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Jake Tapper had ex-FreedomWorks Dick Armey on to comment on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's democratic decision to opt for a Special Election to fill the seat of recently deceased Frank Lautenberg rather than appoint some placeholder Republican for 18 months. Armey was not pleased.

DICK ARMEY: "This is what rankles conservatives. There's not a Democratic governor that wouldn't have seized the opportunity to appoint a Democrat senator, no matter what the status. In some states they may try to sell it and get rich off it as they did in Illinois. All Christie has to do is appoint a Republican. That's the correct move for him to make."

"Now, I put it down as debilitating stupidity, the first rule of politics is don't lose the friends you already have for the friends you're never going to get. And if he thinks the Democrats are going to love him for being the guy who plays fair rather than takes the political opportunity he's crazy.

"Democrats hate Republicans. Democrats aren't going to vote for Republicans. They're not going to get a break from Democrats. They will use him, Obama will use him for political cover as he's done twice now and then actively campaign against him."

For some reason, Armey thought the politically expedient move of appointing a Republican was far preferable to letting the voters of New Jersey decide. Armey also called congressman Frank Pallone a "shoo-in", I guess forgetting that Cory Booker is the overwhelming favorite in the Democratic Primary, to be held in August with the odd timing (most have said politically calculated) of a general election to be held in mid October.

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On the same day that a poll found that many Republicans did not know where Benghazi was even though they considered last year's terrorist attack there to be the biggest scandal in American history, tea party leader Dick Armey confused the city with the country of Bangladesh.

Fox News on Monday invited Armey, who was ousted as chairman of FreedomWorks last year, to weigh in on the news that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had improperly scrutinized tea party groups to determine if they had abused their tax-exempt status.

"You have to understand that this is a politically-mandated suppression of the expression of resistance to big government," Armey explained. "I'm amazed that anybody would be surprised that this was happening."

"It's a debilitating stupidity on their part. When the real professional really undercovers [SIC] a serious transgression against the law by somebody they won't now be able to prosecute it in an orderly fashion because they biased the case against themselves."

Fox News host Gregg Jarrett pointed out to Armey that the White House had insisted that it was surprised by news that the IRS was targeting tea party groups.

"I imagine that they probably don't know any more about that than they do about Bangladesh or any number of other things," the former House majority leader quipped.

"You mean, Benghazi," Jarrett observed.

"The White House is a beautiful example of being capable of hiding your hands," Armey continued. "First they throw the ball through your window, then they hide their hands and pretend they know nothing about it. Of course, the White House knows about it. They are the most ruthless politicians I've ever seen in America."

A survey released by Public Policy Polling on Monday found that 41 percent of Republicans believed that the alleged Benghazi cover up was the biggest scandal in American history. The poll also found that 39 percent of those people did not know that Benghazi was located in Libya.

Bangladesh is located in South Asia, about 6,000 miles from Benghazi.

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Chris Matthews actually tried to get a coherent response out of now ex-chairman of the astroturf FreedomWorks about why Republicans claim to be the party of small government, but they can't seem to keep themselves from inserting government into women's reproductive health or from hating on gay people and insisting that they can't get married. Armey's response was to basically fling as much poo as he could find in the direction of the other party and say "but the Democrats...":

Armey acknowledged there had been several “foolish mistakes” the GOP made during the campaign season, including Mitt Romney’s remarks about the 47%. He insisted the party was trying to “rediscover its relationship” with constitutional limitations on big government and fiscal responsibility.

Host Chris Matthews asked why, if the Republicans are really the party of limited government, does the party have its candidates trying to get rid of contraception, and outlaw gay marriage and abortion. “Why don’t you stay out of people’s lives if you really wanted limited government?” asked Matthews.

The former lawmaker insisted that there were simply a few bad apple candidates, just like the Democrats have “had a few rather strange people,” too. When Matthews pointed out the GOP platform includes items about personhood and contraception, Armey insisted the Democrats also have “unusual” and “strange” items in their platform.

“Name one,” Matthews challenged.

“Homosexual marriage, all right. Abortion on demand,” Armey shot back. “These issues are in your platform. You don’t think it’s strange for these issues to be in your platform pointing in one direction, but you consider it outrageous that the other party has the same issues pointing in the another direction in their platform.”

Matthews responded, “The Democratic party generally supports Roe vs. Wade. It does not support ‘abortion on demand,’” adding the issue of gay marriage is going to be decided state by state, not nationally.

Matthews tried to get Armey to dish on FreedomWorks a bit more, now that he's taken the $8 million golden parachute of a retirement they paid so they could be rid of him, but Armey didn't have much to say on that front and was still trying to pretend that they're some grassroots movement -- and not a rebranding effort to get the Bush-stink off the word Republican. Driftglass has more on that and Dick Armey from back in 2010 here.

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I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Joan Walsh get a chance to give Dick Armey his due after the way he treated her on Hardball back in early 2009. While discussing the mess over at FreedomWorks, which Karoli already wrote about here, Walsh called Armey and his fellow astroturfers exactly what they are -- a bunch of grifters.

Matthews took issue with the description, but I'd say Walsh is spot on. Armey and his ilk have lined their pockets, nicely extracting money from their rich backers and from those naive enough to actually believe that this so-called "tea party" is a grassroots movement, instead of what it actually is: a rebranding effort to get the Bush stink off of the label Republican.

Unlike Matthews and his producers, who seem more worried about trying to book Armey and Kibbe as guests on his show, his colleague at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow called out Armey among a host of others who are getting rich off of these con games earlier this month. Karoli wrote about that here: Rachel Maddow Slams Conservative Fox Commentators and Other Right Wing Scammers and MSNBC now has the transcript up for that show as well.

Rachel doing what she does best, going into the thicket of details of how conservative groups purportedly there to support conservative causes are more often just a means to line the pockets of a few select individuals. In this case, Maddow details the Dick Morris/Newsmax unholy alliance which looks illegal but probably isn't; the Dick Armey/Matt Kibbe/FreedomWorks scam; and the Mike Huckabee effort to defeat Obamacare with monies from the unsuspecting. That many of these individuals and efforts are related to Fox News should surprise no one.

Rachel Maddow reviews the many ways the conservative movement is rife with scammers more interested in making a buck off the fear and paranoia of conservative media audiences than they are in crafting cogent political arguments.

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“What kind of country do we want to have?” That was the question asked by Mitt Romney's new running mate Paul Ryan during his speech this Saturday morning aboard the USS Wisconsin. It was also the question asked by Chris Matthews when he played the clip of Ryan on Hardball this Saturday. And it was a question met with some terrible answers from one of Matthews' guests, FreedomWorks CEO Matt Kibbe.

Eugene Robinson pointed out that Ryan's budget doesn't balance anything and has draconian cuts to the poor while asking the rich to do nothing. After he stated that he didn't understand how Republicans were going to win based on a slogan of 'I've got mine, you get yours' approach, Matthews brought up Ayn Rand and the GOP mimicking her philosophy.

Kibbe responded by saying Matthews needs to spend some more time reading Ayn Rand, even though Matthews already professed to having read her books and having long outgrown them, a common trait among people who employ critical thinking skills and age-appropriate maturity levels. I guess Kibbe wants Matthews to get back in touch with his inner fifteen-year-old if he seriously thinks he should be picking Rand's novels up again for a refresher now.

If this is the right's response to just how radical Paul Ryan and his proposals have been, I'm flabbergasted. Read more Ayn Rand. Really? Karoli already posted Kibbe and his organization going nuts over the pick of Ryan just after it was announced.

The Plum Line's Greg Sargent posted on just how radical the pick of Ryan is and his post got a mention during this segment, which I was happy to see. Letting Kibbe spew his Libertarian nonsense, not so much.

With Ryan pick, Romney doubles down on economic radicalism:

In picking Ryan, Romney is confirming his commitment to full-flown economic radicalism — something that he had kept well disguised until the Tax Policy Center study unmasked it. The central idea driving the GOP ticket is not just that tax hikes on the rich must be avoided at all costs. It’s that dramatically reducing the tax burden on the wealthy — coupled with deep cuts to social programs and a quasi-voucherizing of Medicare — is the route back to prosperity.

Call it the “Ryan/Romney vision.” Not the “Romney/Ryan vision.” The “Ryan/Romney vision.” The Ryan pick was urged upon Romney by conservatives who wanted him to “go bold,” i.e., to confirm beyond doubt that he will govern from the Ryan blueprint. “We want the Ryan budget,” Grover Norquist said recently, adding that the paramount requirement in the next president is that he have “enough working digits to handle a pen” to sign it. The Ryan pick is a triumph for this wing of the party.

After all, we already know Romney has the skills to handle a pen. He is now confirming what he intends to sign with it.

The Ryan pick is also a break with Romney’s previous theory of the race. He had previously intended to make the campaign about nothing more than a referendum on the economy and Obama’s stewardship of it. Now it will be a choice between two starkly different ideological visions, one that drags the race onto the turf of tax fairness and entitlements — which is much more in line with the debate Dems wanted.

Go read the entire post, but here's a bit more on how the media is going to play into this election and how this debate is framed:

Continue reading »

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Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey on Thursday argued that guns should not be regulated after the massacre that killed 12 and wounded 58 in Colorado because the suspect could have "taken a car and driven it into a school bus" -- and firearm restrictions would be like taking away football scholarships to punish a school for misconduct.

During an appearance on CNN, host Soledad O'Brien asked Armey if he agreed with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's assertion that the way to prevent future shootings like the one in Aurora was to change "the heart of the American people" instead of tighter controls on firearms.

"We've got a culture right now that seems to say, let's control the guns and have all kinds of laxities and forgiveness and understandings and so forth for the people who hold the guns," Armey said.

But O'Brien pointed out that the Aurora shooting couldn't be blamed on a laxness on criminals because the suspect had no criminal record.

"People might say that it was the easy accessibility for someone who wanted to amass, stockpile weapons over a short period of time to plot out a mass shooting and that should be blamed," the CNN host told Armey.

"If in fact he had not been capable of acquiring the guns, he might just as well taken a car and driven it into a school bus," the tea party leader replied. "You can't focus on the object by which a destruction was committed -- be it a hammer, a gun, a truck, a car. Focus on the aberrance in the individuals that do this."

"Why not do both?" O'Brien wondered.

"More people are killed in automobiles every year than they are guns," Armey insisted. "I don't hear anybody talking about banning automobiles."

"But they say you have to wear a seat belt, right?" O'Brien noted.

"Whatever," Armey quipped.

"Got to have a driver's license," a member of CNN's panel pointed out from off camera.

At that point, Armey gave up on the car metaphor and fell back to a Second Amendment argument.

"We are guaranteed by the United States Constitution a right to bear arms," he explained. "To trespass that right against those innocent people because of the aberrant behavior of others is not acceptable. It's like telling -- taking away scholarships of future football players for the bad offenses of a past football plan."

"Stay focused on the perpetrators and get tough on the perpetrators. Let people know there are awesomely difficult consequences that will come to you for your perpetration and they will perpetrate less."

According to the National Rifle Association, Colorado does not require a permit to purchase the assault-type AR-15 rifle that was used in the Aurora massacre. Rifle owners are not required to be licensed and rifles are not required to be registered in the state.

Cars, however, must be registered and drivers are required to be licensed and insured.

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I don't know if anyone else is as sick of the Tom Brokaw/Chris Matthews consecutive book tours that we've got going on at MSNBC along with a couple of other networks, but this bit from Tuesday's Morning Joe where Brokaw was pushing his book along with some Villager conventional wisdom about what needs to be done to cure our country's ails left me feeling even more disgusted than I was with him after his appearance on Meet the Press this past Sunday.

The amount of cognitive dissonance necessary for either Tom Brokaw to make these statements in the first place, or the viewers that he thinks should be buying into his clap-trap here is really quite astounding.

After being asked by Willie Geist about American's “incredible levels of cynicism in government” and our Congress' nine percent approval level rating, and how some faith is potentially restored in our government, Brokaw responds this way.

BROKAW: Well again, it really requires the citizenry from the ground up to get involved in reclaiming their government. I've used this almost everywhere I go as an example. However you feel about the tea party, they got angry. Then they got organized. Then they got to Washington and they stayed disciplined and they were having an affect, out of proportion to their numbers, frankly, in the Republican debate.

But that's a demonstration of organization and power. And the other things is that I think both parties have to look at the enormous impact of big money on politics. K Street and the lobbyists and they're in there all day, every day.

Brokaw is apparently either completely detached from the reality, or just doesn't mind lying to the viewers since he's willing to ignore the fact that the “tea party” AstroTurf movement has been organized and co-opted by... lobbyists. Dick Armey... lobbyist. Matt Kibbe... lobbyist. Tim Phillips... lobbyist. And there are a lot more there where I could go on and on with who's pumping money into this “tea party”, another of which is one we've covered here extensively, the Koch brothers.

If Tom Brokaw honestly thinks that lobbyists have too much influence on our government, then the last thing he should be doing is trying to paint the “tea party” as grass roots and a cure for getting the influence of money out of politics.

After poo-pooing agriculture subsidies as one of the problems we have with lobbying groups having too much influence, which I do not disagree with by the way, Brokaw went on to champion our government having more “public/private partnerships” and used examples such as privatizing our schools, roads and water districts.

So Brokaw thinks we need to get rid of the influence of lobbyists in our government, but doesn't seem to mind so much the commons and institutions that should belong to the taxpayers being sold off to private industry so they can make a profit off of them.

This was followed by him talking to billionaire Mort Zuckerman who was touting his usual lines about how Washington is broken and complaints that there's not enough upward mobility in the United States any more, of course ignoring the fact that trickle-down economics, a race to the bottom on wages and labor protections due to globalization, lack of regulation of the financial industry among a host of other issues are what brought us to where we are now.

Nothing like MSNBC getting the opinion of one of the “little guys” like Zuckerman to let everyone know what the opinion of the one percent is so they can have a “fair and balanced” discussion on Morning Joe. So much for that "liberal" MSNBC. A lot of MSNBC's programming is really horrid but if there was ever one show anyone could consider pre-packaged for Fox and ready to move directly over there, Morning Joe definitely qualifies.

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After some typically dismissive coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Fox News Watch panelist Alan Colmes got into a somewhat heated exchange with conservative columnist Cal Thomas for the way Fox has been supportive of the so-called "tea party" while attacking the kids out there protesting on Wall Street.

When Thomas tried to claim that the "tea party" was actually a grass roots movement, Colmes jumped all over him and asked him about the big money behind those protests from the likes of the Koch brothers and Dick Armey's group among others.

Former Iraq invasion cheerleader Judith Miller wrapped up the segment by agreeing with Thomas that the movement started as grass roots, but also admitted that it had indeed been taken over by the Koch brothers and their ilk. Sadly no one had a chance to point out to her that the co-opting happened immediately and that the "tea party" would never have spread as widely as it did without the support of those AstroTurf-ers and the likes of Fox News and CNN supporting them with wall to wall coverage -- unlike these OWS protests that the media did their best to ignore for the first several weeks.

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I think Chris Matthews has finally had a belly-full of these TeaBirchers who've been taking the government hostage trying to get their balanced budget jammed through the legislature or at least force all of them to vote on it. They've been claiming -- as FreedomWorks' Matt Kibbe did here -- that it would be acceptable to take us past the August 3rd deadline on default.

Matthews railed on Kibbe for pretending that would be in any way a responsible way for members of Congress to act and blasted Kibbe and the so-called "tea party" House members that are beholden to his group and others as incapable of governing. After watching the last few interviews Matthews has had with tea partiers, I think Matthews (like a lot of us) is genuinely angry and tired of these people's games. Tried of them threatening to burn the whole place down if they don't get their way.

Sadly unlike his cohort Rachel Maddow, he still paints them as being remotely grass roots instead of pointing out who's funding them as Rachel has. He also still allows his viewers the impression that this is some genuine third party movement instead of a Republican re-branding effort to try to distance themselves from George W. Bush.