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Rick Sanchez and Media Matters' Eric Burns fact check Mike Pence's recent appearance on Sanchez's show.

SANCHEZ: So he was telling the -- so he's right?

BURNS: Well, on...

SANCHEZ: He did challenge a Republican administration, albeit as a Republican?

BURNS: On just a few things. But I'll tell you the part that you didn't hear is that he voted for Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut that actually destroyed the surplus that we had coming out of the Clinton years. He also voted to make those tax cuts permanent, helping to create the largest deficit in American history. And...

SANCHEZ: So he went along with the gang -- which, by the way, the gang included just about everybody back then, Democrats and Republicans, to be fair. But he did tend to go along with the gang back then, but he wasn't a leader.

BURNS: Well, no, he wasn't a leader back then. But he certainly went along with the gang. And I do know that -- that he joined Jeff Flake in opposing a few earmarks -- in opposing some earmarks from others. But in this recent transportation bill that came through the House, he got two earmarks of his own. So to suggest that he's out there championing the fight against earmarks I don't think is really -- is really accurate or genuine.

SANCHEZ: Well, you know, I was watching -- in fact, just before talking to you, I went on the Web site and I read his speech that he gave at CPAC -- a strong very pro-capitalism speech.

BURNS: Sure.

SANCHEZ: In fact, I'm going to quote him here. He said: "They're writing the obituary on capitalism." I mean that sounds like a guy who's outraged about what's going on in our government now.

Did he ever show signs he was that outraged before...

BURNS: Abso...

SANCHEZ: ...when some of these decisions were being made that, as I said earlier in this newscast, were even bigger earmark totals?

BURNS: No, absolutely not. I mean this is -- this is pandemic of the entire conservative establishment and the Republican Party. I don't know if, you know, if they've got amnesia or if they're schizophrenic now -- possibly both. But I was working in Congress for much of the Bush presidency and under Tom DeLay. And, you know, there was a lot of spending going on. And there was a lot of Enron accounting -- hiding war, you know, wartime expenditures (INAUDIBLE) out of budget.

There was a -- you know, the worst ethics and corruption scandal we saw since Watergate. And so this notion that there's some sort of accountability that's going to be brought to bear by Chairman Pence and other Republicans, I just don't think holds water.

SANCHEZ: Here...

BURNS: And I think it's, also, Rick, worth noting that, as the chairman of the House Conference, you know, Mr. Pence does have some influence in these matters. In this omnibus spending bill that the House just passed, 40 percent of the earmarks were put in by Republicans.

Full Transcript to follow. It's nice to see some of the good people from Media Matters getting some air time.

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From LandlineTV.

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Jon Stewart shows us that it might just be a really bad idea to stand him up for an appearance on his show. Or maybe Rick Santelli is actually better off that he didn't show up at all, because this could have gotten even uglier for him had he been there in person. Santelli apparently cancelled on him at the behest of his bosses. You remember his Howard Beale rant?

Santelli: President Obama, are you listening?

Stewart: Yeah man, Wall Street is mad as hell! And they're not going to take it anymore. Unless by it, you mean two trillion dollars of their own bail out money. That they will take.

Now Mr. Santelli was invited to come on this show and accepted the invitation and then on Friday canceled, or I guess the phrase would be bailed out.

How many people would have liked to see Santelli come on this program, are you listening? Are you listening, Rick Santelli? You see, Rick Santelli is angry that these loser home owners are going to get bailed out. He believes in personal responsibility, he believes in not rewarding the losers for missing all the warning signs. For God's sake, the guy works at CNBC. They're the best of the best.

If Rick Santelli is afraid to stand up to Jon Stewart then how can he stand up during an economic meltdown?

Stewart absolutely eviscerates Santelli and the rest of the gang of Wall Street and corporate apologists on CNBC. He shows clips of Cramer telling us that Bear Stearns is fine, "do not take your money out...Bear Stearns is not in trouble."

Bear Stearns went out of business six days later. And so on and so on. Once again a comedy show is willing to give us more "truthiness" as Stephen would say than our beltway media is willing to touch with a ten foot pole.

(John Amato contributed to the post)

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Keith's mashup of some of Rush Limbaugh's finest moments.

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Tony Blankley has lost his ever-loving mind. He compares the statements about Rush Limbaugh being the leader of the Republican party to Richard Nixon's enemies list. You have got to be kidding me. These guys having some fun with a prominent right wing gas bag while the GOP implodes with infighting is not the same as what Richard Nixon did nor does it even remotely resemble it and Limbaugh is enjoying every minute of it.

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Countdown's Worst Person featuring winners Bill O'Reilly, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity and Lou Holtz.

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As part of the GOP strategy of trying to regain the upper hand in this whole Rush Limbaugh "leader" debate, Ari Fleischer went on "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" last night to debate the issue with David Shuster.

Shuster really let him have it. He attacked the hypocrisy of the GOP decrying "partisan politics" when Fleischer himself did the same thing over the MoveOn.org ad about General Petraeus.

The Republicans don't know anything but partisan politics. To hear them crying about it is really something else. I can't blame them for desperately wanting to try to change the subject from how Republicans are kissing Rush's boots. They must believe the country was asleep for the last eight years if they think their crocodile tears over partisanship are going to do them any good now.

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From The Daily Show March 3, 2009. Stewart takes on the GOP's fearless leader Rush Limbaugh by reminding us all of just what a great compassionate conservative he is and he hits Michael Steele for his spinelessness for not standing up to him. He even manages to get a shot in at good old Bill-O for his culture wars to boot before he's finished. Well done Jon!

If anyone thought the late night comedians were going to run out of material when Bush left office they were sadly mistaken. The drama queens on the right are proving to be an endless supply of punch lines. It's too bad they're willing to take our country into the abyss while providing it.

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Part of the panel discussion on Larry King Live March 3, 2009. I was really hoping I'd seen the last of former Koch Energy lobbyist and McCain campaign spokesperson Nancy Pfotenhauer when he lost the election, but sadly not. The discussion starts out with the topic du jour of whether it is effective or not for the Democrats to be tagging Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the Republican party and Arianna Huffington says the important thing to remember is how we got to where we are rather than focusing on Rush Limbaugh.

Pfotenhauer and Larson have their GOP talking points down as usual but this particular statement hit me as one our side needs to be challenging whenever they say it and that didn't happen here.

Pfotenhauer: Clearly we can debate and I would love to how we got to where we are and actually let me answer one of Arianna's earlier points and say that the thing that George Bush did wrong and that Republicans as well as Democrats did wrong is they spent the taxpayers' money carelessly. They were, they were, it was a taxpayer funded party for eight years.

Now my problem is that President Obama is George Bush on steroids when it comes to spending. He has met him and raised him and he's added like I said tax increases into the mix. If he were advocating economic policies that were good for this country I would support him. I supported him when he's talked about things like entitlement reform. But when he advocates things that are bad for Americans it's people's duty to challenge him. That's patriotic.

When any of these talking heads says something like this they need to immediately be called out and asked what Social Security would look like right now if the GOP had had their way and privatized it. How's that stock market looking to you right now Nancy? And they need to be told that NO, the GOP does not want to support anything that the Democrats are trying to do right now whether they think it is good for the country or not. They want Democrats to adopt Republican ideas or they're going to obstruct. And the only new ideas they have are the same ones they've had for thirty years or more.

Stephanie Miller reminds Pfotenhauer just who the tax cuts under Obama's plan will be going to.

Miller: Nancy, Barack Obama's doing the exact same thing he said during the campaign. 95% of Americans are getting a tax cut under this plan. It is the top 1% that's finally paying their fair share. You Larry.

Pfotenhauer: How can they pay more than the 70% they already pay?

It sure sounds like she's trying to leave the impression that there is someone out there in a 70% tax bracket while leaving herself some wiggle room if she's challenged on it later.

From Air America's Break Room Live:

The Conservative Political Action Committee finished up last week, with some great hope for the future of the republican party. Sam Seder looks at why.