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| | | Flush twice... it's a long way to Sally Quinn's place!  Pundit Pap Sunday, Sept. 25, 2005 – NEW YORK – Quite the week, eh? • About 150,000 Americans rallied yesterday in Washington against the Iraq qWagmire. So with all of this juicy, red-meat political news ripe for discussion, what do you think was the top "political" topic of this pundit Sunday? I know, I know, why do we even bother asking? ABC News This Week At the top of the show, George Stephanopoulos claimed that "everyone was ready" for Hurricane Rita's assault on Texas. But Steph and his guests contradicted this assertion a few minutes into the show; Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) admitted that the issue of organizing the return of residents to the worst-hit areas of the Texas Gulf coast region was a mess. Neither of them mentioned Houston Mayor Bill White's scathing criticism of Texas authorities for not being prepared with an evacuation plan or if, for that matter, with enough gasoline. Senator John McCain was also a guest; we missed a little bit of the interview due to a cable system glitch (digital cable – more channels of nothing worth watching, more technical gremlins than old-fashioned cable – such a bargain at 50% more), but the signal kicked back in as McCain was blasting the highway bill larded with pork barrel projects totaling $26 billion. McCain saluted the sacrifice of the American people— but wants spending cut drastically. McCain also reiterated his opposition to the Medicare drug card plan. It took a couple of minutes to confirm the obvious — that this discussion of built-tightening had everything to do with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Stephanopoulos referenced some questionable poll numbers to claim that Americans "disagree" with McCain on how to pay for the aftermath of Katrina, but McCain stuck to his guns, saying that the federal government has to tighten its belt and spend less. To our complete surprise, Stephanopoulos flashed a short video clip of yesterday's anti-war protests in Washington, D.C; McCain said, "We cannot afford to lose, and the benefits of success are enormous. The consequences of failure are also. I think we've got to stay the course here." Of course, given the rising tide of sentiment against the Kennebunkport Kowboy's War of Aggression Against the Hussein Family, McCain's repeated use of the phrase "stay the course" can roughly be translated as "declare victory and get the hell out of that desert quagmire once it's clear we have an opening to do so." Stephanopoulos then shocked us a second time by bringing up fresh allegations of prisoner abuse in Iraq, courtesy of TIME. Stephanopoulos specifically referenced the TIME article which details a letter to McCain from a high-ranking member of the military, Captain Ian Fischbach, who spelled out techniques used to torture and abuse prisoners. "It seems like déjà-vu all over again. Did you find these allegations credible, and what can we do about it?" McCain: "My staff talked with the captain and we are investigating, and there is an ongoing investigation. ... We will not engage in torture, and the Army field manual, which is the document that the Army goes by and the military goes by in the process of interrogating and treatment of prisoners, we've got to have it stopped. It is hurting America's image abroad. I did not know if these allegations are true or not, but they have to be investigated…. It's not about prisoners. It's about us!" (Finally, someone on the GOP side of the aisle gets it – and is unafraid to admit that it has everything to do with the image of our nation and the safety of our troops.) When Stephanopoulos said it that the administration would veto action to look into the torture, McCain all but said that the completely clueless administration does not understand the importance or ramifications of the issue. The round table was, naturally, the expected amalgam of lunacy and spin. Donna Brazile started off sounding as if she was representing the DLC (better known as the Republican wing of the Democratic Party); George Will, loyal corporatist that he is, tried to undermine the argument that the drastic increase in the number of tropical storms is indeed related to global warming; David Gergen grumbled something that we couldn't quite make out (we were in the kitchen getting emergency dose of espresso), then suddenly blasted politicians and businessmen of some decades ago who had discounted the connection between cigarettes and cardiopulmonary disease. (Good for you, Dave!) Brazile brought up the disappearance of marshlands and wetlands as a result of recent hurricanes. Stephanopoulos brought up the image-making aspect to Bush's "on the road" reaction to Hurricane Rita; Gergen: "Good for him!" (There you have it — ABC doing Karl Rove's job for him.) George Will did make a silly point: George Bush's hardcore base has not abandoned him, but conservatives are bristling at Bush's call for spend, spend, spend to recover from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Brazile wondered whether New Orleans would be "back up in time for Mardi Gras." (Translation: it's the commerce and tourist trade that matters, not the city's residents.). Gergen verbally spanked Bush for implying that the problem of terrorism is Ronald Reagan's fault. Toward the end of the Roundtable, Donna Brazile brought up the issue of the invisible underclass in America — and the jarring manner in which they reasserted their presence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. With all the other hurricane blather that come from the round table, it's a crying shame that it took so long into the round table for this issue — poverty, still the shame of our nation — to even get passing mention. Oddly, the common was made in the middle of a "debate" (if you want to call it that) on the Supreme Court and nominee John Roberts. Fox News Sunday It was pretty much all-Republican, all-the-time on Fox News Sunday. The marquee guests were Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Republican Louisiana Senator David Vitter, and Bush's Katrina recovery czar general Thad Allen. We decided to take a nap. Meet the Press Tim Russert frittered away all of Meet the Press's non-panel guest time on Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. But we think he's regretting it after Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard gave the corpulent corporate political game show host a double-extra-large serving of Cajun Blackened Red-ass. More on that later. The first guest was Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, trying in vain to repeat his "all is well, and hey, we did a heckuva job" message as previously seen on it Fox News Sunday — only to be forced to concede that the explosion of a bus carrying nursing home patients amid the evacuation of the Houston area before Rita hit was an unexpected catastrophe. In fact, Tim Russert pressed it as a horror that could have been prevented. To our surprise, Russert also pressed Perry on the Houston mayor's assertion that not enough gasoline was repositioned to assure that automobile owners fleeing Houston would be able to get far enough away from hurricane Rita. Perry, predictably, called for more highways. (Viewers called for a laugh track.) Russert's second guest was Hurricane scientist Dr. Ivor van Heerden. Russert emphatically brought up the issue of a new theory concerning the flooding in New Orleans: improperly designed levees, not an overwhelming storm surge, were the underlying cause of the city's flooding. (Translation: Blame Clinton!. Blame Nagin! Blame anyone but our Dear Leader George Bush Jr.!) Heerden said that many of the levees are "highly degraded," notably the levee that adjoins St. Bernard Parish. (Translation: If you want the hookers back in New Orleans in time for the Mardi Gras, the city needs a levee Marshall Plan -- and yes, it's going to have to be paid for with federal cash.) Aaron Broussard was next, and once again provided some of the best pundit TV we've seen all year.. Tim first asked Broussard for an update on the situation and Jefferson Parish; Broussard was effusive in his praise for General Thad Allen. (In other words, Bush made a decent decision — but only after thousands were killed because the federal government – the Bush boy, Mike Chertoff, Michael Brown, the whole bunch -- completely failed to protect its citizens.) Next, Tim pointed out the "stark contrast" between Broussard's praise for the federal government today and his plea from three weeks ago (in a shallow, dismissive swipe not worthy of the press). Russert then played Broussard's tearful plea from the September 4th edition of Meet the Press (first, Broussard's angry assertion that "bureaucracy has committed murder here", followed by his tearful recounting of the drowning of a colleague's mother a few days after the hurricane, wit h promises of her rescue unfulfilled). Broussard, willing up with tears, said he had never seen that footage from Meet the Press. "You take me to a sad place when you let me hear that." Then came the prototypical Russert ambush: Tim then quoted an MSNBC article asserting that a number of "bloggers" have "questioned the validity" of Broussard's tearful story concerning the mother of an official who died of drowning in a nursing home. According to the MSNBC story, the official whose mother had died said that nobody had called nursing home. What Tim did not mention is that the "bloggers" are the notorious, oft-debunked Neofascist ideologues at Powerlie... er, excuse us, Powerline, and a third-string rightie blog called Wuzzadem. You all remember that first blog — the one that "proved" (snicker) that two controversial documents used by CBS in a report were forgeries — only to see most of the facts in their "proof" debunked as either lies or specious speculation. And why hasn't the Georgia attorney who wrote that "proof" been sanctioned by his state's bar association for posting factually-challenged horse hooey? I know, we digress... Broussard cut Russert off as he was completing his question. Here's just a little of what he said as Russert stood by in stunned silence: "Sir, this gentleman's mother died on that Friday before I came on the show. My own staff came up to me and said what happened. I had no idea his mother was in the nursing home! It was related to be by my own staff, who had tears in their eyes about what happened. I went to that man who I love very much; he collapsed like a deck of cards. I took him and put him in my hospital room with my prayer book and told him to sit there and cry out and pray away and give honor to his mother with his tears and his prayers." "Everything that was told to ...was told me by my employees. You think I would interrogate a man whose mother had just died? ... The staff told me those words! Sir, that woman is the epitome of the abandonment! She was left in the nursing home! Time will tell you that he tried to rescue her and could not get her rescued. " "Listen, sir, if somebody wants to nitpick a man's tragic loss of a mother because she was abandoned in a nursing home — are you kidding? What kind of sick mind, what kind of black hearted people want to nitpick a man's mother's death?" "What kind of agenda is going on here? Mother Nature doesn't have a political party. " "You want to come and live in this community and see the tragedy we're living in? Are you sitting there having your coffee? You're in a place where toilets flush and lights go on and everything is a dream, and you pick up your paper and you want to battle over ideology and political chess games? Man, get out of my face!" Russert tried to make excuses, saying that the bloggers and other pseudojournalists were simply "reporting what they knew" (which of course is jack squat if they didn't talk to Broussard), and that the two owners of the nursing home are now subject to the tender mercies of the justice system. Broussard: "It just got emotional for me, sir. Talk about the context of everything I said. Were we abandoned by the federal government? Absolutely! We were! ... That's for history to document. That's what Congress does best, burn witches. Let Congress do their hearings. Let them burn their witches. The media birds witches better than anybody!... I stood on the ground day after day after day. Nobody came here. Nobody came. The federal government never came. The Red Cross never came. ... I can't make it any more clear than that. Did bureaucracy commit murder here? Absolutely! It did! Congress and the media will flush it out and these people will be held accountable. You've already given and example...." "They ought to be indicted, they ought to get good old fashioned Western justice." "The Peter Principle was squared! ... Those people should be ousted. Those people should be strung up. Those people should be burned at the stake! [There was failure] at every level. This is a jigsaw puzzle, this is a mosaic, the blame will be shared by everybody. The heroic deeds will be magnified as individual stories of heroics come out from different people and agencies that did eventually come here." "If somebody wants [me] to debate them on national TV, hey, buddy, be my guest! Make my day! Put me on a podium when I get a full night's sleep." Broussard was assertive as all get-out as he totally demolished Russert — the Jefferson Parish Mayor made his point forcefully and effectively, and refused to become a victim of Russert's sleazy ambush tactics. And Russert inadvertently exposed the sloppy tactics of MSNBC: they'll gladly parrot right-wing bloggers out to smear a local official who tried his best in the face of a massive natural catastrophe, but won't even bother to contact him to get his side of the story. MSNBC's story was not journalism. It was media McCarthyism. It's time for Tim Russert, MSNBC president Rick Kaplan, NBC president Nathaniel Padilla, Wuzzadem and Powerline blog to issue a public apology to Aaron Broussard. Finally... Your McLaughlin Moment! Former Texas Gov. Bush [on video from Wednesday, 9/21/05]: Ya know something we, ahh, I've been thinking a lot about how America has responded and it's clear to me that Americans value human life and value every person as important. And that stand in stark contrast, by the way, [next clause said slowly] to the terrorists we have to deal with. You see, we look at the destruction caused by Katrina and our hearts break. They're the kind of people who look at Katrina and wish that they had caused it [dramatic pause]. We're at war against these people. It's a war.... [dramatic pause] on terror. These are evil men who target the suffering [dramatic pause]. They killed 3,000 of our people on September 11, 2001 [with an 'I'm not makin' this up' look on his face]. And they've continued to kill. John McLaughlin: Does that ring true? Larry O'Donnell: There are few Presidents in our history more lost then that. [Members of panel laugh out loud.] For him to find this desperate pathway from Katrina, from lives lost because of government mishandling of the hurricane that hit New Orleans. To get a path from there to his war on terror, and somehow link the hurricane to Al Qaeda, is as large as possible flight of mental illness as we've seen in a President. [More laughter.] Tony Blankley: Now look... Larry: There is no coherent objective to what that man said. ... Eleanor Clift: He was like a child reaching for his security blanket. Tony: Oh, lets be more respectful of the President. Larry: Why?! Eleanor: And putting everything in the framework of terrorism is the only thing that has sustained him. Except the public is now catching on, because they feel that Katrina revealed that we are less safe, that the Department of Homeland Security doesn't work, and that this President doesn't make us safer! He can't reach for the terrorism security blanket anymore! [You almost have to feel bad for Tony. On second though, you really don't. He's just another tool of the Moonies and the Bushies, and we have far more deserving individuals to pity.] | |
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