Conservatives & Republicans

Appearing on Wednesday's NBC Today, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd spun former Florida Governor Jeb Bush announcing that he was "exploring" the possibility of running for president in 2016 as a boost for the candidacy of Hillary Clinton: "By the way, the big Jeb Bush announcement helps Hillary because it'll scare Democrats and rally them around Hillary even more."

“What the average person is seeing right now,” declares the American Prospect’s Paul Waldman, “is an entire party mobilizing to defend the use of torture, whether they will call it by that name or not. And that looks to be having an effect on public opinion.”

The magazine GQ released its list of the “20 craziest politicians” in the U.S. on Tuesday and, not surprisingly, the liberal publication selected 17 Republicans for the list compared to only three Democrats.  Among the more prominent Republicans included Senators and possible presidential candidates Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ted Cruz (Texas) as well as incoming Senator Joni Ernst (Iowa). The only…

On Monday’s NBC Nightly News, correspondent and MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell felt that it was appropriate to skewer three possible GOP presidential contenders in 2016 who had each run previously to argue that their presence would make possible fellow candidates Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush “look positively new.” In addition, Mitchell reported that Bush is showing every sign of running for the…

On Monday's CBS This Morning, co-host Gayle King claimed that Americans were "divided" over the CIA's use of enhanced interrogation techniques after September 11th. However, the latest CBS News poll she cited "shows that 49% of Americans feel aggressive interrogation techniques like waterboarding are sometimes justified. 36% say they are never justified." The remaining 14% said that it "depends"…

Penn State’s Sophia McClennen praises Colbert for “remind[ing] us that you could care about your nation and simultaneously find American exceptionalism disturbing” and comments that conservatives have “controlled the idea of patriotism for so long that it is easy to forget that there is no logical reason to think that Rachel Maddow loves her country any less than Glenn Beck.”

The Esquire blogger argues that anti-Obamacare lawsuits and an effort to weaken Dodd-Frank derivatives regulation are examples of how “the slow, steady and inexorable campaign to render this president a non-person in the long sweep of history continues apace.”

Former CBS News journalist Sharyl Attkisson, who publicly clashed with her bosses over opposition to covering Obama administration scandals, told Rush Limbaugh that some at the network seemed to blame her for a hacking attack

Dictionary.com defines "glib" as "readily fluent, often thoughtlessly, superficially, or insincerely so." Jonathan Gruber's apology at his Tuesday congressional hearing included that word. The word, especially the "superficial" element of its definition, applies to how the establishment press covered the hearing. With only rare exceptions, it excluded any mention of what has accurately been…

On Friday, NBC's Today and CBS This Morning sympathized with left-wing Democrats upset by portions of a budget deal passed in the House Thursday night. On Today, correspondent Kelly O'Donnell declared: "Democrats had objected to a rollback of financial provisions that would help big Wall Street banks that take some high-risk investments with taxpayer ensured deposits. In the end, compromise, even…

During Thursday’s NBC Nightly News, NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kelly O’Donnell heaped praise on far left Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), anointing her “the liberal wing’s newest star” as one of many to speak against the $1 trillion government funding bill being considered by Congress (which passed the House late Thursday night).  When one goes back to look at the program’s…

Tuesday afternoon, Kyle Drennen at NewsBusters observed that the Big Three networks "Appear Finished With Gruber Coverage," and that their Tuesday morning shows had no coverage of the de facto Obamacare architect and his congressional appearance. One factor likely influencing the nets' posture is how original news sources like the Associated Press and the nation's largest dailies have managed to…

The Nation’s Leslie Savan alleges that conservatives still are fixated on the image of the Rev. Al as “a radical and a race hustler,” and opines that “because he’s the best-known single figure in the growing protest movement, the right will blame him for any violence.”

Chris Matthews and gang at MSNBC have repeatedly attacked Tea Party conservatives in Congress, such as Ted Cruz, for attempts to use continuing resolution votes as leverage for conservative policy items. But now that liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the fly in the ointment, threatening to scuttle a spending bill agreed upon by Senate leadership and President Obama, the Hardball host…