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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) says that President Barack Obama "is the most radical president we've ever seen," but Republicans who failed to stick to conservative principles are also to blame for the nation's problems.

In an interview that aired Wednesday on Pat Robertson's 700 Club, CBN's David Brody told Cruz that the media had dubbed him "the Republican Barack Obama" and a "GOP rock star."

"I try to pay very little attention to the media," Cruz insisted. "It is, as you know, a fickle creature."

Instead, Brody said Cruz was focused on creating a "new Republican Party."

"I think President Obama is the most radical president we've ever seen, but I think an awful lot of Republicans failed to stand for principle and contributed to getting us into this mess," the senator explained.

During an appearance at a weapons manufacturer in Texas on Tuesday, Cruz accused both Democrats and Republicans of trying to "silence" him for using McCarthyism to smear Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel with suggestions that the former Nebraska senator had taken $200,000 from North Korea.

"Washington has a long tradition of trying to hurl insults to silence those who they don't like what they're saying," Cruz told the crowd.

"A lot of media attention has been focused on the attacks leveled on me and I would encourage all of you if you want to write stories on that great, knock yourself out, but I would ask for every ten stories you write, attacking me, perhaps write one story on the substance of Chuck Hagel's record."

Salon's Joan Walsh on Wednesday observed that Cruz was just the latest tea party lawmaker to use former Sen. Joe McCarthy's tactics while playing the victim.

"Playing the persecuted, he challenged reporters to at least investigate Hagel a little bit while they’re attacking him," Walsh wrote. "That’s good advice. Because if they do, they’ll find no substance to Cruz’s charges in Hagel’s 'record,' but a lot of substance to charges that he’s a 21stcentury Joe McCarthy in Cruz’s."

(h/t: The Huffington Post)

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As Susie already noted here, Elizabeth Warren's first chance to ask questions as a member of the Senate Banking Committee and to take some of these SEC chairs to task for not prosecuting anyone on Wall Street for their behavior, apparently hurt some of the bankers' feelings. MSNBC's Chuck Todd used the occasion to play the Villagers' favorite false equivalency game and compare wingnut McCarthyite Sen. Ted Cruz to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Funny, how he sounds an awful lot like that anonymous Wall Street executive who was complaining about her.

And as Susie also pointed out, Warren telling the truth is not the same as Cruz' sorry display. What's really pathetic about Todd and and his cheap shot at Warren here is that even his colleague Chris Matthews went after Cruz and his attacks on Hagel for being the "new McCarthyism" in one of his segments on Hardball this Friday.

What I found humorous about the segment above is that even though Todd and his guests, Ruth Marcus and Michael Steele, did their best to be dismissive of Warren by even mentioning her in the same sentence as Cruz, you could also tell something else: They're scared to death of her.

Marcus admitted that maybe it was alright because Warren "was in her wheelhouse" (which I'd say is the understatement of the year), and they all had to admit that she'd be formidable if she decided to run for president -- -- although I find putting her in the same category as Marco Rubio is insulting as well.

There is no "Marco Rubio of the left," because the left doesn't need to prop up the few members of their party who are minorities to try to cover for their racist policies.

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Esquire's Charles Pierce hit the nail on the head with his assessment of this Thursday's confirmation hearing of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense -- and you can watch part of Sen. Lindsey Graham's petulant display during the hearing in the clip above.

Today In Hagel Bashing:

It was a bizarre, devotional exercise. Hagel was not being asked for his qualifications to lead the Department Of Defense — which, it should be noted, is largely an administrative one when it comes to the country's foreign relations. He was being asked to engage in a vague kind of theological debate. He was not being asked to profess his faith to Israel so much as to recant his heresies against the policies of the United States that were produced by adherents of a certain sect. He wasn't being asked to endorse Bibi Netanyahu so much as he was being asked to recant his unorthodox opinions as regarding the good works of Bill Kristol or John McCain. He was being asked, en ensemble, by Republicans old and young, essentially the same question John McCain spent six minutes hollering into the wind.

Please admit that we were right.

No. You were wrong. You were wrong in 2003 and you were wrong in 2006 and the Iraq war was a murderous cock-up from start to finish and Hagel, at least, figured that out in midstream.

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Lawrence O'Donnell tore Senators Lindsey Graham and his BFF John McCain to shreds in his rewrite segment this Wednesday evening and I have to say, I can't think of a more deserving pair after their hypocritical treatment of Amb. Susan Rice this week.

McCain and Graham attack Susan Rice. Hypocrisy?:

Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham vowed to block U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice for a potential cabinet position after her remarks on the deadly Benghazi attack. Yet not so long ago, they defended Condoleezza Rice over her misinformed Iraq WMD testimony.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell called out these top Republicans senators over their apparent double standard in Wednesday’s Rewrite segment on The Last Word.

“Lindsey Graham and John McCain are the same guys who had no problem voting for another woman named Rice to be Secretary of State. And they cast those votes after Condoleezza Rice failed miserably as George W. Bush’s national security adviser after she and everyone else in the Bush administration misread the intelligence on Iraq’s, as it turned out, nonexistent weapons of mass destruction program.”

The Republicans criticized Susan Rice for appearing on Sunday talk shows, prematurely claiming protests over an anti-Islamic video were the cause of the deadly Sept. 11 attacks, instead of calling the assault a premeditated strike. The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans died in the chaos.

Rice, who has not been formally nominated for a position, is reportedly a front-runner for the Secretary of State post, soon to be vacated by Sec. Hillary Clinton.

O’Donnell accused Graham of “lying Joe McCarthy-style” for calling Susan Rice “’an essential player in the Benghazi debacle.”

McCain, who selected Sarah Palin to be a heartbeat away from the White House, said Susan Rice is “not qualified.” He said, “Anyone who goes on national television in defiance of the facts five days later–we’re all responsible for what we say and what we do.”

As O'Donnell noted at the end of his segment: "John McCain and his fellow traveler, the little liar Lindsey Graham, stopped being responsible for what they say and what they do a long, long time ago."

Hey Lawrence, Graham is going to be on your buddy and Karl Rove dance partner, David Gregory's show this weekend. Too bad he's one of the people who won't hold him accountable as well, but you'll never hear O'Donnell call out by name since they work for the same network.

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After recapping the whole witch hunt by Bachmann and her fellow House members going after Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and Newt Gingrich's defense of Bachmann on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer this Wednesday, Colbert had this response to Gingrich's defense of Bachmann's McCarthyism:

COLBERT: Yes, it takes a brave man to randomly accuse someone of something horrible, based on no evidence and then demand they refute the evidence that you don't have. So tonight, I am accusing Newt Gingrich of being a baby-eating werewolf. There it is. It's out there now.

Do I have evidence? No. But someone has to stand up to him. Where do I find the courage?

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I've got to wonder why CNN thinks interviewing the washed up, flame throwing, race baiting, ex-Speaker of the House is worth putting on the air with little or no rebuttal. But sadly, here was Newt Gingrich defending his buddy Michele Bachmann and her McCarthyism and host Wolf Blitzer doing very little to counter it.

Gingrich Glorifies McCarthyism To Defend His Support Of Bachmann’s Anti-Muslim Witch Hunt:

Today on CNN, Newt Gingrich applauded the central tenets of McCarthyism to justify his support for Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) baseless campaign to root out alleged Muslim Brotherhood infiltration of the U.S. government. Host Wolf Blitzer singled out Bachmann target Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, telling Gingrich that it’s “ridiculous” to include her and that the whole thing reeks of McCarthyism. But the former House Speaker — and Mitt Romney supporter — wouldn’t back down, praising McCarthyism for rooting out communists and defending Abedin’s inclusion in Bachmann’s witch hunt. “This State Department has been amazingly pro-Muslim Brotherhood,” he said, “American citizens have the right to have the Congress ask the question.” [...]

Bachmann has been widely criticized for her anti-Muslim campaign, including by some top Republicans, particularly for singling out Abedin. But the Minnesota congresswoman has yet to offer substantial proof of any Muslim Brotherhood plot. In fact, actual members of the Islamist group have recently lamented that they can’t even take over the Egyptian government.

You could tell Blitzer was plenty irritated with Gingrich for attacking someone he's friends with, but that didn't stop him from allowing Gingrich from doing his best to justify the witch hunt and with treating Gingrich with a whole lot more deference than he deserved, to put it mildly. I had zero respect for Blitzer before watching this interview. The fact that he could sit there and allow someone like Gingrich attack a friend of his like this without pushing back further is really disgusting. Every time I think CNN can't do something to make sure their ratings tank even further, they manage to surprise me and one up themselves as they did here.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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I say good for Jim Graves for calling out fearmongering Rep. Michele Bachmann for her McCarthyism. Sadly, all that money she's raising off of the hatred is exactly why John Boehner won't do anything about it.

Bachmann Opponent Calls Her Joe McCarthy In New Video:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is touting her $1 million fundraising haul last month, which came as she faced criticism from both sides of the aisle over her comments about Muslims in the US government. In response, her Democratic opponent – hotel executive Jim Graves – launched a web video directly comparing her to former Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI):

“I have a message for Rep. Bachmann: it’s nothing to be proud of,” Graves said of his opponent's fundaising in an email to supporters Thursday. “That money was the direct result of a hateful and dangerous witch-hunt that viciously smeared a dedicated public servant. It echoed of a dark time in our nation’s history that we thought was behind us.”

“McCarthyism was dangerous then,” Graves’ video reads. “It’s dangerous now.”

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This is the type of segment where CNN shows itself to be every bit as bad as Fox, where we're constantly treated to the false equivalency game when talking about crazy Republican members of Congress who've gone off the rails, as Rep. Allen West does just about every time the man opens his mouth.

Host Wolf Blitzer asks RNC Chair Reince Priebus about Allen West's statements at a campaign rally where he was bashing the Affordable Care Act and the Supreme Court's ruling on the matter and made the outrageous statement that President Obama would "rather have you be his slave" for possibly allowing taxes to go up and made the ridiculous analogy that everyone should possibly have to purchase a Glock 9mm handgun if you're going to make them purchase health insurance.

And of course rather than admit or say out loud that it is the Republican Party that is the problem and won't control the flame throwing mouthbreathers within their ranks, here's Blitzer pretending there's anyone on the Democratic side of the aisle acting the same way:

BLITZER: You're not going to defend that kind of language. And I deplore that kind of language when a Democrat says it or a Republican says it.

Note to Wolf Blitzer -- there is no equivalent on the Democratic side of the aisle to Allen West's insanity. We don't have anyone acting like McCarthy and calling members of the other party Communists. But Republicans have a whole bunch of them in their ranks, a few of which were actually running for president during this primary season.

And how pathetic is it that Reince Priebus can't dare renounce West here? Is he so afraid of the racists in the Republican base that he can't refute this kind of talk? It's really just shameful, but Republicans have proven they're incapable of feeling shame, so getting them to change their ways out of any sense of decency isn't going to happen, because they don't have any.

Transcript of their exchange below the fold.

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Fox is always terrible when it comes to letting little Joe McCarthy Jr. Bachmann run amok with wild accusations against the Obama administration, but this one with Uma Pemmaraju from this Saturday's America's News Headquarters was particularly awful. Bachmann is now calling the Mexican drug cartels "terrorists." She's pretending that Republicans have an ounce of concern for gun control or that the problem with the guns showing up in Mexico is not something they and the NRA have created themselves with terribly weak gun control laws.

She asserts criminal behavior because President Obama used his powers of executive privilege all of one time to ward off a Republican witch hunt, never mind the fact that she made no such assertions when her best buddy George W. Bush invoked it six times.

She also thinks there is some conspiracy theory behind the media giving more attention to the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act instead of the contempt vote against Eric Holder, blaming the media of course and ignoring that John Boehner was the one who decided to intentionally schedule the vote on the same day, knowing full well it would get buried because he wanted it to be.

She also had the audacity to complain about the administration leaking given her track record, or the fact that it's ridiculous to pretend that they all don't leak when it's politically convenient for them. Regardless of Bachmann's assertions here, this is not the first or the worst, or sadly the last administration that's going to leak classified information when it suits them. The fact that this woman was given a spot on the House Intelligence Committee is a tragedy in its own right.

Rough transcript below the fold.

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(YouTube)

Rep. Keith Ellison's (D-MN) emotional closing remarks today at the House Committee on Homeland Security and their inquiry into the extent of radicalization among American Muslims. The committee is chaired by Rep. Peter King (R-NY).

ELLISON: Let me close with a story, but remember that it’s only one of many American stories that could be told. Mohammed Salman Hamdani was a 23-year-old paramedic, a New York City police cadet and a Muslim American. He was one of those brave first responders who tragically lost their lives in the 9/11 terrorist attacks almost a decade ago. As The New York Times eulogized, “He wanted to be seen as an all-American kid.” [...] Mr. Hamdani bravely sacrificed his life to try and help others on 9/11. After the tragedy some people tried to smear his character solely because of his Islamic faith. Some people spread false rumors and speculated that he was in league with the attackers only because he was Muslim. It was only when his remains were identified that these lies were fully exposed. Mohammed Salman Hamdani was a fellow American who gave his life for other Americans. His life should not be defined as a member of an ethnic group or a member of a religion, but as an American who gave everything for his fellow citizens. I yield back.

As Think Progress noted, "Hamdami’s mother, Talat Hamdani, is at the hearings today. She works with September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, which opposes the hearings."