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There were a great number of thing wrong with this interview on MSNBC, one being the fact that host Thomas Roberts and his producers thought that the public needed to hear from the corrupt former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert about the need for bipartisanship during these fiscal negotiations. Another is Hastert being allowed to get away with this statement:

ROBERTS: But sir, if you were able to hold the line on spending limits, then why would you go ahead to oversee two unfunded wars?

HASTERT: Look... the wars happened. I don't know if you were around at 9-11 but we lost 3000 people, but we ended up in Afghanistan. We also ended up in Iraq. You know, we can go back. History will tell us whether we should have been in Iraq, but at the time, we thought that was the right decision. We were not going to expose this country to that type of threat and we haven't had it since then.

Roberts just completely let Hastert off the hook here without an ounce of follow up. First off, he didn't answer the question about why they didn't see the need to pay for the two wars that they didn't want to put on the books to show the hole they were blowing in the budget. And second, it's just shameful that a politician is still being allowed to use 9-11 to justify invading Iraq.

And as far as Hastert and anyone wanting his advice on how someone should govern now, here's more from our archives on him, and he received the honor of being listed by Rolling Stone as one of the The Ten Worst Members of the Worst Congress Ever in Tim Dickinson's article which was originally posted in their Nov. 2006 issue. Here's a portion of that report:

The Highway Robber: Dennis Hastert (R-Ill)

Hastert could well be the weakest House speaker in history. Tapped by Tom DeLay to serve as the mild-mannered frontman for the GOP leadership, the former wrestling coach ceded most of his power to the now-disgraced majority leader, allowing Republicans to treat the Capitol as their private piggy bank. Last year, Hastert got in on the action himself, secretly inserting $207 million into the budget for the "Prairie Parkway" – a highway that will speed development of 210 acres he owns in Illinois. Before the year was out, Hastert sold part of his land – soon to be the site of a sprawling subdivision – for a profit of $2 million.

"Here's a guy who saw a chance to profit from his official acts and took it," says Bill Allison, who uncovered the late-night earmark as a senior analyst for the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan watchdog group. "Most of us aren't speaker of the House, and most of us don't have a $200 million earmark running through our back yard. Hastert does, and he made a fortune from it."

The speaker at least functions as a bipartisan defender of congressional corruption. In February 2005, he purged the chairman of the House Ethics Committee for daring to admonish DeLay. And after Rep. William Jefferson's offices were raided by the FBI last spring, it was Hastert who lodged the strongest protest on the Louisiana Democrat's behalf.

Bipartisanship! Ain't it grand?

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From this Friday evening's Real Time with Bill Maher, Bill slams the Republicans for running away from all of the recent leaders of their party and recent presidential and vice-presidential nominees at this year's Republican National Convention in his New Rules segment.

And finally New Rule, Republicans don't have to accept evolution, economics, climatology or human sexuality, but I just watched a week of their national convention, and I need them to admit the historical existence of George W. Bush.

If your party can run the nation for eight years and then have a national convention and not invite Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Karl Rove or Tom DeLay, you're not a political movement, you're the witness protection program.

In fact, Republicans, next time instead of holding a convention without your most recent president, your most recent vice-president, your most recent vice-presidential nominee and most of the runners up from your most recent primary, why not just wave one of those Men in Black memory eraser wands and say make us forget everything we know about you?

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By now everyone has probably heard the story about how Ted Nugent managed to get out of serving in the Vietnam war, where he literally quit bathing for a week and was urinating and defecating in his pants so the draft board would think he was insane. The Young Turks' Cenk Uygur took not only Nugent to task for his tough talk when it comes to people other than himself going to serve in our military interventions, but his fellow chickenhawks as well.

Uygur did not have any kinder words for Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay or Rush Limbaugh than he did for Nugent and went through the laundry list of deferments and reasons they gave later for why it was acceptable for them to stay at home while other families sent their sons off to fight and die in their place.

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Fox's Stuart Varney followed up with one of the GOP's "most prominent members" Tom DeLay on his statement that the Repubicans have to repeal the health-care law if they regain control of the Congress. Just another preview of what we're in for should they regain control; repeal, obstruct and defund everything while holding endless hearings.

DeLay: GOP in 'big trouble' if health law not repealed:

The Republican Party will be in "big trouble" if it does not repeal the healthcare reform law, former House GOP Leader Tom DeLay said Friday.

DeLay (Texas), who was recently dropped as the subject of a federal investigation, threw some sharp elbows at the Obama administration in an interview on MSNBC when asked what new ideas the GOP would put into place if it takes control of Congress this fall.

"They are going to have to reverse everything the Obama administration has done," he said. "If they don't repeal healthcare reform, they are going to be in big trouble."

Debate has swirled over what Republicans will do to block the healthcare law from taking effect.

Many lawmakers in the party now say a full repeal would not work with President Obama in office since he could veto the proposal. Some have argued that stripping the law of its funding would be a wiser strategy.

Still, other candidates and lawmakers want to push ahead with a full repeal measure, at least to show that they are committed to the idea.

DeLay rejected the argument that campaigning on healthcare repeal would hurt the party by drawing attention away from the economy, which is rated by voters as the top issue for the midterms.

"No, all you have to say is healthcare reform is destroying the economy and it will destroy it even more if it is allowed to go into effect," he said.

DeLay, whose pugnacious style earned him the nickname "The Hammer," accused the Obama administration of "trying to bamboozle the American people ever since it took office" and defended the GOP's governing credentials.

"Oh, they're definitely ready to govern," he said. "The leadership is in place" and the candidates are the type people want, he added.

Yeah, great leadership like that brain trust they've got in Boehner, Pence and Cantor. It would be nice if this guy finally gets convicted for money laundering so he's sitting in jail where he belongs instead of appearing on television.

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I agree with CREW's Melanie Sloan, this is a sad day for America. Now that Tom DeLay has managed to escape federal charges related to his dealings with Jack Abramoff, how long before Tweety's got DeLay back on his show kissing his butt? Here's the statement from CREW.

CREW: DELAY MUST ANSWER FOR HIS CRIMES:

In response to the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Executive Director Melanie Sloan released the following statement:

“It’s a sad day for America when one of the most corrupt members to ever walk the halls of Congress gets a free pass. As we continue the work of building a Washington that is worthy of the American people, the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Mr. DeLay for his actions sends exactly the wrong message to current and future members. The fact that Jack Abramoff and Bob Ney (R-OH) are the only two people who went to prison for one of the worst corruption scandals in congressional history is shocking. The Hammer belongs in the slammer. Mr. DeLay still has crimes to answer for in Texas – generally not considered the best place to be a criminal defendant.”

I'm not holding my breath for Texas to do anything to him either after this. Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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C.R.E.W's Melanie Sloan joined Dylan Ratigan fill-in Eliot Spitzer to discuss whether there was anything illegal or improper about the White House offering Joe Sestak the advisers position. Sloan said there was nothing "even remotely close to the line" of the offer being illegal and that Darrell Issa is just trying to play politics and "dirty up" Joe Sestak so that Pat Toomey can get elected to the Senate in Pennsylvania.

Sloan: As you know as a former prosecutor Eliot, bribery is a tough case to prove. You need an official act in exchange for a thing of value. You just don't have that case here. Darrell Issa is really trying to make politics out of this all by screaming about it and calling it illegal, he thinks that suddenly it will become illegal, but that's just not the way the law works. This may look a little bad. This may have an appearance problem but there is simply nothing illegal here.

Spitzer agreed with Sloan that it's not illegal and didn't even think it looks bad. Issa joined the set immediately following Sloan and of course he still wants an investigation. Issa isn't going to be happy until he finds something to have impeachment hearings on. He tells Spitzer he just wants everything out in the open and that will be the end of it. Riiigghhhtt. Just like when you guys went after Bill Clinton, right Darrell?

He also tried to compare what happened here to Tom DeLay offering a fellow Republican help getting their son elected to office. Spitzer told him that's not the same since there was not the same quid pro quo there. That didn't seem to faze Issa. He's not going to stop with this until, as Melanie Sloan said, the media quits paying attention to him. With Fox around, that's not likely to happen any time soon.

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Update: I'll add a bit of Digby's take on this.

Blame The Victim, Giggle Like Schoolgirls:

As far as this Sestak matter going away, I think MSNBC and the Politico is probably are probably good gauge of Village sentiment. Here's Eamon Javers on Andrea Mitchell's show.

...This reminds me of the Gore coverage. They justified their puerile attacks by saying he deserved what he got for being a stiff and boring poll who didn't parry the nonsense that the GOP freakshow was throwing at him and that disqualified him for the presidency. Hazing politicians on behalf of GOP operatives really should not be part of our political press coverage. It rewards the worst kind of politicians who have more "savvy" than integrity and perpetuates a political system that creates incentives to damage and destroy people on the basis of trivial nonsense, thus obscuring the very serious substance of their business. This really isn't a parlor game and politicians should not rise or fall based upon how they anticipate and deal with the GOPs mendacious machine, which is designed solely for the purpose of ruining their enemies.

She's talking about you Darrell Issa. Heaven forbid the Villagers can pass up an opportunity like this one to attack another Democratic President for nonsense. They shrugged their shoulders at the crimes of the Bush White House but they love this tabloid crap. I want to know when Darrell Issa is going to ask have Judd Gregg investigated as well. Go read the rest of Digby's post here.

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I think Tweety brings this guy on his show just to irritate the hell out of liberals, but now Candy Crowley has decided that somehow this corrupt ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was worth the trip down to Sugar Land, TX so he could enlighten all of us with his wisdom as well. In what world is this man worth the time for a double length segment on a Sunday cable "news" show?

Of course Crowley doesn't actually ask him about any specifics on the charges against him and why he claims they are false and she also actually asks him if he's thought about returning to politics. As Driftglass said in his weekly Sunday Show run down, "I guess G. Gordon Liddy was busy". Wikipedia actually has a decent list of DeLay's "controversies" as they call it for at least a partial summary how corrupt he was.

Joe Conason has more on the double standard of the media in regard to Charlie Rangel's problems and this was written before CNN decided to grace DeLay with some air time -- A wave of phony indignation over Charlie Rangel. DeLay actually defended Rangel stepping down in this segment since mean old Nancy Pelosi "set the standard" with him.

You know, I might not be some high paid television anchor but if I had a chance to try to get this guy on the record about some of his corruption problems, I'd actually be mentioning the name Jack Abramoff. I'd also ask him why he thought that there weren't any forced abortions or labor abuses going on in the Mariana Islands. I guess that's too much to expect of Candy Crowley here or Chris Matthews for that matter. She'd prefer to ask him if he's thought about running for office again instead of asking him why anyone in their right mind would want him to run for office again. Hope you're proud of yourself there Candy. I thought John King was bad on this show. Crowley just took it to a new low within a few weeks of taking it over. Bravo.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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Rachel Maddow and Sen. Bernie Sanders discuss the GOP's hypocrisy when now claiming to be the great champions of Medicare after years of railing against it.

MADDOW: Belated salvo in the scare the bejesus out of elderly voters so they‘ll put you back in power regardless of whether you‘re telling the truth war is an editorial in the conservative newspaper, “The Washington Times,” and it screams “Death Panels by Proxy”—ostensibly argues that the so-called Baucus bill on health reform encourages doctors to withhold health care from Medicare patients. Health care reform is a secret plot to kill people on Medicare.

This is now become an ongoing strategic conundrum. How do you plan to win an argument with opponents who are undeterred by being disproven? Undeterred by the facts, when you don‘t even believe that they believe what they‘re arguing anymore?

It‘s not even just the “death panels” nonsense now. Take Medicare itself, a program Republicans have railed against since before President Johnson signed it into law in 1965. They railed against it since then until—well, until now.

Now, in the Senate Finance Committee, Republicans are trying to portray themselves as the champions of Medicare. They‘re fighting hard to kill any bill that contains any cuts in Medicare, even though people who support Medicare like, say, the AARP, say those cuts won‘t affect care.

Republicans defending Medicare. What would Ronald Reagan say? These guys do remember Ronald Reagan, don‘t they?

Here‘s what he did say about Medicare when it was just a twinkle in some socialist, fascist, freedom-hating, community-organizing Democrat‘s eye.

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From The Colbert Report:

Tom DeLay looked so happy on the floor of "Dancing With the Stars" you'd think he'd just been arrested on charges of corruption.

From The Daily Show:

Mike Schwartz looks to adolescent boys for guidance on homophobia, while the unbelievably flamboyant Tom DeLay performs on "Dancing With the Stars."