Joe Scarborough Blames Obama's Cairo Speech for Ayatollahs Rigging Iranian Election--But That's a Good Thing
By Heather Monday Jun 15, 2009 4:30am
Okay, in what world is it ever a good thing to ever have an election stolen? Joe Scarborough seems to think the ayotollahs rigged the election because Obama's Cairo speech scared them into over reaching and making sure he didn't get credit for the reformers winning in Iran, but if they did, it's a good thing in the long run for the United States.
If they rigged the election Joe, it's likely for the same reasons the Republicans have rigged elections in the United States...to stay in power. Not because they're worried about American politics.
GREGORY: Let's just also address what is the still breaking news out of Iran, and the fact that there is belligerence coming out of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian regime.
MURPHY: Yeah.
GREGORY: And this administration has a real delicate balance here...
MURPHY: Well...
GREGORY: ...which is are you going to engage? And how do you do it now?
SCARBOROUGH: Right. And how fascinating; we heard the vice president--I mean, they've been looking at the numbers. Did you hear the old, the old Irish pol looking at us, saying, "You know, 70 percent of the vote came from urban areas. That's not Ahmadinejad's strong suit." They know these numbers don't add up. I mean, that's a very--I think that's the strongest message this morning. Joe Biden suggested this morning the numbers just don't add up in Iran.
GREGORY: Right, that Iran is not an actual democracy here.
MURPHY: Well, and I hope that's not news to them.
GREGORY: Yeah.
MURPHY: I mean, behind the--he kept referring to the supreme leader, the Grand Ayatollah, who really pulls the strings there. And now the Iranian democracy, the legitimacy is out the window in the eyes of the world.
GREGORY: Right.
MURPHY: So these are bad guys of no good faith. How do you engage with them if obviously they don't mean much of what they say?
GREGORY: Well, and one of the things that they would say, what the president's been saying is look, the--sort of the nicer we are, the more we promise engagement, the more isolated they become. They do--they have suffered some setbacks along the way. The more belligerent Ahmadinejad is is a sign of more isolation. And if they're more isolated maybe they're easy to deal with, because they don't have friends in, in China, or they don't have friends in Russia, necessarily.
SCARBOROUGH: Right. Well, they...
MURPHY: True. But their faith is always...
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
MMURPHY: ...a part of negotiations, and these guys are the anti-good faith. I think we--there has to be some condemnation now, because we are on the side of the Iranian people that are trying to move forward. We can't be on the side of this regime.
SCARBOROUGH: And how fascinating as I sat there listening to him talk about this, looking at the election results. You know, the law of unintended consequences came in again. I suspect that Cairo speech really scared the grand ayatollahs in Iran. If they were going to fix an election...
GREGORY: Mm-hmm.
SCARBOROUGH: ...this was a time to fix it, because the last thing they wanted to do was Barack Obama to take credit for reformers winning in Iran, like they already have in Lebanon. And, and by the way, in the short-term that's bad news for us. I think in the long-term, though...
MGREGORY: Right.
SCARBOROUGH: ...if ayatollahs are seen stealing an election as a result from what Barack Obama did in Cairo, I actually think that's a positive for the United States and Iran in the long run.
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so his point is that Obama is an inept bungler that happened to say something stupid but luckily there was a good outcome? couldn't he find a way to attribute that outcome to Cheney/Bush?
The right is nothing but a bunch of craven liars.
On the same day Netanyahu announces his plan for a Palestinian state
AND
Iranians revolt in the streets over a attempted coup by the incumbent!
If that isn't positive change I don't know what is. And now the Supreme leader is backing off on endorsing the incumbent!!!!
Obama is inspiring people all over the world not just here.
P.S. If you read CNN coverage, what little there is of the Iranian unrest, it keeps stressing the incumbent WON!! Says it over and over!!
Manufacturing opinion and consent!~
First off, Netanyahu's plan is basically turning the Palestinian territories into a middle Eastern version of Andorra, i.e. a Joke.
And assuming that Obama is in any way, shape, or form... the inspiration for the Iranian post electoral revolt, it is a bit... self centered, don''t you think?
or patriotic! :)
Thank you!!!
Patriotism by definition is "self centered" it is not an "OR" proposition.
he said Palestinian state!!!
His definition of "state" is vastly different from the one accepted by the rest of the world.
it's a beginning!!!! Is tywer is widdle bit cwanky today?
goochee goochee goo!
I just happen to have read the plan, so color me unimpressed.
Is that it's an empty non-starter and he knows it. The plan includes Israel being armed to the teeth including with nuclear weapons and the Palestinian State being disarmed. It also includes The West Bank and Jerusalem being part of Israel and that the illegal settlements in occupied territories will continue unabated.
The Palestinians will continue to demand a return to the pre-1967 borders and at least half of Jerusalem as their capital. AND they will want to have a military defense system just like every other sovereign nation has.
Netanyahu isn't even close. It will take the whole world to put pressure on the United States and Israel for a JUST solution to the Palestinian/Israeli quagmire.
agreed but its a good start!
Its pretty ripe to hear an American say
"the legitimacy is out the window in the eyes of the world."
THE foremost authority on illegitimate elections.
To come here to monitor our elections, yet we send Jimmy Carter and others to monitor everyone else's elections.
BTW, if we think for one nano-second that the C.I.A. doesn't have a presence in Iran right now to try to steer things "our way" then we are fools.
It's our M.O.
we'd have sent troops with the UN to "monitor" things...
I have no doubt they are there...we gotta stop doin that shit...it NEVER works out...
the agency took out Mosedegh, so why change the business model. Did I mention yet today how much I really really REALLY dislike these people?
Just a quick comment. I turned on tv this morning and didn't see Joe Scarborough's face. Okay it was the weather channel but still it was nice he wasn't on there pimping his book. He seems to be everywhere else.
I have decided Joe is trying to put his foot in the water as some sort of voice of the republicans with an eye toward a hopeful presidential run. I will give him credit, I don't believe he's as nutty as Palin....but he could get there if he works on it.
He fits right in as he is notoriously ignorant concerning foreign affairs. All we need is Mika sitting next to him saying 'yep, right, oh yeah'. His morning show with Barnicle and Buchanan is a moron convention.
Hurt him too much to try another political run??
If he runs, then we plaster that story as far and as wide as we can.
You mean, the same media that has offered this fool a cushy job for god knows how long? This same media will turn on his darling boy? Ha! I don't think so....
We, as in the blogs.
Fuck teh MSM.
With the lack of convictions, and the virtual media blackout on the subject. Scarborough will most likely be unaffected by the intern story.
Unless the blogs can actually manage to make a difference, but I am not sure about it. In any case, Scarborough will be pandering to the 20%ers which will believe anything from a right wing candidate.
but he can't win with 20%
I just don't trust this vermin. After 8 years of Bush, I am so jaded and paranoid regarding the agenda of the right, that I just don't want people like Scarborough to even have a chance.
I'm not so much paranoid, as I am wary, and pissed off...
though sometimes, I find myself laughing at their pathetic bullshit.
Scarborough is really just a Republican Gingrich political hack. He was lucky enough to get voted in as a congressman during the Gingrich sweep. And he probably would have gotten sweeped out in 2006.
He is all politics. He has no particular strategic insight or knowledge of alot of these issues.
He was only on MTP so that NBC could cross-polenate or cross-promote their shows.
God forbid they ever put anyone on MTP that actually knows something about Iran and U.S. policy toward Iran.
It is a joke that he is even asked his opinion on Iran. He knows nothing. I don't think his BA from the Univesity of Alabama and JD from the University of Florida or his term in congress gave him any particular insight into Iran.
This is the guy who sponsored a bill to force the U.S. to withdraw from the United Nations after a four-year transition.
Why whould you listen to this guy on anything? Typical white frat boy conversative limited travelled know nothing.
By the way another conservative hypocrite, who cheated on his wife with a congressional staffer, while blasting Clinton.
"Scarborough country" is a joke. Another know nothing talking head that gets paid way too much money.
dead intern, Lori Klausutis.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/6/15/20343...
http://www.americanpolitics.com/20010808Klaus...
"You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you."--Former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski to Joe Scarborough after the latter offered his expertise on the subject of the Gaza conflict, 12/30/08
The truth is that BOTH candidates were blessed by the Ayatollah. Mousavi is as big a wack job as Ahmadinejad. He's just called for a freakin' "Fatwah"!
If anyone wants to do business/deals/politics in a BIG way in Iran you need to go straight to the
GodfatherAyatollah who is the one in charge to make the deal.Which means you might just as well leave them all alone. It's an impossible situation until the people of Iran wake-up and get sick and tired of the sanctions and the rest of the world looking at them as a bunch of Neanderthals and do the whole revolution thang.
I would say the same for North Korea, but I have a feeling the people there are living in a cave and have no idea that Kim Jong Il is 5 apples short of a peck. They just know they're REALLY hungry.
Certain Conservatives like this murderer, Buchanan, Alex Castelonos, Bill Bennett, that dumbass Monica Crowley, Rush the rapist, every mother fucker at Fox, etc, are so boringly predictable...everything Obama does is a total fuck up.
OK For the entire time Bush II was in office, all we saw on the weekly news shows was republicans crowing about "permanent republican majority" over and over again. Now that they are out of power, all we see is republicans being asked what republicans need to do to get back in power. It's as if the liberal media believes that America really *wants* republicans in power, but republicans have just had a run of bad publicity, so they have to figure out how to improve their image. And the TV shows are giving them every opporunity to do so.
is always my first thought when hearing the latest foolishness from morning D'oh.
No matter how the elections turned out or will turn out, you know the republicans have a prepared way to make it a bad thing for President Obama. They seem to feel if they rip into him enough times no one will notice that their party is flailing around under their tiny tent.
As for Scarborough, I think he is before anything else, an opportunist. And Mika, she's his ego enabler.
I doubt Mika was Scarborough's choice. He'd prefer an Eva Braun type like Malkin or Coulter in a pre-menstral rage.
Here in the Berkshires a few weeks ago.
She told of her fall from the MSM (I think she was up for Katie Couric's job??) and she said she knew she was just destined to do television.
So she finally ate crow and took a job at MSNBC doing lead in's to shows: "This is Mika Brzezinski. Next on Morning Joe will be Katie Couric...". Then she said she'd pick up her cell phone and call her kids to arrange play dates or whatever. Apparently Joe was watching her talking on the phone and he confronted her in the hall one day saying, "You don't even LIKE my show do you? You don't even WATCH it!"
She said she fumbled around a little and then he asked her to come on and do a show with him just for kicks. She did and the rest is history.
As Obama approached the podium did they play:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWP-AsG5DRk
Watching this piece it became clear to me that Gregory was in his element with these two guys. Like they were three repulicans having a beer togethher shooting the shit on topics they really do not know much about (Iran?). He looked just like Scarborough and Murphy. I think Gregory is another one of these frat boy type white guy type Republicans and just like Scarborough and Murphy.
The problem with Gregory is that he does not really have an intelligent conversation with his guests. You can tell he follows his script very closely. He has a set number of points and questions that he wants to get through. He really asks no follow up questions and challenges the answers. Sure the initial question may be challenging, but the more important follow ups are really non-existent. You can tell Gregory does very little homework on the issues he discusses and therefore his depth of knowledge is very low. A very surface knowledge with no ability to challenge facts.
He only ever is playing a game of "gotcha" based largely on one-liners. And his discussions are largely based on Republican talking points with very little of his own thinking. Gets very boring very fast. His conversations with his guest are very one dimensional and not particualrly interesting.
I know Gregory has to juggle a lot of balls on a lot of different issues and topics, but he is probably the wrong guy to be doing it. I think they need someone with a little more experience is more worldly and smarter. I guess NBC wants to see if he can grow into the job. Until then it is really just amateur hour.
I completely agree with all your points. Sadly while they wait for Gregory to grow into the job, Meet the Press is withering on the vine. Had Biden not been a guest yesterday I would not have watched the show at all. I didn't watch when these two came on because I knew what they would say. David always gets that shit eating grin on his face when he thinks he's about to ask a question that might put his guest into a gotcha moment. If I can see it coming so could any of his guests.
when they moved Gregory to MTP on sundays...
He's now not on the teevee everday spewing his BS rightwing talking points.
Dunno about any of yous guys...but I never watch the news on Sunday...got better things to do.
..just sux. I haven't enjoyed the program and am wondering how long it will be before they replace him.
I pretty much only watch the news Mon-Thur.
I have to take a break from it.
Gregory.
Russert was a fat, incurious, co-opted, sold-out worthless pimp, preceded by a whole slew of non-entities and mediocrities, all the way back to Lawrence Spivak's retirement in 1975.
I have no clue why people are canonizing Russert. It seems the best career move for some people in this country is to pass away, as their sins get automatically cleared.
He was pretty hard-hitting and didn't take much guff from anyone. They got him off the air and into a "management" position I believe.
I think he and Schuster should have their own shows.
Evidently, my emails to MSNBC fell on deaf ears.
The reason Abrams' show went away is that Olbermann wanted Maddow. Olbermann has the main power at MSNBC as his ratings were higher than Abrams. Olbermann pushed very hard at MSNBC to have Maddow follow him. Abrams lost the war and probably does not get along with Olbermann as he has completely left the network.
Schuster gets along fine with Olberman, but he has the Clinton incident hanging over his career.
Gregory was the safe and cheaper alternative.
Actually it's more likely to be reversed.
The ayatollahs were pissed back in '79 when the American Embassy was taken hostage, because they weren't consulted.
They wanted their bank assets unfrozen, which Carter did in retaliation to the hostage taking. But they didn't want to do anything that might help his reelection. So they waited until after the election was over.
It had nothing to do with ray gunn, who immediately took credit.
..and most of it starts with Iran. That his administration negotiated Arms for Hostages to pay for illegal ops in Latin America burns me bad.
It's a documentary called, "Cover-Up: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair" by the Empowerment Project:
http://www.empowermentproject.org/pages/cover...
They also did an excellent documentary, "The Panama Deception".
I believe both were nominated for Academy Awards.
Joe's hero, Ronnie Raygoon sure didn't do anything to stop the theocracy takeover of Iraq.... Oh wait, yes he did, he committed treason by trading the Iranians weapons for hostages, then giving WMD's to Saddam to punish the Iranians.
Why do republicans love to squander American lives in far away countries for nothing?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31365097/ns/world...
Ack ack ack splat. Fuckin' geez.
(head exploded)
At least American flags weren't being burnt with chants of "Death to America" when Obama spoke over there like when Bush spoke in the middle east.
like flipping joe scarborough shit while drinking a cup of Folger's coffee.
good to the last drop. Ahhhh.....
The republicans are so bummed. We have a president who can eat pretzels without choking. He can ride a bike without falling off. He can play with his dog without dropping it. He can pronounce words correctly. And he isn't despised by other countries. How do they fight someone like that?
Don't forget a 2-1 approval rating by the American people instead of a 2-1 disapproval rating. That one really sticks in their crawl.
Ignorant, hopelessly useless GOP butt boy, terminally incapable of being an honest broker. Disco Dave is so fucking awful that in comparison he perpetuates the myth of Russert being a moderate.
I wonder if our last election gave hope to the Iranians. We elected someone that many saw as an impossibility and perhaps they saw this and decided they too could change the course of their country.
Just a thought but I hope it has some truth to it. I hope our last election did give people in other countries some hope for their own future.
Don't forget a 2-1 approval rating by the American people instead of a 2-1 disapproval rating like Bush had. That one really sticks in their crawl.
..so, who cares? He's an empty suit, all range and no cattle. Who the F cares what he sez' about anything let alone the situation in Iran?
Do people actually watch that waste of time? ..or are the only ones watching the people who report to us regularly on its poor content?
Isn't there something else Scar could do rather be a talking-head with a morning show? Maybe maitre'd at a restaurant, a bowling alley manager, etc.
when is Joe Scarborough going to be
flushed from the airwaves. he is nothing
but lies and hatred.
Fuck scarboy, gregory, and that coneheaded gop strategerist.
Ann secondly...my hat goes off to the Iranian citizens.
They are doing what we should have done when our elections were stolen.
http://donklephant.com/2009/06/14/riveting-bb...
As did the Ukrainians when their election was stolen.
I am so ashamed of the American electorate.
After the first election was stolen, my friends from Germany were stunned we weren't rioting and protesting and storming DC.
Here's the church and here's the steeple...open the door and see all the sheeple.
I managed to spill my coffee, again! ;-)
Blazing away at each other...
we were all in shock. And then remember the faux protesters to cut off the recount? Slimy filthy rethuglikan intern gits!!
those were people who were actually working for local RNC headquarters...
I'll see if I can't find a link.
But that is the definition of "faux protesters" duh...
I hit the submit button...
Linky!
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2002/080502a.html
Now you're startin' to get it. Keep working hard at it and soon you'll be incoherent enough to land that job at FOX News.
Can we trade him to Fox and we'll take Shep Smith? I'm good with giving that a try. Oh, and send Mika with him to fox as a bonus package.
Oh, gee, Murph, I donno! Maybe the same way the rest of the world learned to 'negotiate' with the Great Satan, Amerikkka, mebbe, which has never met a treaty obligation it wouldn't betray for a couple of dollars...
ScarFace should just stick to his Reslug comedy show of lies in the morning, along with his blonde bimbo, because he just keeps proving that he isn't a very bright, thinking person.
to hawking charbucks rancid coffee.
All that's left of the GOP is kamikaze loyalists and the people who had a hand in driving the Republican Party into failure, ignominy and unreality. If those who still call themselves Republicans had any sense of personal accountability or integrity, they'd at least be calling themselves Independents. Their unreality is a conveniently self-created delusion resulting from talking only to one another without the intellectual or moral honesty of diverse points of view or healthy debate. Step out of line and Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck use their bully pulpits to crucify the rational GOP realists. Like a species that is failing from profligate inbreeding, today's GOP is desperately struggling to survive in a toxic gene pool that is drying up and receding into oblivion. Creating an unreality is the last gasp grasping at straws as any hopes of survival are more and more obviously unrealistic. The only afterlife the GOP has ahead of them is banishment and 40 years of wandering in the desert of well deserved denial, delusion and despair.
David Gregory continues to dwell on the bottom of the barrel. His segment with Mike Murphy and Joe Scarface is an idication he is still in the tank with the rethuglicans. What makes him think these irrelevant losers should be on television spouting their non-sense. For all who missed it, the republicans failed at governance. They proved to not have a clue when it comes to the business of the people. We the majority elected President Obama to do something different. Now we do not need to hear wingnuts tell us their way was best. It wasn't and wingnuts are idiots.
When Meet the Press was not a freak/side show, with genuine hard ball, tough questions asked by genuine intelligent journalistic bull dogs, that had pride in what they did, and honored the rights and responsibilities accorded to the 5th estate. I was pretty young....... What we have today is Edward R. Murrow's worst nightmare (watch goodnight and good luck)
... which is about the last time any American journalistic outfit has done any of the things you talked about.
What the F___? Who cares what Joe thinks? When and where has he ever been correct about damn near anything? He's a friggin JOKE! Scarborough sucks the big one!
as to what his journalistic credentials consist of. It might be an interesting (or not) exercise to investigate the credentials of these side show Bob,show biz freaks. Like what school did they attend, major/minor etc. I'll bet that 99 percent of them were drama majors, having nothing to do with journalism. And I'm not bashing on liberal arts drama majors - its just that drama and journalism have little/nothing in common. These maroons are simply actors, playing a part, and I don't mean in the context of Shakespeare's "As You Like it" "All the world's a stage,
and all the men and women merely players, They have their exits and their entrances....." This is more like Send in the clowns!!
little bit! (again) :-0oooo - I could only get as far as Wiki - and that is far as you need go - Baaaarrrfff!!!
So much for this cretin!
Had to have been better than my lunch.
During the election, John McCain stated several times that he Knows how to fix the economy and that he knows how to get Bin Laden.
So Joe,
Why won't McCain tell us how to catch Bin Laden and is McCain's economic prowness of super recovery lost when Phil Gram told Americans (in McCain's name) we were imagining the economic down falls of the Bush and republican rule?
Why does Joe let his loyalty to the GOP come ahead of his Country?
I'm sure y'all have noticed.
The panel consists of two right wingers and a host who kisses right wing ass.
Nice balance there, NBC!
Virtually every "Political talk show" has 80% right wing representation. Another example is the horrific "Mclauglin Group" on PBS which is nothing more than four Conservatives beating down on Eleanor Clift weekly.
I met Murphy a year ago after McCain let him go. He is a nice guy and is actually pretty level headed and smart. He knows how to play politics better than most, particularly in the brutal republican form of politics.
However, he has zero knowledge of foreign affairs. Wrong guy to be asking anything other than political campaign tactics type questions or how he sees the Republican party.
He is not a policy guy. Like having Karl "the architect" Rove get involved in policy. What a disaster that turned out to be.
Every time I see Mika laughing and agreeing with Scar. I think about her father. She must be an embarrassment to him. I do love it when they have the balls to have him on. He sets Joe straight every time.
This thread hits all the major points I would make and more eloquently. Gregory almost has me pining for the eminently controllable Russert. One thing I noticed with Gregory though is that he doesn't show as many past snippets from MTP as Russert, who would fit a square peg in a round hole if he could aggrandize MTP with an old clip - he seemed starstruck by his own show and consumed with propping it up even more (and not coincidentally himself as well). I guess pointing back to past "laurels" (illusionary as they were) is easier than creating even a single new one. Time will tell if Gregory resorts to my favorite Russerty circle jerk question - "are you running for president?". Poor Dick Cheney misses him.
Also, does anyone think that having a lightweight like Scarborough on lowers the bar even more?
He has a show of his own to spew all his stupid rants. Shouldn't meet the press have some higher standards than fox?
MURPHY: So these are bad guys of no good faith. How do you engage with them if obviously they don't mean much of what they say?
Does that not sound like the bush/chenny installation?
I love it when the shit hits the fan.
scar is an idiot.
republicanism is a mental illness!
Why no democratic counterpoint?
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