Karen Finney recently began her new gig as an MSNBC weekend anchor, but on Sunday’s Weekends with Alex Witt, she got a little nostalgic for one of her old jobs.
Appearing as the subject of Witt’s "Office Politics" segment, Finney continued the liberal media tradition of making the GOP the focus of the current Obama administration scandals. “[Republicans] clearly think that they can ride this to the midterm elections on this sort of culture of coverup,” she huffed. [Video below the break. MP3 audio here.]
Having said that, Finney then recalled the days when she helped the Democratic Party flog real and imagined Bush administration scandals all the way to Democratic victory in the 2006 midterms:
"Personally, it makes me mad, because in 2006, the message frame that actually Governor Dean and I came up with when I was at the DNC was ‘culture of corruption,’ and we were talking about, you know, Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff and the outing of Valerie Plame, and we were talking about very real, substantive things."
Ah yes, those were the good old days when Finney was free to speak out as a naked Democratic partisan. Oh, wait a minute – she can still do that at MSNBC. Seriously, why is Finney mad? Republicans are doing exactly what she and Howard Dean did in 2006.
It’s very arrogant and partisan to suggest, as Finney did, that today’s scandals are not “very real, substantive things.” We had four Americans killed in Benghazi, despite repeated requests for more security at the consulate, and the administration refused for weeks afterward to admit that it was a terrorist attack, despite knowing early on that's exactly what it was. The IRS under Obama has played politics by singling out conservative-sounding organizations for extra scrutiny. The Obama/Holder Justice Department invaded journalists’ privacy by gathering records of their private phone conversations.
Finney said that Republicans are “definitely trying to create the sense of scandal.” No, Ms. Finney: these scandals exist on their own. You and other liberals are acting as firemen desperately trying to put out the flames of scandal before the president's political credibility goes up in smoke.
Despite her new position, Karen Finney is still talking like the DNC spokeswoman she used to be. Now she’s angry that Republicans are doing what she used to do for the Democratic party. It’s utterly hypocritical.
Below is a transcript of the segment:
ALEX WITT: In today's Office Politics, MSNBC host Karen Finney, whose new show Disrupt airs today at 4 p.m. Eastern. Here we discuss her surprising family tree and the surprising significance of the Civil War on both sides of her family, but first I ask Karen for her reaction to the controversies challenging the Obama administration and the GOP's plans to use them to their advantage.
KAREN FINNEY: They clearly think that they can ride this to the midterm elections on this sort of culture of cover-up. You know, you've heard them talking about, and they've been trying to, you know, lob the three things together. Personally, it makes me mad, because in 2006, the message frame that actually Governor Dean and I came up with when I was at the DNC was ‘culture of corruption,’ and we were talking about, you know, Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff and the outing of Valerie Plame, and we were talking about very real, substantive things. So I think they're definitely trying to create the sense of scandal. I've heard them say things like, we have to restore integrity. You know, that kind of stuff. And I think Chairman Issa has contributed to this. They've overstepped it already, and I think there's a real concern. You're seeing this in the polls. Even though people have some concerns about some of these issues, they want jobs. They want this economy focused on.
