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While discussing the media's latest obsession with this "trifecta" of "scandals" -- which, as we've written about here time and again, for the most part aren't actually "scandals" at all, but the right wing throwing as much poop against the wall as possible to see what sticks, so no one pays any attention to the fact that the Republican party has absolutely no interest in governing -- one of the boys from Tiger Beat On The Potomac accidentally let one slip on Charlie Rose's show this Wednesday.

I'm guessing there will be a few Republicans upset with the fact that Politico's Mike Allen told PBS host Charlie Rose that the only reason they're going to keep hammering on Benghazi, which as Allen admitted, most of the public doesn't even understand, is that they want to use it against Hillary Clinton if she runs for president.

To which I respond... duh? I've said that here so many times I've lost count, but no one really cares about what I think or the media would have been hammering them about their motives on this drummed up scandal a long time ago. This is just the first time I've ever heard anyone who actually gets some national news coverage and who has access to Republican politicians like Allen ever say that behind closed doors, Republicans are admitting this out loud.

ALLEN: Privately, Republicans say that Benghazi probably wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for Hillary Clinton. Unlike the IRS...

ROSE: If this wasn't for her in 2016, this wouldn't be an issue?

ALLEN: Yeah, because it's something that people don't understand. Even the White House will tell you it's never going to be resolved to anyone's satisfaction, but there is going to be a real effort to make it last.

And when we're talking about these three controversies, we should remember, world event history tells us that world events can change everything. Somebody pointed out to me that if the Boston marathon happened next week, this would all look different.

ROSE: Right.

Here's to hoping that the public is more than weary of this stuff long before the next presidential election. I've had my fill of it a while ago. I'd much rather see someone like an Elizabeth Warren run for president in the first place since I'm tired of these Democratic "centrists" competing to see who can govern the most like a Republican and I sure as hell don't feel like watching this nonsense get rehashed in a few years if Clinton does throw her hat in the ring as most expect her to.

I'm not sure what it will take to make Republicans realize they've overreached on a bunch of these "scandals" but I suspect nothing short of being booted out of office is going to make much of a difference any time soon.

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Christine O'Donnell appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher this Friday evening during the segment immediately following his opening monologue and blamed her witch ad debacle on her advisers and wanted to get into it with Maher over whether it's fair or not to continue to blame Bush for the troubles with the economy we're still having today. Thankfully, her time was cut short since she was not a member of the panel on the show - or at least she wasn't until the Internet only Overtime segment.

As with all of his shows, Bill Maher always brings all of the guests back in for the on-line version only end of his show and listening to the stupidity that came out of Christine O'Donnell's mouth during this segment was just truly astounding. She was asked how she rectified her supposed "small government conservatism" with the intrusion into people's lives with her social beliefs, and she pretty much spent the entire rest of the segment tying herself in knots, not being able to explain the differences between or need for states' rights and when the federal government needs to step in, revising history, and just making crap up when it suited her.

The other guests who were uselessly trying to reason with her, which was pretty much impossible since you can't reason with someone who's head is thick as a brick, mainly looked like they were all just ready to bang their own heads on the desk by the time this thing was over.

I can honestly say I pity David Simon, Steve Schmidt, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jim VandeHei, well, maybe not VandeHei, but the rest of them for having to sit through this debacle and try to argue with this know nothing teabagger.

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Politico on Thursday suspended their veteran White House correspondent after several conservative websites complained that he had observed that presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared to be more comfortable when he's around white people.

During a Thursday discussion with MSNBC's Martin Bashir about why Romney was trailing President Barack Obama among minorities, Politico's Joe Williams, who is black, noted that the candidate was most relaxed and unscripted on Fox & Friends where the people were white like him.

"It’s very interesting that he does so many appearances on Fox & Friends," Williams pointed out. "And it’s unscripted. It’s the only time they let Mitt off the leash, so to speak."

He continued: "But it also points out a larger problem he’s got to solve if he wants to be successful come this fall: Romney is very, very comfortable, it seems, with people who are like him. That’s one of the reasons why he seems so stiff and awkward in some town hall settings, why he can’t relate to people other than that."

"But when he comes on Fox & Friends, they’re like him. They’re white folks who are very much relaxed in their own company."

In a report on their website on Friday, Politico pointed to conservative websites Washington Free Beacon and Breitbart.com for flagging the remarks on MSNBC and tweets where Williams allegedly mocked Romney's wealth.

"Regrettably, an unacceptable number of Joe Williams's public statements on cable and Twitter have called into question his commitment to this responsibility," founders John Harris and Jim VandeHei wrote in a memo to Politico staff. "His comment about Governor Romney earlier today on MSNBC fell short of our standards for fairness and judgment in an especially unfortunate way."

"This appearance came in the context of other remarks on Twitter that, cumulatively, require us to make clear that our standards are serious, and so are the consequences for disregarding them. This is true for all POLITICO journalists, including an experienced and well-respected voice like Joe Williams."

"POLITICO journalists have a clear and inflexible responsibility to cover politics fairly and free of partisan bias," they added.

According to The New York Times, Romney has appeared on Fox & Friends 21 times in the last year alone.

(h/t: Mediaite)

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As Digby pointed out, The Politico's Jim VandeHei went on the air and basically said that the NAACP provoked Breitbart into posting his doctored video because they were being mean to those non-racist tea baggers by pointing out the racist elements within the movement.

VandeHei did nothing but remind me of why I have an extreme amount of disdain for the Drudge hacks over there at their site that got themselves pushed into the main stream riding the Drudge gossip rag model of hyping whatever unsourced bull pucky our political class wants to push into the media without having their name attached to it, but that causes a buzz on the Internet and gives the hacks in what passes for journalism in the "mainstream" media an excuse to repeat their stories as though they are news and not spin and with of course no reporting on just who fed the story line to the hacks over at The Politico or Drudge to begin with and who wanted it to become a headline for the day.

Anyone who's willing to do interviews with Dick Cheney where he receives no push back and then just regurgitates his crap unquestioned into our political dialog as The Politico has done really doesn't deserve any time on our airways, but there on MSNBC are these hacks as part of their news coverage and on a ton of their shows, day after day as though they've got anything other to offer us than Republican Party line spin for the day when they're on.

For more on that there's the reporting from Media Matters on what we're seeing VandeHei participate in here. The Right-wing Media Spin Cycle: Lie, Terrify, Win, Repeat.

This interview was no exception. Digby was also kind enough to take the time to time to transcribe VandeHei's hackery and that's below the fold.

Continue reading »

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Looks like Joe Scarborough did his part to help Eric Cantor throw House Majority Leader John Boehner under the bus this morning.

From Raw Story GOP leader denies charge he’s out bar-hopping every night:

House Minority Leader John Boehner has a reputation among Washington insiders for his hard-partying ways, but public suggestions that Boehner might have a drinking problems have been a rarity. That's what makes MSNBC host Joe Scarborough's remarks about the Ohio Republican's bar-hopping habits worthy of notice.

"I hear it on the Hill, I'm sure you hear it on the Hill all the time, it's not reported," Scarborough told a guest from Politico on Wednesday's Morning Joe. "But so many Republicans tell me that this is a guy that is not the hardest worker in the world."

"After five o'clock, six o'clock at night he's disengaged -- at best," Scarborough continued. "You can see him around town. He does not have, let's say, the work hours of Newt Gingrich. ... Every Republican I talk to says that John Boehner, by five or six at night, you can see him at bars."

A Boehner spokesman quickly denied Scarborough's claims in an email to Politico, writing that "Boehner grew up with 11 brothers and sisters and his dad owned a bar, but the only time he’s ‘around town’ these days is to raise money for our House Republican team." Read on...

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I posted Andrea Mitchell's segment on this earlier. Now it's Tweety's turn to regurgitate gossip rag The Politico's stenography for old five deferments Dick Cheney. I'm sure every "news" outlet in the country will be following suit before the night's over. Matthews asks Jim VandeHei if Cheney just has a grude against President Obama and after VandeHei answers him follows up with this:

Matthews: No what I mean by a grudge...I'm asking you for something that is reportable. The fact that he was easily available, you were able to get him for this interview, the fact that he's giving this harangue against the President for ninety minutes. That he's devoted himself in a way that Condi Rice has not, that George W. Bush has not, that Rumsfelf has not. He has singled himself out for this duty of attacking the President like a rear gunner on an airplane. The fact that he's singled himself out for this duty--does that tell you that he has a grudge that's personal?

Uh Chris...there's nothing dutiful about what Dick Cheney is doing right now. And it really gets old hearing you refer to these chickenhawks as though they're some brave warriors fighting battles when all they're actually doing is taking cheap political shots at the President, with your help. If I hear the words Cheney and guns together I sure as hell don't think of airplanes. Friend's faces and small tame animals being killed at close range come to mind instead.

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From Think Progress--Politico’s Allen And VandeHei ‘Interview’ Cheney So That They Can Write His Op-Ed:

Despite Cheney’s well-known and worn-out attacks on Obama, Politico’s Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei secured an interview with the former vice president in order to inform their readers today of the shocking revelation that Cheney thinks Obama is projecting “weakness” on Afghanistan. The paper’s top reporters sat down with Cheney for a 90-minute interview and transcribed Cheney’s attacks without challenge, criticism, or rebuttal.

[...]

Instead of playing Dick Cheney ghostwriters, perhaps Allen and VandeHei can take a lesson from McClatchy’s Jonathan Landay on how to fact check his baseless smears.

I would say Andrea Mitchell could take a lesson from them as well instead of hyping The Politico's "exclusive interview".

Speaking of pathetic journalism, what is Jon Meacham smoking with this article: Why Dick Cheney Should Run in 2012:

I think we should be taking the possibility of a Dick Cheney bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 more seriously, for a run would be good for the Republicans and good for the country. (The sound you just heard in the background was liberal readers spitting out their lattes.)

Why? Because Cheney is a man of conviction, has a record on which he can be judged, and whatever the result, there could be no ambiguity about the will of the people. The best way to settle arguments is by having what we used to call full and frank exchanges about the issues, and then voting. A contest between Dick Cheney and Barack Obama would offer us a bracing referendum on competing visions. One of the problems with governance since the election of Bill Clinton has been the resolute refusal of the opposition party (the GOP from 1993 to 2001, the Democrats from 2001 to 2009, and now the GOP again in the Obama years) to concede that the president, by virtue of his victory, has a mandate to take the country in a given direction. A Cheney victory would mean that America preferred a vigorous unilateralism to President Obama's unapologetic multilateralism, and vice versa.