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Former Democrat Congressman Scolds NBC's Andrea Mitchell for Defending Obama on Meet the Press

By Noel Sheppard | October 23, 2011 | 15:05

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During the roundtable segment on Sunday's Meet the Press, NBC's Andrea Mitchell typically acted as Barack Obama's press secretary defending the President from any and all criticism lodged by other panelists.

Apparently having witnessed enough shameless advocacy from a so-called journalist, when Mitchell used the Occupy Wall Street movement to defend Obama's economic policies, former Democratic Congressman Harold Ford Jr. replied, "He's the President. Democrats can't criticize Republicans for catering to the Tea Party and not be, and not say to our Democratic Party you got to look beyond Occupy and be willing to do what's in the best interest of the country" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

DAVID GREGORY, HOST: Harold Ford, it was none other than Steve Jobs in the new biography by Walter Isaacson who, who writes about him meeting with Obama, and this is how The Huffington Post reported it. Jobs telling Obama "`You're headed for a one-term presidency,' he said at their meeting, insisting that the administration needed to be more business-friendly." This is still the, the overhang they have to deal with.

FMR. DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN HAROLD FORD JR.: Look, their posture has been really bad. Their policies have not been nearly as bad. If you think about the beginning of his administration, people thought that he would pass card check, and there was great angst, concern and anxiety in the business community, particularly the retail community. He didn't do it. He's been...

FORMER GENERAL ELECTRIC CEO JACK WELCH: Tragic.

FMR. REP. FORD JR.: Right. Well, he didn't do it. The congressmen tried, but he didn't do it, and it didn't get, it didn't get done. Cars, banks, financial institutions, he's been great. The EPA regulations he's backed off on. But the posture and the language and the rhetoric has been just too overheated. And to, to Mr. Welch's point, you can't, you can't incentivize the type of things that he, that they incentivized in this bill. Two, you have huge balance sheets on the part of corporate America, meaning they're making money. You got to incentivize them, as the president has asked, to use that money to stimulate job creation. There's a way to do it, if you have some certainty around regulations and taxes.

ANDREA MITCHELL: How does he follow that...

FMR. REP. FORD JR.: And two, you've got 1.2, maybe 1.3 trillion sitting overseas.

MR. WELCH: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

FMR. REP. FORD JR.: Allow that money to come back. But...

MS. MITCHELL: With Occupy Wall Street, how does he take that posture?

FMR. REP. FORD JR.: He's the President, Andrea. He's the President.

MS. MITCHELL: He's caught between two polar opposites.

FMR. REP. FORD JR.: We Democrats, we Democrats can't criticize Republicans for catering to the Tea Party and not be, and not say to our Democratic Party you got to look beyond Occupy and be willing to do what's in the best interest of the country.

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

Readers are encouraged to review the video of the entire fourteen minute segment to see additional instances of Mitchell acting more like Obama's press secretary than a journalist.

As for Ford, it's nice to see there are still some Democrats that are willing to honestly discuss what's going on in the country without regard to Party.

If only folks like Mitchell and her colleagues in the press behaved that way.

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Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Click here to follow Noel Sheppard on Twitter.
  • 2012 Presidential
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Comments

Nina Totenberg to The Hammer

Submitted by ThePickle on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 3:17pm.

Nina Totenberg says to The Hammer "Don't make me the White House Spokesperson!"

Andrea Mitchell jumps up and squeals "I'LL DO IT!"

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Well Played!

Submitted by NC Boy on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 3:45pm.

Good one, Pickle!

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You forgot the "Ooh, Ooh!!"

Submitted by motherbelt on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 3:54pm.

You forgot the "Ooh, Ooh!!" in the Horshack voice.

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I refuse to acknowledge that

Submitted by ThePickle on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 4:36pm.

I refuse to acknowledge that I am familiar with that reference, as it would tend to reveal the fact that I far older than my witty banter and winning smile would tend to indicate. :)

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HA!

Submitted by fishwaltz on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 5:06pm.

Brilliant!!

Wait... did I just call a Pickle brilliant? Well, you deserved it... have a pickle, um... never mind.

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HA!

Submitted by fishwaltz on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 5:06pm.

Brilliant!!

Wait... did I just call a Pickle brilliant? Well, you deserved it... have a pickle, um... never mind.

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Having used this moniker on

Submitted by ThePickle on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 5:31pm.

Having used this moniker on the Internet for well over 14 years I continue to find people's reaction to my handle endlessly amusing.

Interestingly enough the name actually came out of the mouth of an unknown comic performing at a little club in Vegas where I met my future wife for the first time. He was an opening act and made the joke that being an opening act, he sometimes felt like "The Pickle" on a deli plate.

It stuck me as particularly funny and as such it wasn't long until the digital incarnation of ThePickle made his way into the hearts and minds of the masses via the all knowing all seeing eye of the Internet, and like the pickle on a deli plate, while not everyone likes it, they all notice when its not there.

:)

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MSM party

Submitted by deadeyedan on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 3:28pm.

The lamestream media has often been criticized as being partial to leftists.

That's wrong; they ARE the leftists.

Andrea Mitchell is just like 'em; a strait-jacketed forty gallons of starch stuffed-shirted dogmatically entrenched pillar of inflexible stone.

LIBERALISM - government of the people by the theories and for the ideologists

GLOBAL WARMING - authoritarian, rather than authoritative, science

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Representative Ford

Submitted by LinTaylor on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 3:43pm.

I may disagree with your politics, sir, but I respect the fact that you're thinking of what's best for the country and not for your own self interests.

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Way2Go Rep. Ford!

Submitted by Annie Ashe Fields on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 4:10pm.

I heartily agree!

I saw the segment you describe and kept having to stop what I was doing to really pay attention because it was so damned refreshing to hear a Democrat with integrity!

Unlike snarky MSNBC progressives, I will NOT insult him by saying "Yeah! Well, you didn't say that when George W. Bush was President" I will merely open my hand in friendship to him, and say:

Welcome aboard Congressman! THANK you for speaking the TRUTH!

www.saltusa.com
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I think he's what a D

Submitted by amyshulk on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 7:33pm.

I think he's what a D *really* looks/acts/talks like - who knew???

The government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Ronald Reagan
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Not sure

Submitted by Denny Crane on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 1:39am.

But maybe that's why he is a former congressman?

Be on the lookout for random acts of journalism from the MSM~h/t Rush

We Are The 53%

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Reasonable Democrats seem to be few and far between.

Submitted by Phryj1 on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 4:24pm.

And by reasonable, I mean those that don't completely and totally hate conservatism. Reid, Pelosi, and a whole cadre of far-left interests have made the bulk of the Democrat Party overtly hostile towards conservatism. In fact, the only common thread among these interests is their mutual disdain for conservatives.

Progressives seem to be completely averse to facts and logic. Apparently, reality has a conservative bias.

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She is....

Submitted by Aubrey on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 4:47pm.

such an annoying obnoxious leftist. Just terrible.

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Ford jr

Submitted by stan25 on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 5:06pm.

He just lost his key to the DemocRAT washroom

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Ford is admitting

Submitted by Ashrak on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 5:10pm.

that Barry didn't do the things he said he was going to do.

Ford basically admits that Barry told lie after lie after lie. Sure, he frames it as "rhetoric" but he in the end, it is what it is.

Some Democrats know full well that they, as a party, had total control of government for the better part of two years and the only thing they did was spend spend spend spend on pork to special interests.

Hillary said this morning that Barry vindicated the Bush Policy and agreement made in Iraq. Interestingly, she calls that leadership - and praises following as if it is leadership. And that is not even to mention that Barry campaigned on just the opposite policy and against that agreement.

It is just as I said it would be. Opposition cannot lead. It may well have won a couple elections, but, as is self evident today, Barry in the White House and Democrats in Majority is...

One
Big
A$$
Mistake
America.

That an individual right exists requires that some policy positions be removed from the table of debate.
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"We Democrats"

Submitted by Chris Norman on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 6:26pm.

FMR. REP. FORD JR.: We Democrats, we Democrats can't criticize Republicans for catering to the Tea Party

By, "we Democrats", I assume he's including Andrea Mitchell and David Gregory. Of course he is...

Let's make the 2012 campaign: "The War on Error"
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“catering to the Tea Party”?

Submitted by needle on Sun, 10/23/2011 - 8:56pm.

By “catering to the Tea Party“ does that mean a few head fakes in the direction of fiscal responsibility?

Yeah, I guess you can “accuse” the Republican of that. One thing is absolutely for sure: You cannot accuse the Dems of fiscal responsibility evah!

- Looking forward to the self-annihilation of the Manipulated Stories Machine.

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Tales from the crypt

Submitted by Tomorama on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 9:15am.

Ms Mitchell is just doing her part to make sure the score is "evened" for the President who is getting such harsher press than the Republican candidates.................

Was it noted that that "survey" purposely omitted ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, PBS, etc etc etc?

I am sure not.

But the survey was sure applauded.

If you make poverty easy, you will have more of it. Benjamin Franklin
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