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This was my first question as well after hearing this story about McCain meeting with Syrian rebel military leaders -- who approved his trip and did the White House know about it? And who provided him with the security? It seems the only thing we have a clear answer to right now is why he wasn't around to make his gazillionth appearance on the Sunday shows this weekend.

McCain visits rebels in Syria:

Sen. John McCain visited rebels in Syria on Monday, his communications director confirmed to CNN, making the Arizona Republican the highest ranking elected official from the United States to visit the war-torn country.

Brian Rogers confirmed a report that originally appeared on The Daily Beast, which indicated McCain entered Syria through Turkey, and remained in the country for several hours.

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After over-hyping the claims by Bob Woodward on The Situation Room just the day before that the White House supposedly threatened him, CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Jessica Yellin ended up doing some back tracking on this Thursday's show, after the emails released by Politico revealed that he wasn't being threatened after all. Even though they both eventually admitted that the emails were not threatening at all, both of them were desperate to cling to the notion that Woodward might have still have some legitimate reason to feel threatened by the White House.

Blitzer asked Yellin if she thought "maybe this sidebar is being overblown?" which might be the understatement of the day. You think so Wolf? Overblown by whom exactly? Woodward played CNN and the rest of the right like a fiddle and as John already noted here, all of them were missing the forest for the trees when it comes to the substance in Sperling and Woodward's email exchange and the fact that the White House is still willing to throw their base under the bus with these negotiations.

CNN, still doing their best to be Fox-lite. And note to Wolf Blitzer, Bob Woodward quit acting like a "premier journalist" ages ago. Now he's a right wing hack with an axe to grind. The good news out of all of this though, according to Wolf Blitzer, is that Gene Sperling is going to come on the air with Candy Crowley this weekend to talk about this nonsense. I await learning nothing of value during that interview.

Here's more from Gawker on Woodward: Goodbye, Bob

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As Steve Benen at The Maddow Blog rightfully noted this Wednesday, as we're seeing U.S. infrastructure crumble due to Republican intransigence, China continues to leave us in the dust: Jobs and innovation, leaving the station:

There's no reason the United States can't once again lead the world in transportation innovation, except for the political opposition that forces us further behind countries like China.

China began service Wednesday morning on the world's longest high-speed rail line, covering a distance in eight hours that is about equal to that from New York to Key West, Florida, or from London across Europe to Belgrade.

Bullet trains traveling 300 kilometers an hour, or 186 miles an hour, began regular service between Beijing and Guangzhou, the main metropolis in southeastern China. Older trains still in service on a parallel rail line take 21 hours; Amtrak trains from New York to Miami, a shorter distance, still take nearly 30 hours.

Completion of the Beijing-Guangzhou route is the latest sign that China has resumed rapid construction on one of the world's largest and most ambitious infrastructure projects, a network of four north-south routes and four east-west routes that span the country.

Keep in mind, this isn't just about bragging rights. China has invested heavily in transportation infrastructure, including this remarkable network of high-speed trains, and the result has greatly benefited the nation's economy and created "as many as 100,000" jobs.

China has also, incidentally, helped integrate regional economies, linking cities and provinces in new and efficient ways, which in turn is expected to strengthen China's manufacturing and exporting centers.

And then there's the U.S., where the Obama administration has repeatedly argued that high-speed rail boosts economic development, creates jobs, fosters innovation, relieves crowded roads, and even reduces emissions, and where Republicans say investing in infrastructure costs money -- and spending is, you know, bad.

Remember, GOP opposition to similar projects is so strong that in some instances, we've seen Republican governors -- including Florida's Rick Scott and Wisconsin's Scott Walker -- turn down high-speed-rail funds from Washington, just on principle, regardless of the economic benefits to their state.

What's more, while our international rivals take the lead in transportation innovation -- it's easy to win a race when your competitor stops trying -- we're still struggling to address cracks in our outdated infrastructure. Read on...

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As Karoli already informed us here, Grampy McCain was so busy grandstanding today in front of the media that he couldn't be bothered to go to the hearing on Benghazi and lashed out at CNN reporter Ted Barrett when asked why he missed that meeting. What killed me about the segment is the deference both Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer gave to the hot-headed Senator while discussing his tantrum on The Situation Room.

I've got to wonder what it's going to take before they quit treating him as some senior statesman worthy of our respect, instead of the angry, petulant old man who still hasn't gotten over losing the election to Barack Obama? McCain's behavior over the last week has not just been hostile, it's been downright embarrassing.

But here's the nice friendly gloss-over he received from CNN this Thursday:

WOLF BLITZER: Tempers flaring on Capitol Hill. Senator John McCain lashing out at one of our CNN producers who questioned why he was missing a key hearing on the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. McCain has been a sharp critic of the president and his administration, complaining lawmakers are not getting enough information.

And when asked why he missed that meeting today, he lashed out.

Our senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is up on Capitol Hill. She's got more on this sensitive story.

Dana, what happened?

DANA BASH: Well, it turns out, Wolf, that CNN learned that most of the Republicans on this key committee that had a briefing on what happened in Benghazi did not go. In fact, it was three out of the eight Republicans on that committee.

One of those Republicans who did not go to that briefing, it was a classified briefing, was John McCain. Now, McCain at the time was having a press conference yesterday lashing out at the administration for not getting enough information and calling for a select committee to investigate it all. Well, our Ted Barrett caught up with the senator earlier today and wanted to know why he didn't go to that briefing. And to say the least, it did not go well. Listen to what happened.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

TED BARRETT: Why can't you comment about that?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Because I have the right as a senator to have no comment. And who the hell are you to tell me I can or not?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BASH: So John McCain would not comment, would not give an answer to Ted who was trying to do his job, trying to find out just why Senator McCain didn't go to that briefing.

And Senator McCain went onto say he thought Ted was badgering him and not being respectful, which you know Ted Barrett, he is respectful. I will tell you though that later in the day Senator McCain's spokesman contacted us saying that the reason he didn't attend that classified briefing was because of a scheduling error.

I should also tell you that Senator McCain has been inside the briefing that's going on right now. You probably see this podium behind me. That's because we're waiting for the Senate Intelligence chairwoman and ranking to come out of a classified briefing. And again Senator McCain is at this briefing at this hour.

BLITZER: Why couldn't he have just said that to begin with, told Ted Barrett, I had a scheduling problem, a scheduling error, if you will, and I screwed up? That would have ended the controversy.

BASH: That's a great question, Wolf. It's what Ted and I were talking about the minute he told me about this exchange. Why didn't he just say that? He certainly has answers for many of us in the hallways a lot. In fact, he just walked out temporarily of this meeting that's going on right now.

And other reporters were asking why he wasn't at that classified briefing yesterday. And that's what he said. I had a scheduling error. So tempers are flaring here. I think that exchange with Ted Barrett is probably a good example of how heated this issue has gotten, a lot of people, particularly, as we have seen over the past couple days, Senator McCain.

BLITZER: Yes. We all screw up from time to time. People make mistakes and then we move on.

Oh yes, let's just move on shall we? Anyone think they would be "moving on" if a Democrat were acting this unhinged?

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The Romney campaign needs to get themselves some better spokespeople if they're going to continue to say things like this: Mary Matalin: Thanks To Romney, We Can Single Out ‘Parasites’:

Conservative commentator Mary Matalin hailed Mitt Romney's "47 percent" line on CNN as good news for Republicans.

"There are makers and takers, there are producers and there are parasites," she said. "Americans can distinguish between those who have produced and paid in through no fault of their own and because of Obama's horrible polices who cannot get a job or are underemployed. That's what the campaign is about."

Matalin really needs to put down the Ayn Rand novels and find somewhere else to get her talking points if she wants to stop alienating everyone in the country other than the extreme right-wing, libertarian leaning Republican base. Most people don't believe poor are causing our problems in the United States, or that they don't pay enough in taxes. Quite the opposite, in fact. But if you listen to Lady McCheney here, it's those lazy, mooching, welfare recipients that refuse to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps that are destroying America.

As Hilary Rosen reminded her, it's not the 1960's any more.

Full transcript below the fold.

(John Amato: This reminds me of the time that Glenn Beck called me a parasite.)

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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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After Romney adviser Ed Gillespie came on CNN this weekend and claimed that Mitt Romney had "retired retroactively" from Bain Capital, the Obama campaign has continued to hit back hard at this nonsense. As Obama campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter explained to Wolf Blitzer, when your name in on the letterhead and you're drawing a salary from the company, it's a hard sell to most Americans that you're not responsible for that company's business dealings.

The Obama campaign has not backed down since Romney and his surrogates started whining and demanding they apologize for pointing out the fact that lying to the SEC is indeed a felony. It's about time we saw some spine from a Democratic campaign instead of them caving to the naysayers. I think Cutter has learned all to well from watching what they did to John Kerry years ago and isn't going to allow that to happen again this time around.

They've put Mitt Romney on his heels and they need to leave him there from now until the election and ignore the media or the pundits screaming about how mean they're being. Romney's been lying like a rug from the day he started campaigning and hasn't been called out for it. He's got everything coming they can dish out at him and then some.

And not everyone is keeping their powder dry as the Obama campaign has been when it comes to whether Romney committed a felony on his financial disclosure form. Andrew Sullivan just came straight out and accused Romney of lying and committing perjury: Yes, Romney Perjured Himself:

The claim that he committed a felony by falsely reporting his role at Bain Capital under oath is what has really gotten under Romney's skin. But it seems pretty clear to me that he signed a federal financial disclosure form, under the penalty of perjury, saying he had not been involved "in any way" with Bain after he left for Utah in February 1999. That's a strong statement. And it is directly undercut by Romney's own statement in his 2002 attempt to prove residency to run for governor: [...]

So the question of whether Romney committed a felony in his financial disclosure form is a very real one - because Romney and Romney's lawyer provide the strongest evidence that it was perjury. Now we have more contemporaneous evidence that Romney perjured himself: [...]

If there was a good deal of time back and forth in the first few months and some business conducted all the way through to December ("pretty much exclusively"), and if Romney's own lawyer tells an inquiry that Romney's work for Bain "continued unabated just as they had," then it is incontrovertibly true that Romney's statement under oath that he was not involved "in any way" in Bain business after February 1999 was a lie under oath.

I thought Republicans cared about perjury when it comes to high office. I mean, they impeached a sitting president for it. But their current candidate is an obvious perjurer and thereby a felon. How long will it take before this sinks in?

That's going to leave a mark. Romney just continues to get hammered by all sides and I don't see any sign of it letting up any time soon.

Transcript below the fold.

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You know how you can tell an attack ad from Democrats is working? The right wing and our corporate media start telling you to knock it off. CNN's Howard Kurtz gave the viewers of The Situation Room a preview of what we can expect on his show this Sunday and surprise, surprise, it's a big healthy dose of false equivalencies and pretending he's concerned about that nonexistent "liberal media" being seen as carrying water for the Obama campaign.

Sorry Howie, but telling the truth about Bain Capital and actual journalism and asking Romney to let people see his tax returns is not the equivalent of Fox noise running a recording of Rev. Jeremiah Wright in an endless loop. And the only types that are going to be "concerned" about that perception are Villager hacks like yourself, the Romney campaign and the right wing media at Fox, hate talk radio, right wing blogs and a whole bunch of outlets that are going to do their best to give cover to Mitt Romney, as you just did here.

Kurtz also throws out that right-wing canard that President Obama wasn't scrutinized by the press when he ran against Hillary Clinton in the primary last time around. I think Howie's been spending too much time paling around with Sean Hannity, because that's the type of crap we hear on his show night after night on Fox.

Lauren Ashburn, who appeared with Kurtz is exactly right, and it's the Romney campaign's fault for not seeing that this was going to be coming and being better prepared for how to deal with questions about his time at Bain. You know Kurtz is over the top when even Wolf Blitzer is telling him he's surprised by what he's saying and had to point out to him that if you're going to run for President, everything's fair game and Romney's using his business background as his "credential for running and saying he's going to fix the economy," not that it made most of the rest of this segment and Blitzer's comments any less hackish as well.

All of them poo-pooed the Romney's obvious race baiting at the NAACP, calling it a "conspiracy theory." Yeah, that's a "conspiracy theory" just like The Southern Strategy is a conspiracy theory, or in other words, it's not. Republicans have been race baiting to win elections for ages now, whether any of these birds wants to admit it or not.

Transcript below the fold.

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After Joe Walsh came on the air again and doubled down on his attacks on wounded veteran and political opponent Tammy Duckworth, for supposedly talking about her service too often on the campaign trail and nothing else (which she hasn't), leave it to Red State and unfortunately for anyone who watches the network, CNN contributor, Erick Erickson to come to his flame throwing buddy's defense.

Here's more on that from our friends at Media Matters: UPDATE: CNN's Erickson Defends GOP Rep's Attack On Wounded Veteran :

After Walsh received widespread criticism for his comments, Erickson wrote a post on RedState.com: "I support Congressman Joe Walsh a thousand percent and you should too. Pony up your checkbooks while you are at it. He's in the midst of a manufactured scandal because he dared utter an inconvenient truth." Erickson claimed that "the left went into overdrive" when Walsh "pointed out that Duckworth's service in the military is about the extent of her public campaign platform" and concluded that "[a]ll he did was tell it like it is. That's what is so refreshing about Joe Walsh."

But Erickson's defense of Walsh misses the point of the controversy . Walsh didn't limit his attack to Duckworth's record on policy issues, his comments explicitly created a distinction between Duckworth and "our true heroes" in the military. In fact, after given the chance to walk back his statement, Walsh called Duckworth a hero but qualified it by stating, "unlike most veterans I have had the honor to meet since my election to Congress, who rarely if ever talk about their service or the combat they've seen, that is darn near all of what Tammy Duckworth talks about."

Appearing on CNN's The Situation Room on Friday afternoon, Erickson continued his defense of Walsh and claimed that Duckworth "doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the issues," again avoiding and deflecting from Walsh's attack on her military service.

He said that Walsh "calls it like he sees it," adding "I actually stand by what Joe Walsh said."

Why... oh why, Erickson is part of the "best political team on television" as CNN likes to call themselves, is beyond me, but so are most of the rest of the people that they have on the air at that network, so I guess he fits right in. That said, I do think hiring someone who called a Supreme Court Justice a goat f**king child molester along with the hire of his fellow flame throwing hack Dana Loesch does represent a new low for the network I did not think they'd sink to, before they actually hired both of them, in a race to the bottom to become Fox-lite.

Erickson's exchange with Blitzer below the fold.

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I'm not quite sure what's more disgusting about this interview -- former Blue Dog Artur Davis pretending that there is anything besides some self-serving motivation and making sure he gets some more face time on cable television with his proclamation that he's now officially a Republican, or Wolf Blitzer for allowing him to come on and pretend he was ever anything other than a corporate shill that most of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party would have welcomed leaving a long time ago.

It looks like we've got a new Joe Lieberman wanna' be on our hands who's going to happily come on the air and pretend the Democratic Party has moved too far to the left with with those in our corporate media like Blitzer happy to play along.

For anyone that would like some background on Davis that isn't already familiar with him, I'll just refer readers to these two posts:

In Case Anyone Still Thought Otherwise, Artur Davis Proved He's a Terrible Loser

With Democrats Like Artur Davis, Who Needs Republicans?

Transcript of Davis' hackery with Blitzer below the fold.

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