George Pataki

How about that, it was actually mentioned on MSNBC last night that President Obama responded to the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi ... by winging to a fundraising "jaunt" in Vegas the following day.

Of course, the awkward fact that Obama did this wasn't cited by one of his innumerable apologists at America's cable version of Pravda. Instead, it came from a Republican acting as surrogate for Mitt Romney after the third and final presidential debate. (video after page break)

The Republican convention was delayed by a day on Monday. It’s not a problem: the national media’s pre-convention spin was timed perfectly, almost as if it was on automatic pilot. In Monday’s New York Times, longtime political writer Adam Nagourney regurgitated the same old, tired political spin that the Republican Party is too conservative and exclusionary on “social issues,” and that their divisive stands will hurt them with “mainstream” voters.

1976. 1980. 1984. 1988. 1992. 1996. 2000. 2004. 2008. Will they ever stop saying this?

 

MSNBC Morning Joe contributor Mike Barnicle repeated the Democrat mantra that repealing Republican tax cuts doesn't constitute a tax increase that he also spouted yesterday on Morning Joe. "The idea that reverting back to a tax rate that existed that people paid into, calling it now a tax increase, I just think that's politics at its worst," said Barnicle.

On Wednesday's Rick's List, CNN's Rick Sanchez tried to connect the overwhelming opposition to the planned Ground Zero mosque to a Florida pastor's "Burn a Koran Day" event. Sanchez asked former New York Governor George Pataki, "Do you feel in any way that some of this backlash...led by some fine gentlemen like yourself...has kind of paved the way for that controversy, and if so, do you feel guilty at all?" [audio clip available here]

Sanchez interviewed Pataki during the prime time edition of his program. Just before the bottom of the 8 pm Eastern hour, the anchor raised Pastor Terry Jones's planned inflammatory protest: "Let me ask you one final question, if I possibly can. There's this new hullabaloo going on in Gainesville, Florida, with this pastor who wants to literally burn Korans. And now, we're getting protests in Afghanistan- our generals are saying this guy's going to get our troops killed."

Former New York Governor George Pataki on Wednesday got into a heated discussion with Chris Matthews over the Ground Zero mosque and the Republican opposition to it.

In the middle of his second "Hardball" segment on MSNBC, Matthews played a clip of Rush Limbaugh saying on the radio earlier in the day, "If this is a nation that is Islamophobic, how do we elect a man whose name is Barack Hussein Obama?"

This led Matthews to ask his guest, "What do you think of guys that keep putting out lies like that?"

Over the course of the next five minutes, Pataki basically took over the show not only putting Matthews in his place, but also doing the same to his other guest, Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CNN's Rick Sanchez bizarrely wondered on Tuesday's Rick List whether investigating the funding behind the planned mosque near Ground Zero would lead to investigations into Catholic and/or Mormon funding: "If you start going into who is giving money...you've got to go to Rome and start asking where the money is going into Rome....and you have to go the Mormons and ask...what are they doing with their money? [audio clips available here]

Sanchez posed that vaguely morally relativistic question as he interviewed former New York Governor George Pataki during the prime-time edition of his program 14 minutes into the 8 pm Eastern hour. Before bringing on his guest, the CNN anchor inquired whether the opponents of the proposed Islamic center/mosque had become extreme: "Are those against this Islamic center/mosque in New York City going too far these days? I want to you decide as you look at this new ad that's going to be running on city buses in New York. On one side, as you look at this, you will see that there's a picture of a mosque- on the other side, a shot of a plane that's slamming into the Twin Towers, and it poses this question: why there? The ad is being sponsored by a group that's called The American Freedom Defense Initiative."

After noting former New York City Mayor Ed Koch and current mayor Michael Bloomberg's support for the mosque, Sanchez introduced Pataki and first asked him, "Why are they [Koch and Bloomberg] wrong and why are you right?" After the Republican explained his opposition, the anchor gave his first hint to his later Catholic/Mormon question: "Once you start telling someone you can't worship here because it affects the sensibilities or sensitivities of someone else, you're starting to go down a slippery slope, and then a lot of people would ask- well, which religion is next? Who else are we going to not let worship where they want, how they want?"

Former New York governor George Pataki on Friday turned the tables on Chris Matthews for accusing conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh of rhetoric that is "alien to America."

In the opening segment of MSNBC's "Hardball," the host was doing his darnedest to make the case that Republicans, led by Limbaugh, are attacking President Obama for no good reason. 

After showing a montage of some recent Limbaugh statements, Matthews asked, "Does it matter that you`ve got someone on your side of the political world that is out there accusing the [Times Square] bomber of being a Democrat, like he`s on assignment from the Democratic Central Committee?" 

"I mean, this kind of talk is so alien to America!"

Pataki marvelously responded, "Well, it`s not really. All you have to do is watch some of your colleagues on MSNBC and you see the same type of talk from the other side" (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):