Did someone make this "Declare Your Devotion To a Dem Day" at MSNBC? You have to wonder. During the network's noon hour, Dr. Nancy Snyderman declared herself a "big fan" of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Not to be outdone, during the following hour Andrea Mitchell ended her interview with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Ia.) by thanking him profusely—and I mean at length—for having pushed through passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act 19 years ago today.Dr. Nancy let us know she's a member of the Sebelius Fan Club while chatting with Sarah Baldauf of US News and World Report [it apparently still exists] about an "obesity conference" happening today in DC [please read this item on your iPhone while jogging]. Sebelius rolled out a multi-point federal plan to deal with obesity that included "get fresh produce into low income neighborhoods and make it affordable." Right. We've got to break down those police roadblocks preventing fresh produce from getting into the barrio.
In any case, here was the exchange.
SARAH BALDAUF: She [Sebelius] said HHS is back [tranlation: after the Dark Ages of The Last Eight Years] and they have a plan.
NANCY SNYDERMAN: You know, I think she is really taking on, she is really biting off a lot of things, and I'm a big fan of Kathleen Sebelius.
During the following MSNBC hour, it was Andrea's turn. Harkin appeared to discuss the fate of the health care legislation. He apparently believes the so-called "public option" still has a pulse. Whatever. At the end of the interview, Mitchell went on—and on—praising Harkin for having pushed the American Disabilities Act through yea those 19 years ago. At the very end, Mitchell gushed: "you've changed the face of America and we want to thank you."
You might think ADA is a good thing. Those with a libertarian bent, like the folks at the Cato Institute, do not, persuasively making the case it's hurt the very people it was supposed to help.
In any case, is it the role of Mitchell, putatively a "correspondent" and not a pundit, to be thanking partisan politicians like Harkin and praising a controversial, litigation-spawning piece of legislation like the ADA?
Snyderman and Mitchell have set the Dem sycophancy bar high. But the day is still young. Who knows what MSNBC's evening crew will come up with when it comes to lavishing praise on the party in power? Stay tuned!
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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Ya know, since I fall down go boom...
July 28, 2009 - 16:38 ET by Iowa Boy...my opinion of the ADA did a complete 180. Curbs are a real pain in the patootie and those curb cuts make it easier for me to get around. Also, wide handicapped parking makes it much less exhausting to get in and out of my van and unload my wheelchair. The ADA made that possible, so I'm gonna give Sen. Harkin props on that. Doesn't mean I will EVER vote for him. I'm just saying.
"Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." Official Motto of the State of Iowa
Curb cuts: good ADA
July 28, 2009 - 16:57 ET by Chris NormanCurb cuts: good
ADA opening up opportunities for shysters to shake down and sue well-intentioned business owners and put them out of business: bad.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
After Listening to Dr. Nancy ...
July 28, 2009 - 18:01 ET by allanfexpress her jealously over Rawandan universal health coverage, I began to wonder why the call Sarah Palin a bimbo. Now I learn Dr. Nancy admires a coal plant killing leftist from Kansas.
I hope Dr. Nancy does not practice medicine.
The ADA was a great idea
July 28, 2009 - 18:37 ET by motherbeltThe ADA was a great idea that unfortunately got dragged about a hundred miles past what it was supposed to do. My husband uses a walker, sometimes a w/c and we both appreciate knowing that we can go places and do things together.
But the things that have been labeled "disabilities" and the resulting "accomodations" required of employers have gotten completely out of hand.
We've gone from the line
July 28, 2009 - 16:55 ET by Chris NormanWe've gone from the line between opinion and journalism eroding, to the line being completely gone, to journalism dissolving leaving only opinion, and, now, the opinion is morphing into outright adulation of liberals and open hatred of conservatives. I suppose the only thing left is to give these propagandists guns with which to shoot conservatives.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Chris... That's about
July 28, 2009 - 17:30 ET by bigtimerChris...
That's about what it's boiled down to.
I never thought the majority of the msm of all venues could get much worse a few years back...boy oh boy was I ever wrong...these leftist just about run the party in many ways, sure they have the backroom talking points, and many other things, like Soros for just one example, but you know what I mean...all inter-connected, and if the leftist msm doesn't get what they want from congress, they let them know daily, 24/7, I have never seen anything like what it is now.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
The Perfect Storm
July 28, 2009 - 17:39 ET by Chris Normanbt,
The "journalists" now feel free to brazenly show their liberalism and, in the meantime, their networks have hired loud mouthed far-left liberal non-journalists to replace the old mushily liberal hosts. I knew it would head in this direction, but it has happened faster than anyone would have ever predicted. To call what they have created "the news" is just bitterly laughable.
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Geesh...that sixty seconds
July 28, 2009 - 17:36 ET by bigtimerGeesh...that sixty seconds of Andrea/Tom was painful to listen to.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
I didn't know having a face
July 28, 2009 - 17:43 ET by fitzfongI didn't know having a face loaded with botox and collagen constituted a "disability"...but given what passes for Andrea Mitchell's "work", I'm inclined to believe it.
"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered." -George Best
ADA Sham
July 29, 2009 - 16:04 ET by River CityAs the mother of a deaf son I can tell you it is worthless for the handicapped person. He was denied countless jobs because of his deafness. What is he supposed to do? How does he prove it. As soon as he applies they know he is deaf. He signs and can't hear! One company was even so bold as to offer him the job and then when he moved to the town and reported to work on his start date the HR person said "I'm sorry we don't have a job for you any more." From what I was able to put together on that one (I know people there) the department manager found out he was deaf and told the HR person no way, no how. This was a warehouse job.
The ADA is something used to hammer business but not used to really open the doors to employment. Tom Harkin is under some huge delusion he helped people. He did not. He made it worse.
"Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind." Ayn Rand