On Wednesday’s Morning Joe, Meet The Press moderator David Gregory furthered the liberal media spin that the retirement of liberal-leaning Republican Senator Olympia Snowe is a real blow to the Republican Party.
Gregory sought fit to blame the Republican Party for her decision to retire saying, “it leaves her as a Northeastern moderate Republican out in the cold and not really welcome in this Republican Party that is starting to build off of that momentum from 2010.” [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Gregory continued by pushing an Obama talking point that lays all the blame for a lack of bipartisanship on Republicans:
[T]his really does reinforce an argument that President Obama has made about a Republican party unwilling to do business with him. To compromise on some of the big issues that the country has to face as Tom was just talking about.
This liberal drumbeat has sounded all morning on network news programs, as MRC’s Kyle Drennen pointed out. To the liberal media, Olympia Snowe is a voice of reason in the Republican Party who was forced out by Republicans not willing to accept a moderate in their midst.
One cannot forget how the liberal media came rushing to the Democrats’ defense when Senator Joseph Lieberman switched his party affiliation to Independent, but no such defense exists when it comes to Republicans and their concerns with party unity on key ideological principles. Gregory and the other "journalists" at NBC have once again distorted the facts on the Republican Party, painting them as extreme ideologues with no room for ‘
"moderates" like Olympia Snowe.
Below is the relevant transcript.
Morning Joe
02/29/2012
7:24 a.m.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Welcome back at 24 past the hour, joining us now from Washington, the moderator of "Meet The Press" David Gregory, and here on set in New York, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent and political director and host of "The Daily Rundown" Chuck Todd. Harold Ford Jr. And Tom Brokaw still with us. I want to start with Olympia Snowe, you brought it up during the break and I think it's a great conversation point because we've been talking about the primaries last night. We'll get to that and hear you guys break it down. But here's what she said yesterday as she decided not to run again. “I'm well prepared for the electoral battle. However, what I've had to consider is how productive an additional term would be. Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short-term.” Obviously a lot of reasons, David Gregory, go into decisions like this, but she's putting it squarely on problem number one in Congress and how people feel about it.
DAVID GREGORY: Well, I think she knows as so many people around the country know that Congress is not getting anything done, and that's Republicans and Democrats no matter who's in charge. The polarization is as great as it's ever been. The partisanship is more entrenched. And the Republican Party is frankly still going through a sorting out period where depending on your point of view, all they want to do is say no to the President or they're getting back to some of their first principles as a party and that's making the group very difficult to govern. I think in her view, it is both, but it leaves her as a Northeastern moderate Republican out in the cold and not really welcome in this Republican Party that is starting to build off of that momentum from 2010. And as Chuck made an observation earlier on The Today Show, this really does reinforce an argument that President Obama has made about a Republican party unwilling to do business with him. To compromise on some of the big issues that the country has to face as Tom was just talking about.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: You know, Chuck. There's no doubt, there is a split in the Republican Party. It's harder to be a Northeast Republican than ever before. At the same time, you and I when we talk to senators in either party, they just say this is not the place that I thought it was going to be. I don't know a liberal Democrat that likes working in the United States Senate. It is a miserable existence.
