Wash Post’s Milbank Compares Obama Team to the North Vietnamese?

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During Tuesday evening’s “No Bias, No Bull” program, Washington Post national political correspondent and CNN contributor Dana Milbank implied, perhaps inadvertently, that the incoming Obama adminstration was like the North Vietnamese advancing on Saigon in 1975. Host Campbell Brown asked Milbank about the “backlog of at least 2,000 pardon applications” to the Bush administration before the president leaves office early next year, and he replied, “Yeah -- it sort of has the feeling of the last helicopter off the embassy roof in Saigon.” [audio available here]

Milibank made the remark during his regular “Political Daily Briefing” feature, which aired at the bottom half of the 8 pm Eastern hour of the CNN program. Earlier in the segment, the Post correspondent, as well as Brown, commented on Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman keeping his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Brown stated that “despite supporting John McCain, despite saying some pretty nasty things about Barack Obama on the campaign trail, Senator Joe Lieberman is going to keep his coveted chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.” Milbank agreed with this labeling of some of Lieberman’s past statements about Obama in his reply: “It’s amazing -- looks like a full amnesty for Joe Lieberman. He said some awful things about President-Elect Obama, and now he gets -- I don’t think you could even really call it a slap on the wrist there...”

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After playing a clip of Lieberman’s “very carefully-hedged mea culpa” to the Democrats, Milbank injected some commentary in response to this affair: “Well, the Democrats may look a little bit wimpy for their behavior here, but fortunately for them, the Republicans are looking no better. They met today to decide whether to kick out Ted Stevens over his felony conviction, to decide -- you know what? Let's take this up again in a couple of days.” Brown then exclaimed her reaction to the Stevens development before moving on to the presidential pardon issue: “God, it’s so cynical -- every vote counts.”

The full transcript of Milbank’s segment from Tuesday’s “No Bias, No Bull” program:

CAMPBELL BROWN: Time now for our PDB, the ‘Political Daily Briefing’ with CNN contributor Dana Milbank, national political correspondent for the Washington Post. And, Dana, after nearly two years on the campaign trail, John McCain returned to his day job today. Tell us about it.

Dana Milbank, Washington Post Correspondent | NewsBusters.orgDANA MILBANK: You know, there’s a gracious way to lose, Campbell, and then there’s then an ugly way to lose, and John McCain is pursuing the gracious way -- sort of a lovely concession speech, goes out to Chicago to see Obama, and then returns with no fanfare at all to Washington today.

Now on the flip side of that, you’ve got Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, a Republican out of Colorado. She lost her re-election bid by 12 points. It’s two weeks later now -- still hasn’t called to concede or even acknowledge that she lost the race. But I think it’s not too late. As a public service to her tonight, let’s give her the number. It's 202-224-3121. That’s the Capitol switchboard. Ask for Congresswoman-elect Betsy Markey.

BROWN: Twelve points and she's still hanging on? You got to give her a little credit for that.

MILBANK: She’s keeping hope alive.

BROWN: Today, also, Dana, it became official, but despite supporting John McCain, despite saying some pretty nasty things about Barack Obama on the campaign trail, Senator Joe Lieberman is going to keep his coveted chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

MILBANK: It’s amazing -- looks like a full amnesty for Joe Lieberman. He said some awful things about President-Elect Obama, and now he gets -- I don’t think you could even really call it a slap on the wrist there, and in fact, to thank his colleagues for keeping [him] on board, he went out and gave this very carefully-hedged mea culpa after hijacking the Democratic leader’s press conference.

SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN, CONNECTICUT: Some of the statements -- some of the things that people have said I said about Senator Obama are simply not true. There are other statements that I made that I wish I had made more clearly. And there are some that I made that I wish I had not made at all. And obviously, in the heat of the campaigns, that happens to all of us, but I regret that, and now, it's time to move on.

MILBANK: Well, the Democrats may look a little bit wimpy for their behavior here, but fortunately for them, the Republicans are looking no better. They met today to decide whether to kick out Ted Stevens over his felony conviction, to decide -- you know what? Let's take this up again in a couple of days.

BROWN: God, it’s so cynical -- every vote counts. And finally, the story that caught a lot of our eye. So many convicted felons who want to be pardoned by President Bush before he leaves office -- there’s apparently a backlog of at least 2,000 pardon applications.

MILBANK: Yeah -- it sort of has the feeling of the last helicopter off the embassy roof in Saigon.

(Brown laughs.)

MILBANK: There are 2,300 people quite literally begging the president's pardon right now. This is the most in more than 100 years. We've got everybody from the former congressman, Duke Cunningham to John Walker Lindh. Interestingly, not yet Scooter Libby, not yet Ted Stevens -- still time for them though. And there’s also talk that maybe the president would just want to sort of get everything out of the way, give everybody in his administration a blanket preemptive pardon.

BROWN: All right. Dana Milbank for us tonight. Dana, thanks.

MILBANK: Thanks, Campbell.

—Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.


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The more things

The more things change...the more they stay the same.

This so called change O was going to bring is nothing but a flat out lie...we have the regular slime from the past Clinton team being inserted in the O team, big time. 

The wimpy politicians stay the same...

The msm stays the same.

Same ol'...same ol'. 

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

Dana Milbank has it

Dana Milbank has it slightly backwards, but in general, he's on to something. The incoming Obama administration is very much like the Communist North swarming into the South to spread it's glorious suppression to all. Scary stuff!

American Communist Education - Special Edition w/Video

 

 Making Fun of AGW http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/  

Ct, my thoughts exactly.

I think Uncle Ho, were he alive today would recognize, not to mention approve of, much of what Comrade Obama's cabinet will be working towards.

Scary, indeed.

-Dave

Did this country just elect Obama/Biden, or was it Soros/Ayers?

Milbank has

it exactly correct. The Communists are coming and the last chopper had better get off the ground ASAP!

He has blurted out the truth by mistake as he makes his apt comparrison.

OMG

Look at who is coming back with SOBama and company. "Exactly", may be too much to give Milbank but he was pretty darn close to exact.

glub glub glub 

 

Right you are Delsa...like

Right you are Delsa...like I heard somewhere...DC is like cockroach motel...they never leave DC like they are supposed to when done serving...they stay and corrupt...we get the Clintonistas all over again...unbelievable the leftist in the msm is happy about this when they screeched daily he would bring fresh change...where are the leftist people who voted for him for the same reason, that is all they could give for an answer on the street of why they were voting for him, he will bring change...

What CHANGE!?

What dummies, what a joke...all of this..we are so forked.

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

no, no bigtimer

delsa is completely right on.

Milbank is totally prescient. This IS the 'change' the Obomination promised. We are going to go from a lively, (mostly) capitalistic Republic to The Peoples Republic of America. The tanks (Madeleine Halfbright, Jennifer Granholm, etc.) are right on the outskirts of Saigon (D.C.). They'll roll into town Jan. 20th. The VC (Pelosi, Reid, etc.) are already in position. The piles of bodies, both figurative and real, will slowly but surely start piling up thereafter.

My one great hope is that this is Tet and not The Fall of Saigon. We slaughtered them at Tet. If the p***ies in Congress hadn't cut and run The Fall would not have happened. If this is 'Tet', one can only hope the GOP is so reformed by then that they don't do a 'Congress' on us and roll over and let the 'North' march back in.

Hey wizard...I was agreeing

Hey wizard...I was agreeing with Delsa...and now you too.

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

sorry...

didn't mean that to seem like a slam bigtimer, just an add-on about how parallel the metaphor is

 ;-))

Hey wizard...no

Hey wizard...no worries...just wanted to make sure and clarify, just in case...   ;-)

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

Yo..Big and Wiz

lol

You two are GREAT

Hey Delsa... Right back

Hey Delsa...

Right back atcha'!

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

its not the fall to fear its

its not the fall to fear its the purge that follows a comunist takeover. millons were killed folowing our pull out and it continued till he late into the carter years.

got that right

I can't wait for the reeducation camps (see Bill Ayers comments),

but wait... aren't those currently called 'higher education' right now?

bow to the lepper messiah 

bow to the lepper messiah 

What is really ironic

Is the Vietnamese had to invade Cambodia to stop the killing by Pol Pot. I also blame the thousands of deaths of Vietnamese on our lefty Democratic Congress and press at the time. But to be fair RMN helped too as politics trumped honor and committment to an ally. 

"...no civilization, no matter how rich, no matter how refined, can long survive once it loses the power to meet force with equal or superior force." - Bernard Knox

a conundrum

since obama's inexperienced, he obviously needs experienced help. simple huh. so he lets the clintons and there stooges  in the door. big mistake, now the only people he has to turn to he can't really trust as to their allegience.the clintons really gave all these people their entree to power in washington. they'll undercut him at every chance. they are still pissed about the election. bill clinton called obama a chicago thug for some of the primary shenanigans he pulled in so. carolina.  he has no idea who he's fooling with.... 

Hi tm... I don't know

Hi tm...

I don't know about that...I think he does know who he is messing with, so does the machine behind him.

This is planned in my opinion for a lot of reasons...we shall see what happens, it is the only interesting thing that is going to happen in the ensuing years.

Just remember Soros too...in all of the players involved...including the power of the msm/internet...talk radio to come if they can control that too.

"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh

tonemeister... Yeah

tonemeister...

Yeah but... we now have change, right?

Seems to me that comrade Obama lied to his followers. He never used the correct term while he was running. He kept using "Change" when he meant to say "Change Back to the good old days of Clinton and his stooges". Probably would not fit on a bumper sticker.

Teach Your Children Well

 

 Making Fun of AGW http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/  

yeah somthing along the line

yeah somthing along the line dont vote for her I stole her blakberry and got all her freinds numbers.or change to the real first black pres same clinton people new black additude one more hope you dont realize we just went backwards

if you ever get tired of the truth

engage in fantasy, read some of the comments left by people on the cnn.com site. some shall we be nice and say "disturbed" and ill informed.  and, not suprisingly all suspiciously worded in a very similar fashion.  hhmmm. 

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