"Inside Washington" host Gordon Peterson on Friday accused Tea Party members of being out of touch with reality due to their support for the Republican "Cut, Cap, and Balance" bill as well as a balanced budget amendment.
This lead Charles Krauthammer to respond, "I like the way you pose an objective question implying the insanity of a Republican proposal which passed the House...You manage to introduce a hell of a lot of bias" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
GORDON PETERSON, HOST: House Republicans say they have a solution: Cut, Cap, and Balance. Tea Party folks love the idea of a Constitutional amendment to balance the budget. At what point does reality rear its ugly head with some of these people, cause it ain’t going to happen?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I like the way you pose an objective question implying the insanity of a Republican proposal which passed the House. I just want the viewers to understand how this is a fair and balanced program.
PETERSON: Well, we do our best. We don’t have the vast resources of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, but we do the best we can.
NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: [Laughs]
PETERSON: Thank you very much.
KRAUTHAMMER: I commend you on your…
PETERSON: Can you answer my question? When does reality rear its ugly head with these people?
Speaking of reality rearing its ugly head, Peterson must have missed the parts of Thursday's CNN poll finding 66 percent of respondents supporting "Cut, Cap, and Balance" and 74 percent favoring a balanced budget amendment.
This is especially peculiar as Peterson later in the program referred to the CNN poll, just not the sections contradicting his depiction of Tea Partiers supporting the same things an overwhelming majority of Americans as being out of touch with reality.
Maybe the limited budget PBS gives him for the program only affords him access to small portions of polls rather than the complete text every other person can access for free via the internet.
If you believe that, I've got some bridges for sale in New York.
