Mark Finkelstein's blog

Melissa Harris-Perry might have set a new world record in the use of euphemism to avoid calling abortion by its name.

The Tulane professor, soon to be a host of her own MSNBC show, used a string of politically-correct evasions to say anything but the a-word during her appearance on Al Sharpton's show this evening.  It came in the context of discussing the Komen Foundation's cave on funding Planned Parenthood. Video after the jump.

Whatever happened to the good old days, when the MSM glorified "speaking truth to power"?  We all know the answer: that epoch ended on January 20, 2009.

Nowadays, opposing power, particularly in the person of the president, far from being something to be praised, is downright illegitimate in some liberal media eyes.  Take the latest "Lean Forward" promo by MSNBC, in which Ed Schultz actually claims that those "standing up to the president" are nothing but "bullies."  Video after the jump.

Howard Dean: "I need to take you on a tour of America's public schools; that's what I need to do." Joe Scarborough: "I've been fighting for education reform for a generation, and every time we've tried to reform schools . . . it was the Democratic party on the House floor and on the Senate floor and in the White House that stood in the way. I do not need lectures from you on education reform."

And that was the polite part of the exchange! But seriously, Joe Scarborough and Howard Dean had a big-time brawl on today's Morning Joe on the subject of education reform.  Dean defended teachers unions and their Dem lackeys, while Scarborough, who has made education reform a theme of his show, denounced the Dem-union cabal that has thwarted real reform every step of the way.  Video after the jump.

It's one thing for Al Sharpton to spout racialized politics on his MSNBC show every evening.  It's even another when one of his guests attacks Mitt Romney with the lamest of Rosa Parks/racism analogies.

But when MSNBC itself produces a promo featuring Sharpton lumping Republican tax policy with the racism that kept blacks in the back of the bus and denied women the vote, the network has taken a very ugly turn.  Yet that's just what the latest "Lean Forward" Sharpton promo does. Video after the jump.

Rick Santorum to John Heilemann [and by extension to MSM at large] on today's Morning Joe: "it's your responsibility to defend the president, not mine." Ouch! If Newt's deft dicing of John King and Juan Williams paid huge electoral dividends, Santorum might anticipate a much-needed bump after running roughshod over the New York mag reporter.

Heilemann had called on Santorum to explain his failure to correct a woman at a town hall meeting in Florida yesterday who said President Obama was an "avowed Muslim" and legally unqualified to be president. After noting that he has repeatedly been on the record saying that he doesn't believe PBO is a Muslim and recognizes that he is legally qualified to be president, Santorum said that he chose not to chastise an elderly and infirm lady.  Then came Santorum's grand slam, as set forth above.  Heilemann only dug himself deeper when he responded by saying that prez candidate McCain had always defended Obama on the campaign trail. Video after the jump.

Of all the Morning Joe regulars, I find Harold Ford, Jr. the least interesting.  Ever on the lookout for his next opportunity, the fiercely ambitious Ford is firmly of the "my good friend" so-and-so school of politics, constantly hedging his bets and finding a way to praise or agree with virtually everyone.  

So it was an exception this morning when the former Dem congressman from Tennessee actually said something of note, if only for its sheer silliness.  Ford somehow managed to maintain a straight face while claiming the media doesn't strongly favor Barack Obama.  Video after the jump.

There are few things the liberal media like more than a Republican renegade.  David Stockman has made a career out of strutting his independence from the GOP.  So little surprise that he was an honored guest on this morning's Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

That Stockman repaid his hosts by attacking Republicans was utterly predictable.  Even so, the absurdity of Stockman's particular assertion was breathtaking.  The former Reagan budget director actually claimed that the notion of American exceptionalism, a focus of Newt Gingrich's campaign, is nothing less than . . . "neo-con code" for an aggressive foreign policy.  Video after the jump.

Given the abundance of options at the network, it's saying something to name Martin Bashir as the most noisome of MSNBC hosts.  But so he is, in my book.

Witness the low stunt Bashir pulled to open his show today, on the afternoon of the South Carolina primary.  Bashir superimposed photos of the Republican candidates in front of a Confederate flag image.  Lest their be any doubt as to the message Bashir meant to send, the screen graphic read "Rebel Yell."  Oh those racist Republicans.  Video after the jump.

We'll leave it to others to assess the political fallout from Mitt Romney's statement yesterday that he paid about 15% in federal income taxes.  But let's at least get some facts straight.

On Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough claimed that the revelations about Mitt Romney's taxes might be his Dukakis-in-the-tank moment.  Scarborough repeated the shibboleth Warren Buffett put into circulation that at 15%, the super-rich like Romney pay a lower tax rate than secretaries. But is that so? Running the numbers suggest otherwise.  See video and analysis after the jump.

On Sunday, top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett used the pulpit of Martin Luther King Jr.'s old church in Atlanta to launch a partisan political attack, calling out Republicans for refusing to support another Obama spending scheme.

Jarrett appeared on today's Morning Joe.  Mika Brzezinski broached the subject of Jarrett's in-church remarks.  But instead of questioning the propriety of using the pulpit for such partisan purposes, Brzezinski simply offered Jarrett an opportunity to repeat her attack on Republicans. But Joe Scarborough then pointed out the huge MSM double standard—observing how the New York Times and Washington Post would have been whining about the "sacred wall" between church and state had a Republican gone into an evangelical church to criticize Dems.  Video after the jump.

Tuning in Morning Joe today, I half expected to discover on the set some professional mourners imported from North Korea, keening and crying over the political demise of Jon Huntsman.

Huntsman had had the Morning Joe crowd from hello.  The overwhelming winner of the bien-pensant MSM primary was amazingly popular—except with actual Republican voters, who didn't dig his moderate positioning and a tone that some found . . . well, how do you say "supercilious" in Mandarin?  Taking today's cake was Joe Scarborough finding Huntsman's "moderate temperament" Reaganesque, and claiming that in rejecting Huntsman, Republicans have "turned their backs" on Ronald Reagan.  Video after the jump.

Joe Scarborough said it about Rick Perry, but it could perhaps have applied to other Republican presidential contenders who are going after Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital.

On Morning Joe today, discussing Perry's depiction of venture capitalists like Romney as "vultures," Scarborough said that the Texas governor: "sounds like a stoned NYU grad student in Zuccotti Park."  Video after the jump.

Was it another slip of the tongue by the Reverend Resist We Much,"  or an intentional playing of the race card?

You be the judge.  On his MSNBC show this evening, Al Sharpton claimed "the Republican party has been in a mad rush to its extreme white wing." Video after the jump.

It's hard to imagine the media rooting, even "cheering" for a social conservative like Rick Santorum.  But two certified MSMers claim that Santorum does have the potential to attract such unlikely support.

On today's Morning Joe, Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, co-authors of the best-selling Game Change about the 2008 election, both opined that Santorum, given his appealing blue-collar background—and if he can avoid getting prickly with the press—could indeed find the media rooting for him.  Video after the jump.

The folks at Politico take umbrage when accused of leaning left. But once again, the site's headlines give away Politico's Dem-friendly game.

Compare these contrasting gems from today's edition, the first dismissing the GOP contenders as mediocre, the other using the old "rested and ready" cliché to describe President Obama as the campaign season begins in earnest:  

Some are sanguine about Mitt Romney's chances of wrapping up the nomination if he wins Iowa and New Hampshire—but Joe Scarborough's  prediction in such case was nothing short of sanguinary.  

On Morning Joe today, Scarborough predicted "there will be blood" among conservatives if they see Romney cruising to the nomination.  Video after the jump.

Twenty-four years ago, Los Angeles Dodgers VP Al Campanis was forced to resign his position for saying on national TV that blacks lack "the necessities" to be baseball managers and executives.  

On today's Hardball, Chris Matthews was so enjoying himself mocking Rick Perry's intelligence, that he decided to use a slightly mangled version of the same line on the Texas governor. Video after the jump.

Has Andrea Mitchell appointed herself hall monitor of the 2012 elections?  On her MSNBC show today, Mitchell asked Mitt Romney whether he had "an apology to make to the voters" for the negative ads against Newt Gingrich being run by Romney-friendly Super PACs.

For good measure, Mitchell scolded: "is that the kind of campaign you want to run: a negative campaign?" Video after the jump.

Joe Klein waited till the very end of 2011, but has managed to make a strong bid for Most Asinine Assertion of the Year.

Appearing on Morning Joe today, Klein claimed that Iran's interest in getting nukes would "just be to deter Israel" and Pakistan.  Certainly when it comes to Israel, this has to be among the most hideous instances of blaming the victim in recent memory.  Video after the jump.

Is Ed Schultz's expression of respect for Rick Santorum a Machiavellian maneuver designed to sow chaos in the Republican field?  I actually don't think so.  

Watching the MSNBC host in action this evening, I got the sense that Schultz, out on the Iowa campaign trail with Santorum, came away with a sincere respect for the former Pennsylvania senator, calling him "impressive" among other things.  Watch the video after the jump and be the judge.

Welcoming Chris Christie onto the set of Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough warned Mika Brzezinski that the New Jersey governor "has come to straighten you out."

Christie was good to Scarborough's word, bluntly telling Mika, among other things, that "you're diving deeply into the Obama tank."  Video after the jump.

Somebody check the calendar.  Aren't we almost in 2012? Yet there's Kathleen Parker on Chris Matthews's weekend show today, still gushing over Barack Obama like a member of the liberal media in the deepest throes of 2008 Obama-adulation.

After extolling Obama's foreign policy approach as "cool" [mangling a basketball metaphor along the way], Parker defiantly declared: "I know everybody's going to say [I'm] an Obama lover.  Whatever." Video after the jump.

Christopher Hitchens, RIP, would likely have loved the rough-and-tumble of today's Morning Joe.  The first half-hour was a jolting fix for political junkies.  

If the goring of Newt Gingrich was predictable, there was much that was not.  Michelle Bachmann's debate performance was roundly praised.  Lefty Jeff Sachs put himself to Ron Paul's right on the Iranian threat.  Joe Scarborough and Donny Deutsch reported that normally-Dem New York CEOs have deserted Obama en masse.  Video after the jump.

Q. How do you know when MSNBC has sunk to unimaginable depths of Dem-partisan hackery? A. When even Al Sharpton renounces it.  

On his MSNBC show this evening, Sharpton said the network was right to apologize for the smear MSNBC host Thomas Roberts perpetrated against Mitt Romney earlier in the day, when Roberts suggested Romney had borrowed a campaign slogan from the Ku Klux Klan. Video after the jump.