Ed Schultz Trashes Paul Ryan, Says Liberal Grandma-Off-the-Cliff Ad Is 'Very Effective and Is Truthful'

May 21st, 2011 7:15 PM

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz came out of the gate lunging at Congressman Paul Ryan on Thursday night, insisting the ridiculous online ad with a Ryan-like figure throwing a grandma off a cliff was "very effective and is truthful." Obama-defender Schultz was also shameless enough to suggest "this kid" Ryan has no business experience: "He’s never run a business. He never had to meet payroll." As if Obama did!

Schultz praised the "great move by Harry Reid" to have a Senate vote on the Ryan plan to make Republicans "look like fools." MSNBC never liked Palin tweets about "death panels," but they love video of a young Republican man throwing Grandma to her death off a cliff. Schultz displayed the ad for his liberal audience:

Mitch McConnell and his obstructionist buddies in the Senate know Democrats have them backed right into a corner on this radical budget. Senate Republicans have had no problem being in lock step for a record number of filibusters over the last two years, but none of them want to face a web ad like this one. [Brief ad clip of Grandma being dumped to her death.]

They don`t want to go home to that. [Smiling] They don`t want to go home to that and say, 'Well, gosh. Senator so and so, conservative, voted to put grandma right on over the cliff.'

See? Republicans, it works both ways. You say we were going to pull the plug on Grandma. Well, you're ready to take a vote that might throw her right off the cliff. That is very effective and it is truthful. 

Like the standard liberal, Schultz proclaimed Medicare was a life and death issue. Democrats favor life, and Republicans favor death. It doesn't matter if Medicare denies more procedures than any private insurer. As usual, with liberals, it's the good intentions that count, not the facts:

SCHULTZ: Senate Democrats and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a press conference earlier today, along with Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who read a letter from one of his constituents that clearly laid out really what is at stake.

SEN. SHERROD BROWN: Terry from Perry County, a southeast Ohio county, wrote, "Without Medicare, my husband would probably die. His medicines alone are $700 a month, not to mention the $50 for an office visit. We live on $1,300 a month. We thought our twilight years would be better than this. Please, we just want to have at least one meal a day every day of the month. We just want my husband`s Medicare to stay the same."

SCHULTZ: So, you see the Republicans have got a big decision to make. Whose side do they want to be on? If the Ryan budget passes, it will be life or death for millions of Americans. That's how I heard Sherrod Brown. 

Schultz then turned to Wisconsin-based radical writer John Nichols of The Nation for some testimony from the far left that Ryan is damaged goods politically:

NICHOLS But this year, they bought into this Ryan fantasy. The fact of the matter is that Paul Ryan has damaged himself as a national figure, even within his own party.

SCHULTZ: Yes.

NICHOLS: You know Republicans are going to be more cautious about listening to him from here on out. But he's also damaged at home in Wisconsin. Those town meetings were rough events and he now faces a very serious challenge, something he hasn`t seen in years.

SCHULTZ: Well, I think it's interesting that the Republicans are trotting this kid out there. He's in his early 40s. He's never run a business. He's never had to meet payroll. Yet, he seems to have all the answers for the social engineering. That is exactly what Newt Gingrich is talking about, and he offers up a radical plan and he doesn't know the ramifications of it.

He knows in the Congress, as long as he's been there, and what kind of career he has that he's never going to have to worry about health care. He's never going to have to worry about pension. He comes from safe territory with a very radical plan.

Schultz also worked in a few seconds to praise Katie Couric after her last newscast, citing of course the Sarah Palin interview: "Katie Couric, a very unique talent. She has the ability to ask the very basic questions and still stump the guest."