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In another exercise where our corporate media is pretending that Democrats have moved to the left to counter the fact that the Republican Party has moved way to the right, Chuck Todd treated his viewers to Conserva-Dem and former Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln pretending she received a primary challenge from some "extremist" in the Democratic Party.

I don't think anyone who has taken an honest look at her challenger, Bill Halter's career, could rightfully paint him as being someone who's some far left extremist, but Todd let Lincoln get away with that here.

Todd played a campaign ad running in Texas against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst by "tea party" candidate, Ted Cruz, attacking Dewhurst as being a "moderate" and naturally Lincoln took the opportunity to decry the fact that she faced a primary challenge herself and how terrible it is that the "extremes" have taken over both parties and asked how are we going to get anything done when good "moderates" like herself are run out of politics.

What Todd and Lincoln omitted of course is that Lincoln was challenged by someone who had actual grass roots support and who would be considered a "moderate" Democrat by most of the readers here. Progressives and the unions in her state were tired of her continually voting with Republicans in favor of the insurance companies and the financial industries and mucking up the works for Democrats at every turn, like she did when they were trying to get the health care law passed. She wasn't looking out for the interests of her constituents. She was looking out for those big monied interests that were sponsoring her; a point I made when she was on this same show last year and it was Chris Cillizza hosting and doing some revisionist history for Lincoln and her time in office.

But they continue to peddle the lie that what happened to her is the same as these AstroTurf teabaggers coming into these Republican primary races and ousting incumbents and pushing the Republican Party even further to the right and deeper into the pockets of corporations and people like the Koch brothers.

What we saw here was the false equivalency game where people who would like to see some of the money out of politics and some good governance are painted as "extremists" and are somehow the equal of a Republican Party that's fallen off the cliff with their move to the right, their refusal to support ideas that used to be their own just because a Democrat has proposed them now and who have basically been captured by the Libertarian/John Birch Society wing of their party.

And it's a lie that gets told over and over in the media every day. Candidate A says the earth is flat, so rather than tell the audience that Candidate A is crazy, we'll bring in Candidate B who disagrees and "you decide." And it's a lie that refuses to acknowledge the problems in both parties with the amount of money it takes to get elected and the media companies that are paying Chuck Todd's salary that are benefiting from it. And it's the lie that conflates the word moderate with corporatist and conflates actual grass roots movements with the AstroTurf "tea party" and their Republican rebranding effort.

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Here's what MSNBC apparently defines as a "centrist" or "moderate" politician. A Republican, Christine Todd Whitman, who had massive conflict of interests while running the EPA and taking actions that benefited her husband and Citigroup in a Superfund cleanup case and who misled the 9-11 workers about the air quality at Ground Zero. And a corporate, union hating "Democrat" in the form of Blanche Lincoln.

It's the same game Andrea Mitchell was playing with Olympia Snowe this week. They just keep pushing that Overton window to the right every chance they get and pretend like these so-called "moderates" are a solution to what's wrong with our government instead of the very heart of it, which is politicians bought and sold by big corporate interests and doing the bidding of those interests instead of their constituents. That deal making Chris Matthews is so enamored with here usually ends up doing one thing these days, which is benefiting the 1 percent at the expense of the 99 percent in the name of "bipartisanship."

And it's a game that's growing more tiresome by the day. They run these kind of segments constantly on the network. Apparently they think their viewers are incapable of using the search engines or have no memory about what any of them have done for the last decade.

Transcript below the fold.

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Here we go with more fearmongering over whether the super committee manages to come to some sort of agreement or not. A couple of weeks ago we had Chris Cillizza, filling in for Chuck Todd on MSNBC's Daily Rundown, allowing the senior Sununu to spread lies about Social Security and Medicare.

This week, he brings in Sununu's son and conserva-Dem Blanche Lincoln to espouse the values of bipartisan negotiations so we can have members of Congress make cuts to our social safety nets in return for “tax reform.” Of course by “reform”, they're taking about lowing rates for corporations and the wealthiest among us and supposedly closing some loopholes or tax deductions, which I'll believe will happen when hell freezes over since Republicans have done nothing but obstruct any effort to do so in the past, no matter what the supposed trade-off.

CILIZZA: Well, this is a happy topic to bring you two in on, but let's start with, we are now seven days away from a deal. The super committee is keeping their cards relatively close to the vest. You guys have been in intense negotiations when you know the American public wants something, but you just can't make your colleagues do it. What's the attitude in the Democratic caucus right now, Sen. Lincoln if you had to guess?

So Cillizza thinks Lincoln knows something about Congressional negotiations and being on the side of what the public wants? Really? I hate to break it to him, but Blanche Lincoln was not on the side of public opinion during the health care debate. She was on the side of the insurance companies before finally starting to flip-flop after enough public pressure was put on her to do so.

Lincoln replied by fearmongering over the super committee not reaching an agreement supposedly interfering with holiday spending that our own RJ Eskow wrote about here – If the Super Committee Doesn't Cut Your Medicare, Santa Claus Will Die!.

LINCOLN: Well, I would think it's frustration, just like the rest of the country. I mean, people understand on capitol hill how big these issues are and how important it is. One of the things I hope that they'll understand is that the timing of this is crucial too. I mean, you're going to hit Black Friday and cyber-Monday about the same time you come out with the possibility of nothing coming out of the super committee and what does that do to consumer confidence?

Apparently the producers of Chuck Todd's show and Chris Cillizza think their audience has short memories and have no clue about Blanche Lincoln and who's interests she was looking out for during her time in the Senate. Shameful. Here are a few posts I'd recommend any of them read before they bring her back on again, not that it matters. I'm pretty sure they know perfectly well how dishonest they're being to the viewers.

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Time for your weekly podcast from The Professional Left, our own Driftglass and Bluegal. Enjoy everybody and have a nice weekend.

To listen to past editions of the podcasts or to contribute to help keep them going you can visit their site at http://professionalleft.blogspot.com/.

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Keith Olbermann talked to Sam Seder about this report from The Hill where it looks like the DSCC is cutting their losses with Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas who is about 20 points behind her Republican challenger. As Keith and Sam discussed, it's expected for the party to back incumbents as they did here, but there was no excuse for the antagonistic attitude towards the unions for them backing Halter. He was the better candidate and would have had a better chance of winning than Lincoln. They would have been better off listening to their base in this case.

And Bill Clinton was one of the worst out there campaigning for Lincoln. I didn't post any of the video back in June because about all I really could have mustered at the time would have been one bleeped expletive after the other ending with telling him to bite me. I was really angry after watching him out on the stump for Lincoln. How's that union bashing working out for you now Bill?

Looks like the unions were not the ones wasting their money, the party establishment was. And now they're throwing their hands up in the air and admitting she can't win. But then we knew that back when we were backing Bill Halter. No one can say he'd have won either but he would have had a better chance than Lincoln does and Halter might have generated some enthusiasm from the base to vote for him. It looks like Arkansas is going to get a Republican that has an R behind their name instead of a D this time around.

DSCC must decide where to cut losses as tough races add up:

Democratic leaders face tough decisions on how much to spend on the campaigns of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and other party candidates whose chances for winning in November seem dim.

Money that goes to Lincoln rather than Democrats thought to have better odds at the polls may be seen as wasted. And it could upset one of the party’s biggest financial supporters, labor unions, which spent millions in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat her in the primary.

Four public polls this month showed the two-term incumbent, who chairs the Agriculture Committee, trailing her Republican challenger by an average of more than 20 points.

Where to prioritize Lincoln’s race is one of several difficult decisions Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Chairman Robert Menendez (N.J.) has to make to fend off an anticipated anti-incumbent wave in November. Read on...

Transcript from last Friday's Countdown below the fold.

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Ed Schultz talked to the United Steel Workers President Leo Gerard about the "anonymous White House official" who decided to go shoot their mouth off to the Drudge rag Politico and slam labor for supporting Bill Halter in the Democratic Senate race in Arkansas. Gerard said he is extremely disappointed in what was said and that the person who said it is entitled to their opinion but not to make that opinion anonymously and that if the matter is not cleared up by the President it could likely fester.

Gerard made it clear that the objective of labor is not to be the "ATM Machine" of the Democratic Party and that Blanche Lincoln was not representing their members' interests.

He expressed his disappointment with Bill Clinton for going out there and campaigning against labor for Blanche Lincoln and said he'd do it again because they're obligated to stand up for the rights of working people. Leo, I refrained from doing any posts on Bill Clinton campaigning for Lincoln because I don't think I could have written anything about it when I first watched him in action without the post being full of obscenities every other word and ending with telling him to bite me, so you're being way kinder to Clinton than I would have been capable of.

Gerard is still giving the President the benefit of the doubt about the comments coming out of the White House. I'm not. If he disagreed with what one of his aides said to Politico, he should have said so immediately. Apparently he doesn't care if he pisses off labor any more than Rahmbo does - who is the one I suspect called up Politico, since taking cheap shots at liberal Democrats seems to be a hobby of his.

Organized labor knows what side of the debate they're on. The White House on the other hand seems confused about who helped put them in office and thinks that kicking the unions and progressives in the teeth is somehow a good idea just months before a midterm election. I guess we'll see how that genius plan works out for them this November.

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Ed Schultz expresses his anger of the White House deciding to stick its finger in the eye of organized labor after Blanche Lincoln won her primary race for the Senate in Arkansas. I might have chalked this up to just Politico starting trouble had it not been for Robert Gibbs standing by the statement by an "unnamed senior White House official". I agree with Ed.

Schultz: The last thing the White House should be doing right now is picking a fight with working families across this country. And to come out and diss labor for spending millions of dollars to get rid of a corporate Democrat I think puts the White House on the wrong side of the fence.

If the White House doesn't like our democratic process and the right of the electorate to run primary challengers against these corrupt corporate Democrats who don't have the interest of the voters at heart, well that's too bad. And as Ed says, we'll see you at the next showdown. Why they think alienating organized labor publicly is some good political move beyond me as well. It sure as hell isn't going to help them win any elections in November.

Dave N.: Kinda makes you wonder if labor unions threw away all those millions in 2008 helping Obama win the White House, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, what Digby says.

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Tweety gets his union hate on again after Blanche Lincoln's Democratic primary win in Arkansas. He repeated this nonsense several times on MSNBC the following day and on his blog. Too bad he doesn't have the same concern for the big monied interests that were supporting Blanche Lincoln.

My belief in American democracy:

I'm something of a romantic on this subject. I believe in this country's fundamental good. I believe in our ability to choose the best leaders.

... So, I like the way we run our government. I don't believe in the Tea Party/Birther argument that our government verges on being some kind of foreign occupying force. For all its faults – thinking long-term for once – to paraphrase Woody Guthrie, this government is our government.

My worry is those who try to manipulate democracy, the pressure groups and the money people who'd like all elections to come down to who can buy the most advertising on television – most of it negative advertising.

What gave me hope last night was that we saw voters don't like to be pushed around any more than I do. A lot of labor money went into the Arkansas Senate primary. It produced a lot of drama – stand-alone, who’s-side-are-you-on drama – and a real hero. Women celebrated in the pro-labor film “Norma Rae;” the irony is that the heroine, the Norma Rae, last night in Little Rock was the Democratic senator who labor tried to beat. Norma Rae's name in this picture is Blanche Lincoln.

Matthews made a similar analogy back in 2008 when he compared Sarah Palin to the character Norma Rae as well. This man's brain really is fried. Note to Chris Matthews, Blanche Lincoln and her corporate backers in no way shape or form resemble any union organizer, fictional or real. She's on the side of the union busters in case you didn't notice.

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This is the Halter ad both Joe Scarborough and Lincoln were so upset about this morning. And you can see why. Pauline Wildman (75), a grandmother from West Memphis, AR nails Blanche in this Bill Halter ad. Blanche's been crying about it since it went up a week ago, a sure sign it of its effectiveness. Near the end of this clip Mark Halperin chirps in that Mrs Wildman is "probably an actress" and Blanche agrees. The stupid it just burns on Morning Joe.

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Arkansas Democratic Senate candidate Blanche Lincoln joined Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union and complained about the "other people" funding her opponent Bill Halter's primary campaign and championed herself as being "out there with the people" because you know, nothing screams populist more than taking large chunks of corporate cash. And of course in her world those evil unions that are unjustly demonizing her can't possibly be representing the best interests of the working people of Arkansas. Who would ever think that unions don't have average citizens best interests in mind? Maybe someone who's getting the better part of their campaign donations from large corporations and PACS. From Think Progress:

Lincoln, Who Gets A Large Amount Of Corporate Cash, Complains About ‘Other People’ Funding Her Opponent:

While it is true that Halter has received support from outside groups, such as the AFL-CIO labor union, it should be noted that during the 2009-2010 campaign cycle, 93 percent of his funds come from individual contributions, and only 5 percent come from PACs and other interest groups.

And while Lincoln boasts of being “out there with the people,” a review of her campaign contributions shows that she has received far more money from PACs, corporate front groups, and other outside interest organizations than Halter has. During the 2009-2010 campaign cycle, 38 percent of Lincoln’s funding has come from PACs. Here’s a short list of some of the “other people” funding her campaign:

- $9,000 from insurance giant Aetna Inc.
- $7,000 from petroleum company Anadarko
- $6,000 from drug corporation Bayer
- $2,000 from Bechtel corporation
- $5,500 from insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield
- $5,000 from defense contractor Boeing
- $5,000 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
- $5,000 from Charles Schwab brokerage house
- $10,000 from oil giant Chevron
- $6,000 from telecommunications corporation Comcast
- $5,000 from oil company ExxonMobil
- $6,500 from investment bank Goldman Sachs
- $8,000 from retailer Home Depot
- $6,500 from investment bank JP Morgan Chase
- $7,000 from defense contractor Lockheed Martin
- $5,000 from oil industry giant Occidental Petroleum
- $8,000 from retailer Wal-Mart

If Lincoln is going to criticize her opponent for receiving funds from outside groups, she should be upfront about her own as well.

That ain't gonna' happen. Ms. WalMart is too busy playing born again populist. Lincoln carped about unions being "special interest groups" but I guess she doesn't hold large corporate interests in such low regard. She bragged about starting the Blue Dogs, bringing down the cost of the stimulus (how are those unemployment numbers workin' out for ya' Blanche?) and on being a moderate and getting into the "trenches" to work with Republicans. In my book that's just code for voting like a Republican to support her corporate backers.

You can support Bill Halter through Blue America here. Let's send this DINO back to Arkansas.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

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