Have you considered the delicious hypocrisy of Democrat presidential candidates that months ago refused to participate in debates sponsored by Fox News now practically lining up to appear on the cable news channel?

Chris Wallace certainly has, and on the most recent installment of "Fox News Sunday," asked Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean about this sudden change of heart by folks who just months ago were depicting the station as too biased to bother with.

What follows is a partial transcript of this segment (video embedded right):

On a day when Senator Barack Obama's controversial pastor would be speaking to the National Press Club in Washington, "Good Morning America" guest host Barbara Walters chose to question DNC Chairman Howard exclusively on how soon the Democratic presidential contest can be ended. At one point during Monday's segment, she even hectored Dean about his responsibility to bring unity to the Democrats. [audio available here]

Walters lectured, "But that's also your job, Dr. Dean, to get one of them to say in order to fight John McCain, in order to really win this election, one of you has got to back down and be gracious. Is that a big part of your job?" To get an idea of the overriding subject that appeared to be occupying the ABC journalist's mind, here is a sampling of her worried questions to the Democratic National Committee chairman:

At his blog Political Punch, ABC reporter Jake Tapper noted the latest thing outraging Republicans. As the McCain campaign prepared to release an ad highlighting McCain's military service, Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean sent out an obnoxious reply: "While we honor McCain’s military service, the fact is Americans want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant opportunist who doesn’t understand the economy and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years."

The GOP seized upon the term "blatant opportunist" to suggest that Dean is implying McCain is an opportunist for including his POW information in his latest TV ad, with the RNC demanding an immediate apology. Tapper suggested:

That's all noise. What's more interesting are the Dean quotes from 2004 that may come back to haunt him this year.

The Washington Post "Reliable Sources" gossip column led off in the upper left-hand corner on Monday with shocking comments from Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean "razzing his journalist hosts" at the Saturday night Gridiron Club dinner:

Fox News said, 'Stalin thought he was right when he did the same thing.' That was painful.... If anybody knows about Joseph Stalin's tactics, it would be the people at Fox News....

It's not the first item in the online version, perhaps because it's a quote, and not a written report. But it's definitely shocking, even from Howard Dean. Does he think that Roger Ailes has his own KGB, and maybe a Gulag in the basement?

The subject was how Dean suggested that if people don't want politicians to talk in sound bites, you could bar the press. (Nothing gets the press upset faster than the words "bar the press.") Here's the complete Dean quote as it  appeared in the column by Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts:  

Something interesting is happening between the new and old media: the more Democrats move to the left to please liberal bloggers, the more mainstream press members express disdain.

On Wednesday, following in the footsteps of the Washington Post’s David Broder and Time’s Joe Klein, and just days before Democrat strategist Bob Beckel, NBC’s Tim Russert jumped on the “Netroots Are A Danger to Democrats” bandwagon.

Appearing on Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes,” Russert seemed incredibly at ease with both co-hosts as he made statements that had to shock conservative and liberal viewers alike.

Hannity set up the first interesting exchange thusly (video available here):

The Howard Dean-Kathleen Sebelius-Kansas tornado story has taken an interesting turn.

Scott Johnson at Power Line reported Saturday that attorneys representing the Democratic National Committee have sent a cease and desist letter to Free Republic due to a post at its website concerning allegations made on the “Quinn & Rose” XM Satellite radio show Thursday (h/t Glenn Reynolds).

Howard Dean appears to be doing another “I Have a Scream” speech, only this time through his attorneys.

Isn’t that special?

The letter stated:

During the 2005 disaster in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina, you couldn’t turn on a television set without seeing some washed-out resident complaining about the terrible job the federal government was doing with rescue, relief, and evacuation.

By contrast, in the days following the destruction of Greensburg, Kansas, by an F-5 tornado, the only one complaining is the state’s Democrat Governor Kathleen Sebelius, who, as we’ll discuss later, might have been set up to do so by DNC Chairman Howard Dean.

Yet, have you seen any interviews with Greensburg residents unhappy with the government response to the disaster?

Well, on Wednesday, the website for WCBS-TV in New York published an article suggesting that “residents were overwhelmed by the immediate response, and that the governor's fuss was for her own good” (emphasis added throughout, h/t Gateway Pundit):

It goes without saying that Fox News’s Sean Hannity is never one to mince words, especially when the subject matter is something he feels passionately about.

In such instances, one better strap oneself in tightly, for you're in for a bumpy, no holds barred ride.

Such was certainly the case Sunday evening when the outspoken conservative did a ten minute segment on “Hannity’s America” (h/t Tim Graham) about how the Democrat Party has been taken hostage by extreme left-wing forces on the Internet (video available here).

First, Hannity addressed the recent blog posting by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) on the website that last year got itself into a bit of a brouhaha for publishing a blackfaced picture of Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut):

This one is going to require all potables, combustibles, and sharp objects to be safely stowed – trust me!

Many computer users are familiar with an e-card company called Blue Mountain. If you haven’t received such an electronic show of affection from a friend or relative, well, you must not be a very nice person (/sarcasm).

Anyway, for Valentine’s Day, the company apparently offered customers a rather racy card that disparaged Democrats. As reported by the liberal website Raw Story (e-card video available here h/t NB reader HumanEvents):

Is Times political reporter Adam Nagourney outflanking DNC Chairman Howard Dean on the Democratic left?

That appears to be the case, judging by Sunday's report from Jeff Zeleny on Dean's weekend speech in Washington, "Democratic Leader Reminds Party That Victory Is No Mandate." (The online headline is different.)

Zeleny quotes Dean: "'The other party made mistakes in the past claiming that elections are mandates. Elections are not mandates. The voters of this country loaned the Democrats the power of the country for two years. Now it’s our job to earn it back again.''

On Friday's Countdown, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann attacked FNC's Bill O'Reilly, calling him a "holy you-know-what liar" because O'Reilly recently bragged that he had voiced the need for tough martial law early on to keep order in Iraq. During recent comments on The Radio Factor, O'Reilly misstated the date of his prediction as "the night that Saddam's statue fell" when, in fact, it was a mere two nights later (April 11, 2003, instead of April 9), still in the recent aftermath. Olbermann, likely inspired by an article from one of his regular sources in the form of the far-left Media Matters for America, seized on the date mixup to accuse O'Reilly, whom he referred to gratuitously as "Billow" and "Bill Orally," of being a "liar," and tagged the FNC host "Worst Person in the World." (Transcripts follow)

Thanks to former President Clinton and victories in the recent midterm elections, Democrats are now launching a full out attack on Fox News, the only television news outlet that holds them accountable. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) appeared on Wednesday’s The O’Reilly Factor to explain his recent attack on Fox News and once again lashed out on Bill O’Reilly when he issued him challenging questions. O’Reilly asked Congressman Frank what his position is on income redistribution.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA): "Bill, will you please stop interrupting if you want a serious discussion?"

Bill O’Reilly: "No. I'm not going to interrupt. When you say something dopey, I'm going point it out. What do you think you are, the czar of the interview?"

Winding up the 8pm EST hour of election coverage on MSNBC, “Scarborough Country” host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, indignantly lectured Chris Matthews about how he has “spent the past two years trying my best to be very critical of my party. In fact, if you look at my transcripts you will see that I have been bashing my party more than the Democratic party because I want to make sure that I am fair and down the middle.”

So “far and down the middle” means hitting Republicans harder than Democrats? Too bad Matthews, a former staffer to Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, doesn’t routinely attack Democrats to prove how “fair and down the middle” he is.

Video clip (3:25): Real (5.6 MB) or Windows Media (6.4 MB), plus MP3 audio (1 MB)

CNN has already made it crystal clear that the cable network is taking sides in the midterm election. Political reporter Bill Schneider reinforced that view with a report on Wednesday’s "American Morning" that sounded like something straight out of Democratic talking points. During the segment, he offered occasional asides that "spoke" for the voters. Here’s one example:

Bill Schneider: "When Americans concluded the Vietnam war was unwinnable, they turned against it. When they began to see Iraq as a civil war between rival Islamic sects, their frustration mounted. Why should that be our war? Six months ago 44 percent of Americans felt the United States would never accomplish its mission in Iraq. Now, a majority feel that way. The administration's response? Turn the question on the Democrats. What's their alternative?"

This one is too good, folks, and requires all drinking vessels to be placed at safe distances from computer terminals (hat tip to Drudge). For many months, DNC Chairman Howard Dean has been refusing to do joint interviews with RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. Instead, he has insisted that when the two are on the same show, they be questioned separately.

This morning, he was asked why on MSNBC. Frankly, his answer was hysterical (video here): “The spectacle of the debate overwhelms the desire to get messages out, and talk about policy and serious issues.” He then stated, with a straight face no less:

This is too extraordinary for words – not the possibility of it happening, but that anybody in the drive-by media would even suggest it. After all, if there ever was proof that the press are colluding with Democrats, here it is.

ABC News's "The Note" reported on October 19 that members of “The Old Media” are “giddy with excitement over the prospect of the Bush-Cheney-Rove-Mehlman machine losing," and are having “secret morning conference calls with Howard Dean and George Soros” to discuss how they “can keep the meta-narrative (‘The Democrats are going to beat Bush and run Congress!!’) going for another 19 days, without interruption.”

This is akin to Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift actually saying something bad about Bill Clinton. Yet, there it was, in black and white. Please be advised that the writers by-lined included Mark Halperin, David Chalian, Teddy Davis, Tahman Bradley, Sarah Baker, Catrin Jones, Erica Anderson, and Daniel Steinberger. As such, this wasn't one writer's opinion:

Despite the harsh headline: Hillary Hits Bottom, Hillary Clinton might actually welcome Rosa Brooks' LA Times column of this morning condemning her for supporting legislation allowing torture in ticking-bomb cases.  Call it a 'Sistah Rosa' moment that Hillary can point to as proof she's not too soft on terror to be president.

But I wonder.  Is Brooks aware - while bashing the presumptive presidential candidate for supporting legislation permitting torture in narrowly delineated cases - that Hillary is echoing her husband?

Has Brooks read this column by Alan Dershowitz?  The Harvard law prof reports on Bill's recent NPR interview in which he said:

On Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer today, Howard Dean said that he had been watching UN ambassador "Josh Bolton" on all the morning shows talking tough about the UN resolution on North Korea that the Chinese have already said they're not going to fully enforce and he said it shows that the Bush administration is "toothless" when it comes to national security. When it came time for Blitzer to follow-up, he corrected Dean on what Bolton's first name really is but Blitzer failed to ask Dean the obvious question: how would he or other Democrats have gotten anything better out of the UN?

Video available here.

A funny thing happened on the way to the midterm elections: everybody started talking about Bill Clinton. Television networks, newspapers, present and former DNC chairmen, Speaker of the House wannabes, left-wing shills, you name it. For almost a solid month, the former president filled the airwaves like a new strain of influenza in the dead of winter.

What haven’t the Democrats and their media minions been talking about since summer ended? Surprisingly, the only issue that can lead them to victory six weeks from now – Iraq.

Doesn’t seem like a very wise campaign strategy, does it?

It’s My Party, I Can Lie if I Want To

It goes without saying that the most self-absorbed and narcissistic politicians ever to walk the face of this planet are Hillary and Billary Clinton, a couple that has done a better job of conning Americans than any other since Bonnie and Clyde.

Imagine the scenario where Ken Mehlman, Republican National Committee Chair, was not able to raise but about half the amount of money that the DNC was raising. Imagine then, a situation where multiple, outside GOP supporting organizations were hastily created in an urgent effort to raise the money that Mehlman was failing to raise just to compete in the advertising wars of the upcoming 2006 midterms.

...then imagine the MSM not taking the time to gleefully point out the Republican Chairman's dismal record. Imagine finding them silent that it is even happening.

Having a hard time imagining that?

So am I.

However, reverse that situation and put Howard Dean in Mehlman's place and that is what we got from "Democrats Form New Group For Fund-Raising and Ads" in the New York Times on September 14th.

This sad episode in American history continues, folks. Now, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, is requesting that ABC reveal “who funded this $40 million dollar slanderous propaganda.”

Of course, he’s talking about “The Path to 9/11.” What else?

As reported by the left-wing blog Raw Story on Friday: "It's deeply disappointing that ABC would put something on the air that has been proven to have factual inaccuracies about one of the most important events in our nation's history," said Dean in the press release. "ABC should not air this distortion of history."

Why wasn’t Dean so concerned with the reporting of “factual inaccuracies about one of the most important events in our nation's history” back in 2004 when Michael Moore released “Fahrenheit 911”? Why has the Democratic Party’s seemingly universal support for that piece of propaganda as addressed here been totally forgotten by its members?

Regardless, Dean hypocritically continued:

It’s been noted on this site before that David Shuster’s reports for MSNBC’s Hardball read like DNC press releases and last night was no exception as he attacked the administration on Katrina and Iraq and even found time to slam Sen. George Allen. Shuster opened fire: "Almost a year since Hurricane Katrina swamped the Gulf Coast, left the country shocked at the Bush administration's ineptitude the Bush team is now engaged in damage control for the year after reminder."

During his report Shuster cited Nancy Pelosi to attack Bush on Katrina, Sen. John McCain to hit Bush on Iraq and Howard Dean to slam Allen. Then Shuster called the Democrat's "wise" and doomed the GOP with this sign-off: "Reminding voters of your opponent's mistakes is a wise political campaign strategy and between George Allen, the problems in Iraq and the anniversary of the Bush team's Katrina debacle Democrats are now having a field day. Republicans are simply trying to hang on just 75 days before the congressional elections. I'm David Shuster for Hardball in Washington."