1

He's doing Olbermann tonite.  McClellan has long been rumored to, er, have something in common with Gaz & myself -- I'm wondering how long before someone in the right-wing blogosphere attempts to "out" him. This story will be front-an-center thru the weekend at least, as he'll be doing the Sunday talking-head shows.

He's doing the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Monday, no?

[mshray]

It's going to be interesting to see how the GOP responds to Scott McClellan's book.  I saw part of his interview on Today this morning.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/29/national/w043328D00.DTL&tsp=1

I think a few have already said he has an ax to grind and is trying to make some money.

He deflected that as much as one can on his Today appearance. 

I mean, what else are the rest of them going to say? 
"Yeah, I have known Scott a long time, and this is exactly the same stuff we've all felt in our guts, but were to chicken to speak out on."

Of course not.  I don't think anyone commenting on the book publicly the last 2 days has actually read the whole thing word for word, and he said his *main* point is that DC is completely given over now to 24/7/365 bi-partisan warfare & the permanent campaign, which is unhealthy (duh!).

[Gazoo]

It's going to be interesting to see how the GOP responds to Scott McClellan's book.  I saw part of his interview on Today this morning.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/29/national/w043328D00.DTL&tsp=1

I think a few have already said he has an ax to grind and is trying to make some money.

Bob Dole totally went off on him in an e-mail that went public:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

"There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," Dole wrote in the personal e-mail. "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits, and spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique."

Dole spokesman Michael Marshall confirmed the authenticity of the e-mail, first reported by Politico and obtained by CNN.

Dole, the former Senate Majority Leader and 1996 Republican presidential nominee, also tells McClellan he is likely looking to "clean up" as "the liberal anti-Bush press will promote your belated concerns with wild enthusiasm."

Fun to see that jackass Dole buy into the "liberal press" myth, too.  This infighting will make for a nice precursor to the GOP's time-out period, which is long overdue.

[Gazoo]

Confirming what many of us already suspected about the media's failed coverage in the run-up to the Iraq war:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0508/CNNs_Yellin_Network_execs_killed_critical_White_House_stories_.html

On Wednesday night, CNN's Jessica Yellin talked to Anderson Cooper about Scott McClellan's tell-all memoir and agreed with the former press secretary that White House reporters "dropped the ball" during the run-up to war.

But Yellin went much further, revealing that news executives — presumably at ABC News, where she'd worked from July 2003 to August 2007 — actively pushed her not do hard-hitting pieces on the Bush administration. [UPDATE: Yellin now says it was MSNBC execs, not ABC]

"The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings," Yellin said.

"And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president's approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives — and I was not at this network at the time — but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time...."

But then a shocked Cooper jumped in, asking, "You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?"

"Not in that exact.... They wouldn't say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces," Yellin said. "They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive. Yes, that was my experience."

[urth]

Need more proof that our Commander-in-Chief is nothing but an overgrown fratboy? Me neither, but here it is anyway:

http://tinyurl.com/6naw9k

[urth]

Need more proof that our Commander-in-Chief is nothing but an overgrown fratboy? Me neither, but here it is anyway:

http://tinyurl.com/6naw9k

Found another one:

[RGMike]

the Newsweek poll about Bill O'Reilly:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/143058

[Gazoo]

Many sources could be cited as to this ugliness; I chose the NYT because it's a succinct summary of still more insidious neocon behavior.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/washington/29justice.html

A longtime prosecutor who drew rave reviews from his supervisors was passed over for an important counterterrorism slot because his wife was active in Democratic politics, and a much-less-experienced lawyer with Republican leanings got the job, the report said.

Another prosecutor was rejected for a job in part because she was thought to be a lesbian. And a Republican lawyer received high marks at his job interview because he was found to be sufficiently conservative on the core issues of “god, guns + gays.”

Yes, this is how much conservatives love America and all Americans!

[ggould]

Sen. Ted Stevens, the nation's longest-serving Republican senator and a major figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts from a powerful oil contractor that lobbied him for government aid.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/29/national/w100426D35.DTL&hw=ted+stevens&sn=002&sc=866

[RGMike]

Wow, we haven't posted in this thread since JULY!

And this could easily have gone in the Prop 8 thread, but in case you missed Newt Gingrich's comments the other day...

http://mediamatters.org/items/200811170014

[urth]

Wow, we haven't posted in this thread since JULY!

Guess all our pent-up frustration about the Right Wingers has been going into the Election thread. Lord knows there's been plenty to rant about!

[Gazoo]

Facebook update of the night:

Dear owner of used Lexus for sale: you might find a buyer a little sooner if you remove the "McCain / Palin" bumper sticker. Your pal, Scott.

[urth]

A certain amount of poetic justice to this:

Ann Coulter's jaw wired shut?

We can only hope it's not just a rumor.