How worried should President Obama be when he loses the likes of Al Hunt?
On today's Morning Joe, discussing the James Rosen outrage, Hunt called President Obama "no better than Richard Nixon" when it comes to the press. He then strongly suggested that Attorney General Eric Holder should go. View the video after the jump.
Note that Hunt is not the only MSM voice making the Nixon analogy. As our Tim Graham noted, here's Dana Milbank in today's Washington Post [emphasis added]:
The Rosen affair is as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of.
Could the MSM finally be getting fed up with President Obama? If so, what are the implications?
AL HUNT: Let's stay with your analogy about Ellsberg in 1971. Jim Goodale, who was the counsel for the New York Times in 1971, has just written a book on the Pentagon Papers in which he says when it comes to the press, Obama is no better than Richard Nixon. That's something my liberal friends hate to hear but it's true. . . It is unconscionable, I think, but it's part of a pattern! They've done it in these two cases, they did it with
Jim Risen of the the New York Times. And again, I'm going to repeat what Cokie said, because this really this gets liberals upset. They have gone after—they being Eric Holder—have gone after more reporters and leakers than John Mitchell, Ed Meese and John Ashcroft combined. When you throw those names in, they get a little bit rattled. It's just outrageous! . . . And people say who's at fault here? It reflects the President. He has this obsession with leaks. I mean, I don't think he ordered this --
JOE SCARBOROUGH: -- It's a culture, right?
HUNT: It does raise serious questions, I think, along with a number of other matters, about the competency of the Attorney General to continue to hold office.
