Liberals and even far-leftists who would normally be inclined to cheer political attacks on Republicans and conservatives have been distancing themselves from last Friday's indictment of Texas Governor Rick Perry. Former Clinton special counsel Lanny Davis, lawyer Alan Dershowitz (this "what happens in totalitarian societies"), and former Obama White House advisor David Axelrod are just a few of them.
"The Five" co-host Bob Beckel is definitely not in that crowd. In Monday's segment on the topic, Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign manager called his fellow liberals "wusses" and Rick Perry "a jerk." Wait until you see his reason why Rosemary Lehmberg, who was sentenced to 45 days in jail for driving drunk with a blood alcohol reading three times the legal limit, should remain in her job. Excerpts from the relevant Monday segment follow the jump (bolds are mine):
... KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE: Governor Perry has every right to defend himself, to make these statements and to use the law. He's the governor of the state, and let's see what ultimately goes to what a jury says about this.
DANA PERINO: Governor Perry, Greg, in the 2012 presidential election during the primary, he embarrassed himself a little bit when he had that mess up in the debate.
GREG GUTFELD: Right.
PERINO: But he's been coming back a little bit. So do you think that the Democrats are trying to usurp...
GUTFELD: I don't know. It's good to see him come out swinging, and I think it was important.
She's a watchdog over political corruption, and yet she's publicly corrupt. There's no -- I mean that's like having a drug dealer running the DEA. You can't have that. So it makes perfect sense.
And by the way, I mean, it's good that we don't show the tape of it. Her tape is embarrassing. It's sad.
PERINO: It's good for her that we won't show it.
GUTFELD: Yes. It's good for her. But in the tape she's basically telling these people, "You are ruining my career. If you do this you are ruining my career." Well, she might -- she didn't consider that when she was prosecuting people. She didn't consider that she was ruining people's careers. So I don't think she -- I think what he -- this story is going to be gone in 24 hours.
GUILFOYLE: Remember she had the open bottle of vodka in her car, too. Charming.
PERINO: Shouldn't the Democrats have disagreed with Perry and said she should resign?
BOB BECKEL: Absolutely not. I think Perry -- I'm real surprised at some of my fellow liberals I think are wusses in this.
Look, you went through -- I lived in Travis County for two years, and I tell you it is Democratic. That's true. But you all want to follow the law. The law was a grand jury was convened and found this guy had violated the law. He is one of the most partisan politicians in the country. He did violate the law. And this was...
GUILFOYLE: How do you know he violated the law?
BECKEL: Perry (transcript says "Greg"; either Beckel misspoke, or the transcript is incorrect; video of this segment is not at the link — Ed.) said she was corrupt. There's no such indication of corruption. You're suggesting something that happened on a drunk traffic charge that was last year. How does that make her bad?
GUILFOYLE: I'm trying to follow and connect your dots.
BECKEL: OK.
GUILFOYLE: It's hard.
BECKEL: You're saying that he decided he was going to withhold this money because he didn't like this woman.
GUILFOYLE: He was saying that he's going to withhold from that specific office...
BECKEL: Yes. Because of that woman.
PERINO: But Bob, she runs the Public Integrity office. I mean, have you seen the videotape of her behavior?
BECKEL: No, but there are a lot of politicians who have been drunk who run public integrity offices.
PERINO: OK, all right, now...
GUILFOYLE: That's a great defense.
GUTFELD: That's not a good defense, Bob.
BECKEL: This is the same Perry that had that racial...
Doesn't that warm your heart?
(CROSSTALK)
GUTFELD: Yes, that was...
ERIC BOLLING: Oh, there you go. Throw that in.
PERINO: Is there a pattern. Is there a pattern? Is there a pattern here, Eric, when you see that Chris Christie, Scott Walker, now Rick Perry. Any governor that seems to be doing fairly well in their state, they get attacked from the left?
BECKEL: You've got a big conspiracy going on here.
BOLLING: I'm not sure -- OK, I think, as Kimberly points out, this group in Texas has a tendency to do this -- Kay Bailey Hutchinson is the other one that comes to mind -- against Republicans.
Very quickly I think the issue is that the announced the reason for vetoing the budget. Rather than just vetoing the budget with a wink and a nod he had to go ahead and say it's because of this woman who was, you know, he felt was -- shouldn't be in the job. Had he just done it like every other politician in the world would do, he wouldn't be in any trouble. He wouldn't be indicted.
Did they really fingerprint him and get a mug shot of him? Is that...
PERINO: They're supposed to sometime this week.
BECKEL: I hope so.
So, let's see where Bob Beckel is on all of this.
He says that fellow liberals who are asserting that Rick Perry has the right to carry out his constitutional duties as Lone-Star State's chief executive duties are "wusses."
He says that Perry is a bad guy, because he is "one of the most partisan politicians in the country." He obviously hasn't checked inside the White House recently.
He doesn't believe that Rosemary Lehmberg remaining in her position after being caught driving drunk in a bike lane for a mile, braking erratically, and swerving into the oncoming traffic lane is a problem. Many professions would pull a person's license to practice for such behavior.
He believes that Lehmberg testing at three times the legal limit for alcohol is irrelevant, as is the video of her abusive conduct, which Beckel hasn't even deigned to see. A true professional, which Beckel apparently isn't, would have viewed that video as show prep.
For Bob, Lehmberg's presence in her position is okay, because "a lot of politicians who have been drunk who run public integrity offices." In context, Beckel seems to be okay with them driving drunk. I'd like to know who these people are, Bob, because I and quite a few other citizens who expect public servants to conduct themselves professionally would strongly disagree.
In Bob's world, Rick Perry's a really bad guy, because some rock, one which was promptly painted over and turned over, contained a racial epithet.
Beckel won't see a conspiracy, even though the George Soros-funded Texans For Public Justice has from all appearances only gone after Republicans, with high-profile attempts at putting Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Tom Delay behind bars ultimately ending in failure.
Finally, he's salivating to see Rick Perry fingerprinted and to have his mug shot go over the wires.
Bob Beckel comes across as a petty, vicious, and vindictive little man. Heaven forbid that he ever gets near real power again.
Can't Fox find a more competent and coherent liberal for "The Five"? Perhaps the problem is that no such person exists.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
