DOWNLOADS: (83)

PLAYS: (222)

Embed

Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) on Sunday declared that President Barack Obama should not put "any limits" on U.S. military involvement in the civil war that's being waged in Syria.

"I don't think you can place any limits on it right now," Chambliss told NBC's David Gregory. "I do think it's imperative that [President Bashar] Assad be removed. It's pretty obvious that he's pretty well entrenched now. He's gone to the extreme of letting Hezbollah have the run of Syria. That is simply not good."

"And while I know there are bad guys involved with the opposition rebels, we've done a pretty good job of ferreting out who are the good guys or who are the more moderate guys in that opposition, and I'm certain that's who the president is talking about providing arms to."

Chambliss added that the "military alternatives have got to be examined almost day-to-day."

"And if the military says that we need to implement a no-fly zone, we ought to do it right away," he insisted. "A no-fly zone may be the ultimate tactic that has to be taken."

DOWNLOADS: (102)

PLAYS: (849)

Embed

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Sunday that he favored former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) as a 2016 presidential candidate, but no Republican could win unless comprehensive immigration reform was passed because the party was in a "demographic death spiral."

"I think we're going to have a political breakthrough, the Congress is going to pass immigration reform," Graham told NBC host David Gregory. "I think we're going to get plus 70 [votes in the Senate], I've never been more optimistic about it."

Gregory wondered if Graham thought that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) meeting last week with former President Bill Clinton (D) would boost his prospects for a 2016 presidential run.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (80)

PLAYS: (391)

Embed

Someone needs to ask Sen. Chuck Schumer to watch a few of Lawrence O'Donnell's recent segments on this so-called IRS "scandal" regarding the tax exempt status of these "social welfare" groups that are really just political organizations that want to hide their donor list.

Had Schumer been watching O'Donnell's show, he'd already know that the law on the books says that 501(c)(4) groups are supposed to be operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare. We don't need a new law allowing them to have 10 percent of their activities involved in politicking as Schumer suggested on this Sunday's Meet the Press. We need to ask the IRS to start following the law as it is written already.

GREGORY: You lobbied the IRS to look into these groups. You didn't specify conservative groups, but there are those on the right who say that you and others effectively did, that you were really targeting conservative groups not to be given that tax exempt status.

SCHUMER: No, that's absolutely not true. First our letter came a year and a half after they started targeting the tea party, so it couldn't have caused it. That's for sure. But second, look at what our letter said. It says form a bright line and determine how much political activity a so-called social welfare organization can do before they lose their tax exempt status.

Our letter is actually the solution. I would propose that we say, we pass legislation that more than 10 percent, if more than 10 percent of your activity is political activity, you lose your tax exemption. And if you had a bright line, it wouldn't be up to some bureaucrat to make their own determination, perhaps wrongly based on political leans. It would be the same standard for all groups, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican.

That's what we need and our letter is actually the solution to the problem.

DOWNLOADS: (421)

PLAYS: (6018)

Embed

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart ripped former Reagan speech writer and fan girl Peggy Noonan for her selective memory on Meet the Press this past Sunday where she seemed to forget all about her former boss St. Ronnie and his problem called Iran-Contra.

STEWART: Now, think hard Peggy Noonan. Never in your lifetime have you seen a scandal this bad? What if the president secretely sold weapons to Iran in return for American hostages and then used the proceeds to illegally fund a bunch of coked up right-wing jungle rapists in Nicaragua? Ring a bell? Here's a hint. You worked in his White House as a high profile speech writer.

Stewart followed up by playing some old footage of her from back in 2001, where she was making excuses for The Gipper and claiming that he "wanted to help the hostages" "but it spun out of control and Reagan by the end was surprised at some of the things that had happened." And of course it was also just "bad luck."

STEWART: Bad luck! Reagan was just on the wrong place at the wrong time. Specifically the White House during his own administration. This Iran-Contra wasn't a ahhmmm... it wasn't a scandal.

NOONAN from 2002: It was a mistake. It wasn't a disaster, but it was a mistake.

STEWART: Mistake! It's like writing the wrong date on a check... or writing the wrong address on a box marked weapons. Oops...

So how about Obama? Is he off the hook then for his mistakes?

Of course it goes without saying that those two aren't held the same standard in Noonan-world. After reading some of her book about her imaginary boyfriend, Stewart wrapped things up by noting:

STEWART: But here's the deal. You can't really get so upset about Obama if you've written the book, Fifty Shades of Greygan.

As we already discussed here, Donald Rumsfeld found himself getting a nice softball interview from NBC's David Gregory this weekend on Meet the Press, but not all of his book tour has gone quite as smoothly as the big wet kiss he got from Gregory this Sunday.

Majority FM's Sam Seder walked his listeners though some of the highlights of Rumsfeld's contentious interview with American Public Media's Kai Ryssdal, who, as the KOS diary I linked in the prior post on the subject noted, asked "Rumsfeld some of the questions we've all wanted to ask."

As Seder noted, Rumsfeld might be looking to find himself a new publicist after that one, since he certainly didn't expect anyone to actually hold him accountable for his actions during the Bush administration and our invasion of Iraq. Seder says he hopes that it's not the last time he's subjected to an interview like this one because the government sure isn't going to hold him accountable, but I wouldn't hold my breath on whether he'll let it happen ever again.

Sadly, we're not going to see the corporate media hold him accountable either. We're going to see more interviews like the shameful one we got from David Gregory or we won't see him on the air at all.

One final note on the video above: Seder incorrectly identified Kai Ryssdal as working for NPR. He works for APM.

DOWNLOADS: (170)

PLAYS: (2889)

Embed

So just how overblown does your scandal mongering and false equivalencies have to get before they're even too much for NBC's David Gregory to stomach without some push back? Peggy Noonan found out this Sunday on Meet the Press, after writing an op-ed this week which called these trumped up "scandals" the media has been fixating on "the worst Washington scandal since Watergate."

As Gregory pointed out to Noonan, the administration she worked for well after the Watergate scandal had that pesky little problem called Iran-Contra that she somehow forgot to mention in her article. Of course, reminding her about St. Ronnie's problems didn't seem to faze her one bit:

GREGORY: Peggy Noonan, you wrote something this week that really struck me in your column on Friday. And I want to put it up on the screen and ask you about it. “We are in the midst,” you write, “Of the worst Washington scandal since Watergate. The reputation of the Obama White House has, among conservatives, gone from sketchy to sinister, and, among liberals, from unsatisfying to dangerous. No one likes what they’re seeing. [The IRS and AP scandals] have left the administration’s credibility deeply, probably irretrievably damaged. They don’t look jerky now, they look dirty. The patina of high-mindedness the president enjoyed is gone.”

I have to say, Peggy, what you don’t talk about here is an administration for a man that you worked for who led the Iran-Catra-- Contra scandal where they ran a secret war and lied to Congress and all the rest. Over-- overstatement here?

PEGGY NOONAN: I don’t think so. I think this is-- what is going on now is all three of these scandals makes a cluster that implies some very bad things about the forthcomingness of the administration and about its ability to at certain dramatic points do the right thing. And I got to tell you, the-- you-- everyone can argue about which of these things is most upsetting, but this IRS thing is something I’ve never seen in my lifetime. It is the revenue gathering arm of the U.S. government…

GREGORY: Peggy-- Peggy, wait a second.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (88)

PLAYS: (502)

Embed

Yes, who better to ask about "government accountability" than war criminal Donald Rumsfeld? It seems the producers of Meet the Press and host David Gregory are doing their best to become a parody of Fox "News" - because that's certainly what they gave us this Sunday by allowing Rumsfeld on there for this softball interview.

We didn't get any questions about the invasion of Iraq, or torture, or whether Rumsfeld has any remorse about his actions during the Bush administration, but we were treated to him being asked about sexual assaults in the military, the IRS, Benghazi and of course he got plenty of time to hawk his new book.

Note to David Gregory: Here's how an interview with Donald Rumsfeld should be conducted if you want to call yourself a "journalist." -- Kai Ryssdal asks Rumsfeld some of the questions we've all wanted to ask.

UPDATE: Here's the transcript if you don't have the stomach for watching the clip.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (94)

PLAYS: (747)

Embed

Former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Sunday said that the debate over rights for LGBT people was "one sided" because Catholics were also being oppressed.

During a panel discussion on NBC's Meet the Press about gay NBA player Jason Collins, Gingrich quickly tried to change the subject from equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans to religious discrimination.

"I haven't heard you say if you think a Republican nominee for president can support gay marriage," NBC host David Gregory asked Gingrich.

"I doubt it," the former House Speaker replied. "I think that's up in the air, because I do think things are changing."

"But what I'm struck with is the one-sidedness of the desire for rights," Gingrich continued. "There are no rights for Catholics to have adoption services in Massachusetts, they're outlawed. There are no rights in D.C. for Catholics to have adoption services, they're outlawed. This passing reference to religion -- 'We sort of respect religion.' Well, sure. As long as you don't practice it."

"I think it will be good to have a debate over -- beyond this question of are you able to be gay in America, what does it mean? Does it mean that you actually have to affirmatively eliminate any institution which does not automatically accept that?"

The Grio Managing Editor Joy Reid pointed out that Catholic charities in Massachusetts had made the decision to halt all adoptions to prevent same sex couples from becoming parents.

"They withdrew them because they were told that you cannot follow Catholic doctrine, which is for marriage between a man and a woman," Gingrich insisted.

"I think the point is that you don't have the state telling religion what to believe," Reid observed. "If they oppose the idea of gay marriage within their religion they have the absolute right to do so. The question is whether or not religious institutions can make public policy."

"If the church is going to make our public policy, are we any longer a secular state?"

DOWNLOADS: (147)

PLAYS: (1293)

Embed

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who is a Muslim, told Rep. Peter King (R-NY) on Sunday that he was making a mistake with calls to profile the Islamic community in the United States because similar actions in the past had created a "national stain" on the country.

NBC host David Gregory noted in a Sunday interview with both congressmen that King had insisted to the National Review that law enforcement should not be "bound by political correctness" after two Muslim men with a Chechen background were accused of carrying out bombings at the Boston Marathon.

"Absolutely," King agreed. "What the NYPD is doing in New York with a thousand police officers focusing on this issue, knowing where the threat is coming from. Now, most Muslims are outstanding people, but the threat is coming from the Muslim community."

"You're a Muslim," Gregory pointed out to Ellison. "This concerns you on civil libertarian grounds and other areas."

"Well, I'm an American," Ellison replied. "And I'm concerned about national safety -- public safety -- just like everyone is. But I think it's ineffective law enforcement to go after a particular community. I think that what we need to do is look at behavior and follow those needs where they would lead."

"Once you start saying, we're going to dragnet or surveil a community, what you do is you ignore dangerous threats that are not in that community, and you go after people who don't have anything to do with it," he added, noting that the recent poison ricin letters sent to President Barack Obama and other elected officials were terrorist attacks that had not come from the Muslim community.

"And remember, we went after one community in World War II. And the Japanese internment is a nation stain on our country. And we are still apologizing for it."

King interrupted: "No one is talking about internment! We are talking about following the Constitution."

DOWNLOADS: (82)

PLAYS: (250)

Embed

On this Sunday's Meet the Press, Sen. John McCain continued to prove the point Chris Hayes made on his show this Friday about just who Congress is responsive to, and it's not your average citizen out there. McCain thinks we have "our priorities a little bit skewed" on these sequestration cuts, but of course there's only one area he's concerned about, and that's defense spending.

MCCAIN: Well I say with all due respect to my friends, it's a little bit hypocritical, the same day when all the focus was on the delays that we have in getting through airports, the Chief of Staff of the United States Army was saying that we're... if we don't reverse this, we're going to have a hollow army. We'll be unable to defend the nation and it would take us ten or fifteen years to recover.

I think we have our priorities a little bit skewed here. Look, I'm for giving the FAA flexibility, but I also want to give the military flexibility and I don't want these sequestration cuts to be as deep as they are on the issue of defense. We've got a lot of savings we can make in national security, but right now we are, in the words of the Secretary of Defense and our uniformed service chiefs, we're putting the security of this nation at risk.

McCain was basically repeating what he said in a press release from this Friday.