American Politics Journal -- Pundit Pap

Pundit Pap
for Sunday, October 13
Sniper on the loose -- distracting from economy, Smirk's War
by the Pundit Pap Team

October 13, 2002 -- NEW YORK (APJP) -- Almost every pundit show -- with the notable exception of The McLaughlin Group -- made "issue one" the nonpolitical, panic-stricken, hand-wringing headline grabber: that "serial sniper" terrorizing the Beltway area.

Meanwhile, a major overseas development went nearly unreported -- the bombing of two nightclubs in Bali, which resulted in the death of nearly 200 people, reportedly mostly Australians. The bombings look to be the work of another heretical "Islamist" terror groups with, according to preliminary reports, some sort of unspecified "ties" to Al Qaeda.

Following on news of attacks on American servicemen in Kuwait and a French oil tanker, it increasingly looks like fake "Muslim" death squads have opened up another campaign against the forces of sanity and modernity -- while the press seems intent on keeping the focus on former Texas governor George W. Bush's continued talk of war against Saddam Hussein and the search for the serial sniper.

Here's a little of what we caught:

This Weak
Padded for maximum vapidity

ABC simply refuses to trim the padding from This Weak.

The format has not changed much since ABC News wisely ejected the hopelessly biased Cokie Boggs and the haplessly loud Sam Donaldson from their Sunday political wonkfest: the long, video-filled, prattle-laced opening credits, the seemingly interminable "news" segments that precede the chat segments, the awful round table which is just not worth covering -- and, of course, the reactionary hypocrite George F. Will.

The opening of the show sensationalized mostly "serial sniper" tripe -- before introducing George Stephanopoulos, who turned to the more-than-12-hour-old "breaking news" of the bombings in Bali.

Good for ABC. This is the story that should be at the top of cable news (it is over at BBC World and BBC News 24). Another plus: Steph had a surprise guest -- a GOP who has gone from Clinton-bashing to moderation and even sanity, Senate Intelligence Committee ranking minority member Dick Shelby, who said that the bombings look to be an organized terrorist attack, and yes, the chatter implies that what we are seeing is just the beginning of a new terror campaign (neither he nor Steph were cynical enough to mention that the wave of assaults do seem timed to coincide with elections in the US and other countries). Shelby also citing the shooting of Marines in Kuwait and bombing of that French oil tanker. George cued Shelby to talk about Al Qaeda's logistical mastermind Ayman al Zawahiri's call for more attacks on the West. Shelby said "we have to stay on alert."

There's no question about that -- but it is also interesting that finally, the press is putting the focus on a senior Al Qaeda Qriminal other than Osama bin Laden. Al Zawahiri is largely thought to be one of the criminal masterminds behind last year's attacks on America -- far more so than Osama.

Steph turned the focus to the "serial sniper". Yawn. Where's the politics in that story -- other than pointing out how easy it is for any lunatic to get a high-powered rifle and how the NRA wants to keep it that way, thank you! A shame it wasn't a political segment, in that Steph talked with one of the most thorough and intelligent of ABC's investigative correspondents, John Miller, who was far more interesting than the attempts at reassurance by Maryland Gov. Parris Glendenning, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner and DC Mayor Anthony Williams

But we can understand -- after all, ABC wouldn't want too much talk about Smirk's double-dipstick recession. If the network were anywhere near unbiased, they would be wise to turn Miller loose on the GOP -- but don't count on the Disney-owned infotainment company to do anything approaching investigative journalism targeting Shrub and his many tutors, string-pullers and controllers, as the Mouse is in love with the Shrub.

Steph then introduced another pad piece detailing the Imbecile-in-Chief as a "brand", in essence giving ABC's seal of approval to the GOP's campaign strategy: His Fraudulence needs our support to send our boys and girls to horrific death against Saddam, so send the GOP your money so they can distract from the economy and social issues!

Bill McInturff, a GOP strategist, was asked about Smirk spending every day on the road. McInturff LIED and said Smirk has great approval numbers (really? depends on how the poll is tailored -- and most of these "made-for-public-consumption" surveys do nothing to measure Snippy's favorability in the context of issues), then LIED AGAIN saying that Chimp Boy does not want to make this a referendum.

Who do you think you're fooling, Billy-Bob? If any issue OTHER tan Saddam goes to the fore, the GOP loses ground!

Bill Carrick, a Democrat strategist, pointed out that swing voters are prone to vote against "party cheerleaders", and Shrub "branding" candidates hurts them. ABC political analyst Mark Halperin said -- correctly -- the Smirk used the "Bush brand" -- but failed to point out that there are some places where it fails to work (i.e. New York, Massachusetts, most of California). When McInturff said Smirk has 40% approval among Dems, Carrick pointed out it is NOT translating into votes for GOP candidates. McInturff did his best to suppress voters, pushing the notion that this will be a low-turnout election; Carrick said that is no longer true.

Steph turned to close races. For some reason, Steph included New Jersey -- despite the fact that Lautenberg has a huge lead in both Democrat and GOP internal polls (even the notoriously questionable Zogby poll has Lautenberg up by 12 percent). McInturff said Wellstone is in trouble in Minnesota because he broke a term-limits pledge -- but Carrick said that his opponent, Norm Coleman, blew it by calling Wellstone "unprincipled." Carrick said that any attempt by GOPers to paint Democrats as unpatriotic will backfire. When McInturff tried to shift the spin to "judgment" as opposed to "patriotism", Carrick pointed out that Clinton used force effectively -- and people remember that.

There was brief talk about Montana GOP Senate candidate Mark Taylor dropping out of the race. Oddly, there was no talk about the political spot in which Dems exposed a student loan scam involving a beauty school Taylor ran that netted him huge amounts of money.

The GOP has been whining that the commercial makes Taylor look "gay" -- but as one reader pointed out in a letter to our editors:

Gay? Cue the laugh track! I've seen the spot. Taylor doesn't look gay at all in the spot. In fact, he looks like every STRAIGHT hairdresser of the disco era: flashy medallions, leisure suits, short unbuttoned to the mid-chest and, of course, his facial hair. Think Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck -- not to mention Tony Montana. Even twenty years ago, gay hairdressers were more prone to wear tight t-shirts and pants. It's just more evidence that Republicans have no "gaydar"!

Steph's panel made some predictions:
McInturff -- gain of 1 for GOP in Senate, no change in the House
Carrick -- Lautenberg a shoo-in, gain of 1 for Dems
Halperin -- Dems keep control of Senate, just miss control of House.

Once again, the round table wasn't even worth talking about. We fixed some coffee and waited for...

McLaugh-In!
Let's get our war on... or not?

Issue one: the Iraq deal! John gushed about Congress handing Smirk the authority to lead us to a fatal boondoggle... er, war in Iraq -- and what he depicted as Daschle's 180-degree turn on supporting a bipartisan resolution as "a statement of American resolve".

John asked Larry Kudlow the fundamental differences between the version His Illegitimacy wanted and the version Congress gave him. Kudlow looked at wording that implies that Smirk was given broad powers to wage war, but Eleanor Clift pointed out that more Democrats voted against it than expected, and if Iraq goes with an inspections regime, Smirk doesn't get his war on soon -- if he does at all! Tony Blankley was correct in that wording that would have allowed Iran or Syria to become targets was jettisoned -- but was WRONG when he said that Gephardt undercut Daschle.

Here's the fact: the "semantic" differences between Gephardt and Daschle could have tied up the resolution for weeks in bicameral committee. Even Prince George's handlers knew they'd have to give in to Daschle's demand that much of the wording in a resolution be toned waaaaay down.

John then said that Sen. Robert Byrd (horrors!) "impugned" the resolution's constitutionality -- playing a long portion of Byrd's statement before the Senate. Is it unconstitutional? Clarence Page did point out that we have fought many wars that skirt the Constitution; Eleanor said it might be challenged in court, but really -- will the Republican Supreme Court buck Bush? Kudlow screamed about Clinton going into Macedonia, the Balkans and Kosovo (how horrible -- ruining Milosevic's ethnic cleansing -- we feel your pain, Kudlow, NOT). Eleanor fired back by pointing out that the CIA issued a letter stating Iraq is not an imminent threat.

John said that Sen. Dick Durbin faulted the resolution because it does not put Congress in the loop on the nature of imminent threat -- but that's just fine by Sen. John "Klueless" Kyl. Kudlow said that Kyl's right -- as was Kissinger (does he mean "hard right"?). Clarence pointed out that President Kennedy got photographic proof of missiles in Cuba before confronting Kruschev and Castro. Eleanor said every president has supported preemptive doctrine -- but been smart enough not to talk about it publicly. John said Sen. Clinton said the resolution should have been stronger in its language concerning UN inspectors -- and found a way to sneak the word "Monica" into his bellowing.

For Christ's sake, John, grow up already.

What does the list of naysayers to the resolution say? Kudlow was surprised that Sen. Bob Graham said no -- then cited a questionable Pew poll that claims Americans support war! Eleanor pointed out that naysayers do NOT include Senators with presidential aspirations -- and DO include the one GOPer who may jump ship, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (RI). John said he is not sure Wellstone will lose his seat!

Following the break, an amazing moment: John got Kudlow to admit Smirk does not have an economic plan! Eleanor pointed out that the top issues are the economy, Social Security and education. Page feels that the GOP is in trouble on non-Iraq issues. John talked about people who are content stay home during midterm elections -- but then warned dissatisfaction with the economy is a strong motivator (well, well, GE and Verizon, the twin sponsors of McLaugh-In, see the writing on the wall).Tony also admitted the "dirty little secret" of polls -- there's never been a bigger gap between presidential F-scores and "right track" numbers.

Final bipolar predictions!
Kudlow: Sadly, the Department of Justice may not prosecute Enron. ("Sadly?" What a hypocrite -- this guy is Mister Deregulation Plus Tax Breaks For Rich White Guys.)
Eleanor: There will be an inspections regime in Iraq. (Translation: no war in time for the elections.)
Tony: "Daschle" failed to pass a homeland security bill -- it will be a moderately important issue come Election Day.
Clarence: The UN Security Council will support Bush -- giving him in effect carte blanche.
John: There will be NO WAR in Iraq!

JJ Balzer is a former television news producer. He lives in New York City.