New Yorker Writer: Ben Carson, Leader of the ‘Paranoid’ Pack
Jelani Cobb, who’s also a professor at the University of Connecticut, writes that even though it’s “tempting” to think of Carson as the new Herman Cain, ultimately it’s superficial. He suggests that if you look past skin color, you’ll see that Carson’s “radically paranoid” worldview makes him more analogous to another 2012 GOP candidate, Michele Bachmann. Cobb blasts Carson’s “sweaty-palmed…
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MSNBC Falsely Claims No 'Precedent' for Congress Defying President
On his Tuesday MSNBC show, host Thomas Roberts scolded Republicans for sending a letter to Iran objecting to the ongoing nuclear negotiations: "Certainly there's great politics at play here in dealing with the President's foreign policy....So this is another jab at the President's foreign policy, of trying to undercut it. What's the precedent, though, of a letter like this?" In reality, there…
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WaPo Reporter: 'It Is the President Who Ratifies Treaties'
Let's call this one "technically true, but misleading." On today's Daily Rundown, discussing the letter sent by Senate Republicans to the Iranian regime, Washington Post reporter Ishaan Tharoor said that "it is the president who ratifies treaties."
Tharoor is right, but only in a trivial sense. The president does formally ratify treaties in that he exchanges instruments of ratification with…
Day After Bush Blackout, NYT Shows Its Version of Front-Page Balance
After former President George W. Bush failed to make the cut in the New York Times' photo collection of the march commemorating Selma, the Times on Monday showed its idea of political balance. It led the paper with yet another hammering of an incompetent, ultraconservative Republican Congress, while another front-page report critical of Hillary Clinton was hidden under a mild headline and…
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NBC Nightly News: Senate GOP Letter ‘Patronizes Iranian Leaders'
On Monday, NBC Nightly News featured a full report on the letter signed by 47 Republican Senators to the leaders of Iran concerning its negotiations with the Obama administration over its nuclear program, but took the step of describing the letter as one that “patronizes Iranian leaders.” In addition, the report by NBC's Peter Alexander gave three times the airtime to Iranian Foreign Minister…
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Campbell Brown Nixes Dennis Miller for Daily Show: 'Right Wing'
Did Campbell Brown just give away a dirty little secret: that conservatives are blacklisted in the entertainment business?
On today's With All Due Respect, Brown and John Heilemann were kicking around the results of a poll as to whom Americans prefer to replace Jon Stewart as Daily Show host. Tina Fey came in first, with Dennis Miller a close second. Said Brown: "I can't imagine Dennis…
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CNN to Jerusalem Mayor: Isn't Netanyahu 'Being Used' By Republicans?
CNN's Carol Costello badgered Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Monday's CNN Newsroom over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress. Costello played up how "some say the relationship between Israel and the United States has become partisan for the first time ever," and asked Mayor Barkat if he agreed. The anchor later asked her guest, "Couldn't you argue that Benjamin Netanyahu…
Professor: GOP Selma Message Was That Blacks ‘Are Not Our People’
For the University of Chicago’s Harold Pollack, this past weekend’s commemoration yielded a “fairly astonishing” juxtaposition of President Obama’s “largeness of spirit” and Republican apathy, or worse. In a Washington Monthly blog post, Pollack argued that the low GOP turnout for “an event sacred to African-Americans sent an unavoidable message: These are not our people...Such discomfort with a…
Blogger: Right’s Control of GOP ‘Probably Not Sustainable’
One of the most discussed articles of the past week was Matthew Yglesias’s Monday piece in Vox contending that this country’s combination of a presidential system and increasing ideological polarization is a recipe for eventual political breakdown (the article was headlined “American democracy is doomed”). New York magazine’s Chait thinks Yglesias overlooked something important. Chait argues that…
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Guess Who Said Hillary Email Story 'A Lot Ado About Nothing'?
Who said the Hillary email story is "a lot ado about nothing": a. Mika Brzezinski; b. Lawrence O'Donnell; or c. Michael Steele?
You'd be forgiven for choosing a. or b., but it turns out that Mika said that the way Hillary handled the matter "wasn't honest" and O'Donnell said that Hillary's email system was set up "to defy" the Freedom of Information Act. The correct answer is indeed c., Michael…
Corrine Brown Boycotts Bibi, Recycles 2011 Press Release to Praise Him
In 2004, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry infamously stated, in connection with an Iraq War spending resolution, that "I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it."
Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown of Florida has done her own John Kerry imitation. She was against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress earlier this week, and…
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NBC's Mitchell: 'Partisans' Decried Benghazi 'Witch Hunt' - So Did She
On Friday, MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell observed that the Republican-led Benghazi investigation gained credibility in the wake of the Hillary Clinton email scandal that it uncovered: "Well, the Benghazi investigation by the Select Committee was viewed by many as overkill. That it had all been cleared up back two years ago. And the fact is that some people, certainly the partisans for Hillary…
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Frank Luntz Skips Asking Clinton Focus Group About Email Scandal
CBS News contributor and Republican pollster Frank Luntz convened a focus group on Hillary Clinton that aired on Friday’s CBS This Morning and while many expressed their frustration with the possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, Luntz failed to mention both Clinton’s email scandal and questions surrounding the Clinton Foundation. As opposed to asking about these important stories,…
Amanda Marcotte: Opposition to Obamacare ‘Gender- and Race-Based’
When it comes to right-wingers and the Affordable Care Act, biology and race are destiny. That’s the word from lefty pundit Marcotte, who argued in a Thursday column for Talking Points Memo that the “fight against Obamacare has been about needling the gender- and race-based resentments of the conservative base.”
