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While others in the media are finally acknowledging that the Benghazi "scandal" which Fox has been pushing for months on end is nothing but a witch hunt and that ABC's big "scoop" on White House emails just left egg on their face and was nothing but lies being fed to them by Republicans, what are they doing over at Fox?

You guessed it... still scandal-mongering over Benghazi. And of course there was no acknowledgement by anyone on the panel of Fox News Watch this Saturday that the Republicans were caught feeding lies to ABC News. In Fox-land, the talking points by Susan Rice are still supposedly a scandal. They're carping that the White House doesn't treat the press nicely enough to suit them and that they don't know how to handle their messaging properly -- because we all know if they were better at messaging and nicer to the press, Fox would then give them a fair shake, right? They haven't managed to make this fake scandal of theirs stick, but they're still grasping at straws to be outraged about.

I thought that maybe they would just move on, since they've got themselves a couple of new drummed up "scandals" to chase after as well, but apparently they're not ready to let this witch hunt go any time soon.

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Now that we've just had the opening of the George W. Bush library this Thursday, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart had field day with the former president and what he's been doing with his time compared to his counterparts, who are devoting themselves to public service or doing NGO work, in sharp contrast to Bush, who told CBS that he was painting "two or three hours a day."

STEWART: Sometimes it seems only a gallon of paint can... drown out the screams of those I've wronged. Plus, sometimes they let you use your fingers.

Stewart showed a portion of the softball interview with Bush given by Charlie Rose this week, asking him if he's getting any better at his painting and Bush responding that "It's all in the eyes of the beholder." Stewart concluded, "So in other words, art history will be the judge."

After showing news footage that the library is going to contain over 43,000 "artifacts" from the Bush presidency, Stewart concluded:

STEWART: So it's basically the Hard Rock Cafe of catastrophic policy decisions.

Stewart went on to take some shots at Bush and the reports on his rising poll numbers and why, and then wrapped things up with his "Senior Correspondent" Al Madrigal and the ridiculous "Decision Theater" on display at the library, or as they rightfully dubbed it here, "Disasterpiece Theater."

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Following today's niceties by his fellow former presidents and President Obama, who of course felt compelled to try to come up with something polite to say about George W. Bush at the opening of his library, Chris Hayes reminded his audience that, luckily, he and his staff are under "no obligation to be nice for the sake of being nice" to Bush.

Hayes proceeded to lay waste to the Bush apologists who have been doing their best to rewrite his legacy, such as Fox "News", Jennifer Rubin and a host of his former advisers who have been making the rounds on the talk shows these days.

And then there's the bizarre "choose your own adventure" video game being featured at the library and the fact that they're trying to paint Bush as a great president because he had to make "tough decisions," regardless of how horrible those decisions were.

HAYES: This does not sound like the kind of thing that's going to make everyone realize what a great president George W. Bush was. In fact, it sounds to me like the world's easiest video game. Invade a country for no reason, or don't invade a country for no reason? Don't invade a country for no reason.

Celebrate John McCain's birthday while a deadly storm hits New Orleans or don't celebrate John McCain's birthday while a deadly storm hits New Orleans? Don't celebrate John McCain's birthday while a deadly storm hits New Orleans. I could do this all day.

Torture people or don't torture people? Don't torture people. Deregulate and tax cut the country into financial ruin, or don't deregulate and tax cut the country into financial ruin? There is no reason people, to over-think the Bush presidency.

It was just as bad as you thought.

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Republican strategist Karl Rove engaged in some friendly -- if not tone deaf -- banter with Democratic strategist Donna Brazile on Sunday, joking that she owed him some "fried chicken."

During a panel discussion on ABC, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan noted that many conflicts within the Republican Party would be healed after a strong presidential candidate emerged.

"That was Bill Clinton after Walter Mondale lost, after Jimmy Carter lost," Brazile pointed out. "We had a dynamic governor who was reform minded, who took those reform issues and brought them into the national forefront. He really helped recharge the Democratic Party."

"But you know, the Republican Party is out to lunch," she added, turning to Rove. "I watched CPAC, Charles -- I mean, Karl... Charles was former friend."

"I thought I was a current friend," Rove laughed.

"You're always a friend," Brazile replied. "But you owe me some chili."

"You owe me some fried chicken," Rove joked with his best Southern drawl.

"Well, I saved your life with malaria once," the Democratic strategist recalled.

"Well, yes you did," Rove admitted.

"We go back a long way," Brazile quipped before moving on to point out that the Republican Party "continues to reject the majority of the American people."

"They don't want to be associated with a party that talks down to them, that's condescending, that attacks their rights and them calls them victims," she observed.

While Brazile did not appear to be offended by Rove's remark, certain foods like fried chicken and watermelon have a history of been used to stereotype and slur African-Americans.

"A bucket of fried chicken may suggest nasty racial stereotypes by virtue of its unwholesome image... as much as by its particular history as a plantation staple," Jesse Bering explained in a 2011 column for Slate. "As an unhealthy and inexpensive food, fried chicken invokes images of poverty, ignorance, sloth, and other racist associations."

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On the ten year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, there has been an awful lot of naval gazing by our media, sadly with most of it being revisionist history on what happened during the run up to that invasion and occupation, with a lot of glossing over just how complicit the media was in helping the neocons beat the war drums. And as Jeremy Scahill noted during this interview on Martin Bashir's show, there's still a lot to answer for by our politicians on both sides of the aisles -- but in particular, the neocons and Bush administration.

It's too bad there wasn't any accountability for his fellow guest on the program, Michael O'Hanlon, who supported the invasion and who was as guilty as the rest of them with enabling the neocons. Scahill sadly didn't go after O'Hanlon, but I appreciate what he was given a chance to say during the segment.

SCAHILL: People like Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith should not be able to show their faces in public in this country without being confronted with what they did to Iraq. I mean, the reality is... having spent time in Iraq throughout the '90's... many of the Iraqis I knew are dead. Many of the Iraqis that survived the war are displaced and with the millions of others that have been displaced.

Continue reading »

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The invitation of Ann Coulter to CPAC this year along with the rest of their guest list, continues to prove that they learned absolutely nothing from the last election. After making a weight joke about Gov. Chris Christie, who was shunned from the event, Coultergeist went on to explain that the reason Republicans lost the Senate is that some of their candidates, like Todd Akin, just failed to keep their mouths shut, and Democrats are supposedly the ones waging a war on women.

Ann Coulter CPAC: Pundit Tells Chris Christie Weight Joke, Calls Bill Clinton 'Forcible Rapist' :

Ann Coulter spoke at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, firing off an insult about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's snub from the annual conference.

"Even CPAC had to cut back on its speakers this year about 300 pounds," Coulter said.

Christie wasn't he only target of Coulter's insults. She also criticized President Barack Obama and made eyebrow-raising remarks about Sandra Fluke's haircut while addressing birth control and the war on women.

"That haircut is birth control enough," Coulter said of Fluke.

Perhaps her most extreme criticism was directed at President Bill Clinton.

"The keynote speaker at the Democrat National Convention this year was forcible rapist, Bill Clinton," Coulter said.

Keep keeing it klassy Annie. Here's more of some of her "greatest hits" from her speech this Saturday.

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Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Paul Begala participated in a debate with The Daily Caller's Tucker Carlson at the Conservative Political Action Conference this Thursday. He actually got in some good shots at Carlson when he called out the Republicans' hypocrisy with their carping about our debt and deficit.

BEGALA: Let me quote a conservative hero, Dick Cheney, who said Ronald Reagan taught us that deficits don't matter. As he was about everything, Dick Cheney was wrong. He was wrong then and he's wrong now. Of course deficits matter, but any one of you who supported the Bush tax cuts, the Bush war in Iraq, or the Bush prescription entitlement plan, has no business talking about debt. Now sit down, shut up and let the grown ups handle it.

You're welcome. I helped Bill Clinton balance the budget and build a surplus -- why? Because we had good economic times. In good economic times you pay down the deficit, as Clinton did, but Reagan did not and Bush did not. In bad times, you do have to stimulate in the near term, as thank God President Obama is doing.

But any of you who caused this deficit, this debt and deficit... no, no. You forgot the rule. You have to hush up if you supported creating the deficit. It's like listening to lectures on hygiene from Typhoid Mary.

For the most part, this debate of theirs was a good reminder of why Crossfire is no longer on the air and left me pining for Jon Stewart to intervene.

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I assume Rep. Paul Ryan was talking about Bill Clinton during this interview on Meet the Press, and not endorsing Hillary for 2016, since Erskine Bowles was Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff, but this is pretty rich coming from someone who helped to derail the Simpson-Bowles plan when he was a member of that commission.

You also gotta love Republicans praising Bill Clinton (the man their party impeached while he was in office and that they treated with about as much disdain as the current resident of the White House) as some great bipartisan savior with whom they're all enamored now.

I'm sure they do love some of the actual bipartisanship we got from Clinton, like bad trade deals and banking deregulation, but to pretend that this modern-day Republican party would be acting any better if we had a Clinton in office is laughable.

GREGORY: It was interesting, on the day of the inauguration Brian Williams and I and others were talking and we noticed some video during the luncheon after the inauguration. And one of the things that caught our eye was a great moment here, you have your back to us, but there are you and you're speaking. You're with Secretary Clinton but also President Clinton. And that's just one of those moments where you say, "Gosh, what were they talking about?" Any advice there coming from --

(crosstalk)

RYAN: We were talking about personal health. Both of us lost our dads when we were young and we were just talking. I got concussions when I was young and Hillary was talking about hers. And we were just kind of chumming it up. Look, if we had a Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles, Chief Staff of the White House or president of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now. That's not the kind of presidency we're dealing with right now.

GREGORY: And you don't blame conservatives, particularly in the House--

RYAN: Everybody. Look both--

GREGORY: --for thwarting the effort?

RYAN: Both parties. Forget about just the recent past. Both parties got us to the mess we are in, this fiscal crisis. Republicans and Democrats. And you know what? It's going to take both parties to solve this problem. That's the kind of leadership we need today.

GREGORY: So how do you think about 2016 and a presidential run?

PAUL RYAN: I don't.

GREGORY: You don't. You're not thinking about it now?

RYAN: I think it's just premature. I've got an important job to do. I represent Wisconsin. I'm chairman of the budget committee at the time we have a fiscal crisis. I think I can do my job representing the people I work for by focusing on that right now than focusing on these distant things.

GREGORY: But you'll take serious look at it?

RYAN: I'll decide later about that. Right now I'm just focused on this.

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CNN host Erin Burnett on Wednesday suggested that the National Rifle Association (NRA) had not crossed the line by targeting President Barack Obama's daughters in an advertisement.

The NRA advertisement released on Tuesday branded the president an "elitist hypocrite" for opposing armed guards in schools while his own daughters were being protected by the Secret Service. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney slammed the ad as "repugnant and cowardly" because "a president's children should not be used as pawns in a political fight."

Speaking to Burnett on Wednesday, CNN contributor Roland Martin agreed that the NRA was "weak and cowardly."

"There's no need to invoke the president's daughter's in this conversation," Martin insisted. "I can guarantee you that had anybody invoked the daughters of President George W. Bush in a similar ad attacking him, folks on the right would be just as upset. It makes no sense."

"But what about the fact that politicians use their kids when they want to politically all the time?" Burnett wondered.

The CNN host then displayed a photo of Bill and Hillary Clinton holding hands with their daughter Chelsea, followed by a second photo of Barack Obama with his arms around daughters Malia and Sasha.

Burnett explained: "Remember the famous picture of Chelsea Clinton, after the Monica Lewinski affair, walking between her parents? Or -- hold on, let me just finish -- this time before the DNC, when the White House released the picture of the president with his two daughters snuggling on the couch -- there it is -- watching Michelle Obama."

"You know, they use their children for political purposes when they want to," she opined.

"First of all, walking with Chelsea to the helicopter, they were going on vacation," Martin replied. "And so what are they supposed to do? Take her to another helicopter or through the back door or somewhere?"

"It was the hand holding!" Burnett interrupted.

"Okay, so what? If there was a photo and there was no hand holding then it's okay?" Martin shot back. "I mean, seriously, that is not the same as putting an ad out where you mentioning the president's daughters. It makes no sense. And, again, if you're the NRA, you don't have to actually do that, you don't have to go that far. If you want to do that, why don't you go to Chicago and say, 'How many armed guards are in Chicago schools where the president is from?' That's legitimate."

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I was very glad to see that Salon's Joan Walsh is about as tired of those in the media playing the "both sides" false equivalency game, where they compare the craziness that's become the mainstream on the right to some either nonexistent, or out of the mainstream entity on the left, for the sake of so-called balance or fairness, as I am.

It was nice to see her call out The Daily Beast's Lauren Ashburn for doing just that on this Wednesday's edition of Hardball with guest host Michael Smerconish filling in for Chris Matthews. Here's more on that from Walsh herself in her column at Salon: The wingnut trifecta:

Right-wing claims that Hillary Clinton faked illness to avoid testifying about the Benghazi tragedy would be funny if they weren’t so ugly. It’s the wingnut trifecta, smearing our most popular past Democratic president, Bill Clinton, along with our current president, Barack Obama, and the current 2016 front-runner, all with one shot. Imagine birtherism crossed with the worst of the hateful anti-Clinton lies, like the “Vince Foster was murdered” claim. That’s Hillary-health trutherism.[...]

I talked about the crazy Benghazi allegations on “Hardball” today and I was surprised to find myself in strong disagreement with the Daily Beast’s Lauren Ashburn. Ashburn acted shocked at the Clinton slurs; I argued they’re just the latest outbreak of Clinton-Obama derangement syndrome. But even more significant, Ashburn tried to declare that both sides are somehow equally to blame for the “incivility” of our current political debate, claiming that someone (she didn’t say who or where) had wished death on former President George Bush when the news broke that he was in the intensive care unit.

I’m on record, often, saying that false equivalence about haters on the right and left is dangerous. To equate Democrats and Republicans on this front, you’d have to imagine, say, Susan Rice suggesting something that crazy, not to mention unethical, about Mitt Romney’s secretary of state, had the 2012 race ended differently. And you can’t equate some random commenter on the HuffPost with people like Krauthammer and Hannity who have regular perches atop Fox News. That would be like Chris Matthews wishing death on the former president; it would never happen.

I agree completely, except I wasn't surprised by what Ashburn said. She's one of Howard Kurtz's favorite guests on his Sunday show on CNN where what she did during the Hardball segment is the norm and not the exception.

h/t Captain Kangaroo