Flush twice... it's a long way to Sally Quinn's place!

Pundit Pap
for October 19, 2003
Bad News QWagmire
Meet the new "L" word
by JJ Balzer

Oct. 19, 2003 -- NEW YORK (apj.us) -- The press is pretty much in a quandary.

It's no secret that they read the same polls Karl Röve does.

It's no secret that most of the boardroom players that control the big companies that control the top broadcast outlets in the National Infotainment State bought heavily into former Texas governor George W. "Dim Son" Bush's agenda lock,stock, and empty barrel of WMDs -- and now they not only see the growing number of Joe and Jane Six-packs that feel used, betrayed, and -- yes -- deceived, but they're beginning to feel that they've been sold a bill of no-goods. The economy is not recovering, dividends are down, and the US is stuck in a growing quagmire in Iraq.

So it's no surprise that all of the Sunday political shows -- including FOX News Sunday -- would not only discuss the continuing mess in Iraq but make pointed mention of Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy's angry and heartfelt outburst from Thursday under the guise of "fair to the conservatives" critique, most even playing the footage of his rant as seen live on C-SPAN:

"Week after week after week after week we were told lie after lie after lie after lie. The president's war has been revealed as mindless, needless, senseless, reckless. The American people all know this. Our allies know it. Our soldiers know it."

And that, readers, was the throwing down of the gauntlet. First there was Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars." Then came Joe Conason's excellent "Big Lies." Jeff Koopersmith just reviewed David Corn's devastating new book "The Lies of George W. Bush." Finally, Ted Kennedy dares say it.

There's a new "L" word that will dominate the political discourse all the way through the former Texas governor's next attempt to thwart the voter and steal an election. And that word is not "liberal."

Here's the gist of three prominent pundit shows:

This Week
All over the place -- with Iraq casting a shadow
Players: host George Stephanopoulos, Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), National Security Bungler Condoleezza Rice

This Sunday's This Week focused on health care as part of a long-planned week of ABC News "coverage." (Read: mention of the "crisis" with as little coverage of the influence of HMO and pharmaceutical industry lobbying to keep your health care costs as high as their greed will allow.)

Steph started the festivities by mentioning a new poll showing that 62% of Americans want universal health care (good luck -- Congress can't even approve a prescription drug benefit for Medicare).

Guest Bill Thomas tried to deny that a prescription drug benefit is "bogged down" while trying to spin GOPers as people of "good will"(well, okay, that's true -- if you've donated a minimum of $2500 to the corporate shill of your choice) -- which Steph deftly trashed by pointing out that the Democratic leaders are saying that they are locked out of negotiations. Thomas, who sounded ill-prepared by his handlers, laughably called for a "coalition of the willing." (That was a really brilliant choice of words, Billy Bob -- were you thinking of maybe a couple Tory back-benchers from the House of Commons or maybe a brownshirt Polish legislator or two to help you draft this sellout of a bill? One thing is for sure Thomas' "coalition of the willing" will be willing -- to sell out the poor and elderly to their PhRMA pals and other lobbyists).

George Will groused about a "conservative" administration supposedly approving an expensive giveaway (or some such silly hyperbolic claptrap). Thomas was doing his best to make believe he's sticking up for the elderly and the little guy, calling for "reforms" to "sustain" Medicare (read: sizable cutbacks in benefits and premiums that still soak the most needy). Steph asked if the conference committee will do anything about stimulating "private sector competition" (you mean like the California energy market? C'mon, Steph, you're recycling Heritage Foundation spin), and Thomas made a meaningless comment about bedpan prices, services and goods.

George Will tried to sniff at Medicare being some sort of program that gives everyone every kind of medical care they need (right -- like that would ever happen as long as tightwad Republicans hold any sway in this country). Thomas made the requisite scripted comment about Medicare providing "quality" care at an "affordable" price. Will made believe he cared about the burden having to be carried by patients of home health care, claiming most are elderly women (not most, as it turns out, but a very large number). Thomas wants a $5-per-visit copayment, and claimed that there is an "overutilization" of home care providers (ah, we see -- elderly patients should be dragged away from their families and locked away in institutional facilities -- Thomas "family values" in action).

The entire segment was a policy wonk's dream -- but there was absolutely, positively NO discussion of a serious facet of the complex tangle of problems known as the "health care crisis": the fact that American consumers are getting soaked by big pharmaceutical companies, in effect subsidizing socialized medicine in European and Asian countries. As long as pharmaceutical giants are allowed to run advertisements for prescription drugs on news programs, don't expect to hear word one about this issue.

And sure, ABC News is "focusing" on health care issues for a full week -- count on them to say "The system is broken" rather than "The system is gamed to line the pockets of international businesses -- who are forcing Americans to subsidize other countries' socialized medicine." Funny how Republicans only rail about "socialized" programs when they're here in the US but don't seem terribly concerned about them abroad if they benefit big donors to the GOP.

The second segment was another installment of the "Steph's Democratic presidential campaign road trip" series -- this time with Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT). Before the break, Steph had played up Lieberman's latest attack meme on Wesley Clark: he's a political rookie (somehow, Joe neglects to point out that for many voters that fact is an asset for Clark, not a liability). At the top of the segment, Lieberman tried to deflect a question about his weak polling numbers by saying he wants to "give America a fresh start" (as if Clark, Kerry or Dean -- or, for that matter, Moseley Braun, Edwards, Kucinich, or Sharpton wouldn't). Lieberman had preceded his mini-attack on Clark by reciting one of his lofty "It is time for a change" sound bites for Steph -- and claimed that Americans want a President who has "a lot of experience in the world" (as if supreme commander of NATO troops didn't exactly get Clark out in the world).

Why, asked Steph, does Joe think Clark jumped in straight to the top? Lieberman was right when he said that "People have tuned in early" and Clark got a lot of attention (of course, many people have tuned in early because they are sick to death of Lying Son and his Evangelical Petro-developer Wrecking Crew).

Steph mentioned one obstacle Lieberman has in South Carolina -- voters in that state oppose the trade agreements Lieberman supports -- and then played footage of Joe before a far "friendlier" audience of Jewish pensioners in Florida (and they looked to adore the guy who -- let's face it -- would have beaten Dicky "Ticker" Cheney like a bald bionic stepchild if all the votes in their state had been counted). Steph did ask a woman from the audience if America is ready for a Jewish president -- but she answered with an emphatic"No," citing a continuing undercurrent of anti-Semitism. Steph did, however, permit Lieberman to dash one bit of anti-Lieberman (and cheap anti-Semitic) nuttery by saying he would work on the Sabbath -- as Commander-in-chief he has to.

Lieberman also claimed, rather implausibly, that he could forge a bond with Arab leaders and even the Arab street, and talked up the same too-little, too-late "We need to win the hearts and minds of the Islamic world" pap that we've heard from Powell, and that sure sounds good in a campaign but will prove nigh-impossible in practice.

Then followed a testy exchange between Lieberman and an openly hostile Arab-American audience -- he did his best to spin the debacle as a good appearance (and we'll give Lieberman the credit that is due for making a genuine and sincere effort to pitch himself to a hostile audience).

One element of Lieberman's campaign was visibly conspicuous and at strong odds with Steph's previous "on the road" segments -- Lieberman seems to have a far bigger, far more visible security detail.

We ignored a segment on baseball (note to ABC: if we wanted coverage of baseball, we'd tune into ESPN).

Steph then welcomed Condi to talk about another embarrassing mess for His subliminable Majesty, namely the diplomatic mess concerning North Korea. Condi -- whose voice has sounded shaky in every interview and press event she's done since Wilson-gate started -- said that Smirk will talk with South Korea's President Roh, and the Misadministration is in the "early stages" of dealing with the matter, suggesting there might be some kind of "exchange of letters." (Translation: Smirk is neither ideologically prepared or competent to hammer out a nonaggression treaty -- and is so locked into his narrow view of "evildoers" that he's plunged the East Asia region into a crisis that they have to solve for us.) Condi then rattled off a slew of "North Korea breaks their promises" talking points straight out of the "Axis of Evil" script.

Steph changed the subject, asking Miss Deer in the Headlights 2003 if Asian leaders are getting "the message that they must crack down on Al Qaeda." Condi, relaxing for a brief moment now that Steph had been kind enough to ask her about a more comfortable topic, talked about all those people in the region "suffering" as a result of Islamist whackos (and on that point she is for once in her life 100% correct) and the news that the Philippines' president has started a five-year defense retooling initiative.

Steph then asked about another religious extremist -- General Boykin, who essentially declared that America is at war against Islam. Condi, looking dour (translation: "Don't do that to me, Steph, gimme another friendly question so I can put on the 'We're making great progress' happy face!"), would not reprimand Boykin (publicly, at least), instead falling back on the old spin points of "America has religious freedom" ()translation: if you're a hard-right Evangelical whack-job with starts on your epaulets), "we respect all the religions of the world" (translation: "... just so long as they don't threaten our hegemony") and "this is not about religion, this is about... murderers [who] pervert a great religion... no one should describe it as such [i.e. a religious war." (Translation: "Boykin was a boob to reveal that we are in a de facto religious-ideological war with the most extreme flavor of Islam, and sure, it does have overtones that resonate with evangelical Christians -- but we aren't going to fire the nut job.")

Condi's attempt to try to undo the damage that Boykin has done was surely one of her most important "talking points" this Sunday -- and it went over about as convincingly as Plan 9 from Outer Space.

There was a brief spate of spin as Steph and Fareed Zakaria talked about Shrub's road trip to Asia -- and Zakaria said that in-person diplomacy and visits can make a big difference, citing an example of Clinton defusing tensions with India over tariffs. Zakaria also said that if Boykin called the war a blunder, he's be fired -- but instead, he is being retained and doing damage to America's image as Chimpy and his PR boys spends billions in an attempt to improve the US image in the Islamic world that Boykin is undermining with his big mouth. Zakaria said he should be "quietly retired" (i.e. fired when the dust settles).

Good. Someone had to say it. And Zakaria is showing himself to be the sanest guy on This Week. Maybe they should have him asking some of the questions of guests instead of the prissy, snooty George Will.

FAUX News Spin Day
Colin isn't having a good day
Players: host Tony Snow, Secretary of State Colin Powell

Tony Snow did his best to help Junior look like a peacemaker with his first guest, Colin Powell -- but first, Tony turned to "big" news out of Thailand about a "new push" to defuse the North Koreans' nuclear program by putting some pledge that the US will not invade on paper. Interestingly, FOX played footage of Dim Son saying there would be no treaty with Kim.

Tony began the Powell segment by asking what we can do to fool... er, convince North Korea that we won't invade, couching the question in the word "outreach" (translation: Smirk's last resort when acting like a bully gets America nowhere). Powell said, "We have no intention of invading North Korea or attacking North Korea" -- we want to help get them enough food to eat, and they must abandon their nuclear program. Tony and Powell almost seemed to be reading from a script when they detailed the Misadministration's hope for "a statement to the effect that none of the six and the six together would pledge not to invade North Korea." (Of course there will be no invasion -- there's no oil to glom onto!) Powell said progress would depend on the other parties and what ideas are presented to North Korea.

Tony then asked a testy question about the NY Times' excellent article about the Pentagon's refusal to heed State's warnings about what could -- and did -- go wrong in Iraq. Powell gave some details of the genesis of State's study on Iraq. Was it accurate to say that State's recommendations would have eased the mess in Iraq and made "rebuilding" easier? Powell hid behind a "couldn't comment on that" answer, feigning a lack of some minutial knowledge of something to do with the report -- in fact, a serene-looking Powell seemed prepared with Röveian bullet points of his own, citing a policy of "de-Baathizing" Iraq and praising a rebuild of "the Iraqi Army under Ambassador Bremer's leadership" (now that was a telling juxtaposition of bullet points -- both bolstering the "progress" message and suggesting that his own State Department's report was irrelevant).

Tony gave Powell a chance to respond to charges that he used bad intelligence in his UN speech. Powell, naturally, said that he, Tenet, and others "worked over every word" in an effort to make the "best effort" to present their case (in other words, they used faulty intelligence that they could spin with impunity). Tony also gave Powell a chance to respond to Kennedy's "lie after lie after lie after lie... mindless, needless, senseless, reckless" statement. Powell looked miffed and said, "The President didn't lie week after week after week." (True enough -- he only needed to lie at a few crucial junctures, then use vague rhetoric and press proxies thereafter).

Powell then attacked Kennedy, saying, "... such comments, it seems to me, don't support us in that effort to support them and to rally the international community," in a cheap-shot attempt to somehow claim that Kennedy is helping the terrorists. And Powell continued his rant, claiming enormous progress in the effort to build a peaceful and democratic Iraq before invoking the dangers of WMDs.

If we were on Kennedy's staff, we would advise him to respond to this nonsense from Powell -- and demand an apology.

Powell and Tony tried to make it sound as if Madeleine Albright were "undermining" the President (rather unsuccessfully -- but this has become a favorite meme of obsessive Clinton haters -- the false notion that the Clinton alumni are intentionally sabotaging Dim Son when the fact is that Junior's doing a fine enough job of sabotaging himself). Powell tried to make it sound as if the "unanimous" approval of a US resolution at the UN Security Council was some sort of great accomplishment (forgetting that the resolution gives no guarantee of financial or military aid in rebuilding Iraq).

All in all, Powell did a pretty poor job of spinning for Junior -- even with all the help Tony was giving him.

Meet the Press
Congress at war (with itself)
Players: Tim Russert, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Bob Graham

Tim Russert played up the "war in the Senate" over the $87 billion payoff to Iraq.

Tim first played a video clip of Lyin' Lindsey Graham complaining that we are giving money to a nation sitting on a trillion dollars' worth of oil. McCain said that there is a perception problem -- many in the Middle East see the US as there only for the oil. (Well, golly -- I wonder why anyone would get that idea, JJ! He was trying to tie it to the idea of the money being a grant instead of a loan -- but the two issues are in fact mutually exclusive.)

Tim said that Bob Graham had voted against the $87 billion, and repeated Ted Stevens' specious claim that voting against the money is voting against the troops in Iraq (a stupid comment that Stevens should have known better than to utter -- but one which will go over well with the GOP's non-moneyed, non-thinking "core constituency" who look for any reasons to hate Democrats as unpatriotic.) Graham said that he wants American troops to leave Iraq with honor and dignity -- and that means going to the global community to get a significant international military presence in Iraq to relieve US troops. It worked in Bosnia; we should do the same in Iraq. Tim then asked a genuinely provocative and surprisingly silly question: if everyone voted like you, wouldn't the troops be left with nothing? No, said Graham (and you could almost see him smiling over Tim's egregious mindlessness) -- there would be not only enough funds but enough time to put together a coalition. Tim again attempted to assert that the US would be "left with nothing" without the $87 billion -- and Graham had to repeat his salient point that diplomacy and statesmanship should have won the day. McCain groused about those who said that troops should not have been sent to Iraq, and argued that we are sending a message that freedom and democracy can flourish in the world. (Huh? Is JJ even remotely familiar with the culture and values in the region? If he were, he would know that great as democracy is, it is a tough sell in the Muslim world -- mostly the result of prevailing misinformation most people accept as fact that will take at least a generation to remedy.)

Tim then mentioned a WaPo headline: "Troop Reduction Eyed for '04." McCain does not think there are enough troops in Iraq right now, and said he "cannot explain that kind of thinking" as things stand right now -- "We need more [troops there], and we need a larger army." (In other words, the Misadministration's complaints that things are going better than the press is saying are not true. Thanks for the confirmation, JJ!) Tim then raised the issue of a survey of troops in the military newspaper Stars & Stripes that shows US morale very low in Iraq. Graham said he is concerned about a loss of domestic support for the war, then invoked the "V" word (that's "Vietnam", not "victory") -- and said that "We have abandoned the war on terror since the spring of '92.... we need to get re-engaged in the war on terror." Graham cited the attack against Americans in Gaza. Tim said that Graham had compared Iraq to Vietnam and called the Iraq mess a "quagmire." Graham cited the facts -- people dying in Iraq each day, local unrest -- and said it is a quagmire. McCain said the men and women serving in Iraq are "doing a magnificent job" (and even we will not argue with that -- they're doing better than the best they can under unimaginably dangerous and poor conditions) and reiterated his call for a larger military and bigger presence in Iraq. He scoffed at an "expeditious" withdrawal, claiming that would hurt morale, and denied that the Iraq mess is a quagmire. (Huh? Is McCain raiding Rush's OxyContin stash while the loudmouth is detoxing?)

Tim then quoted McCain's scathe of Howard Dean for opposing the $87 billion boondoggle, claiming that he "doesn't understand." McCain actually called Dean -- incorrectly -- an isolationist, and said Dean has no understanding of the "international condition." Tim said that Clark would have voted no -- and McCain groused, "Clark should know better." Graham, at long last, was finally given a chance to speak -- and decried the lack of international help before pointing out that we are in effect paying off nations that have supported terrorist organizations.

Tim turned to the September 11th commission and unexpectedly strong (and underreported) complaints from former New Jersey governor Tom Kean about the difficulty in getting even basic information on the 19 hijackers that pulled off the attacks just over two years ago. Graham said that the Smirk Team had also stonewalled Congress -- and had censored the chapter in their final report on the administration's actions following the attacks. McCain, suddenly sounding rational, agreed -- and said that he and Lieberman would go to Congress to try to lend Kean some help before saying again that the US should not leave Iraq.

Tim did give McCain a chance to blast the deficit -- but also suggest that Medicare and Social Security are too big a burden before blasting a bloated discretionary budget. McCain also blasted Chimpy for his refusal to acknowledge that climate change is very real.

Tim then quoted Sen. Chuck Hagel, who has said that he believes that not a day goes by when McCain thinks he could have done a better job than Snippy. McCain tried to shrug it off (even though most rational people in America would now agree with Hagel).

Tim then taunted Graham with Ed Gillespie's claim that Graham is a failed presidential wannabe who will not be reelected to the Senate. Graham gave a short stump speech about resolving the quagmire in Iraq. Won't your criticisms of Junior hurt your hopes with "independent Republicans"? Graham blasted the Misadministration for dishonesty (c'mon, Bob -- use the "L" word!) -- and said whatever his decision on running again is, he will not be quiet about the opportunities that Little George has squandered. McCain said he disagrees with most of the Democratic field on the issue of Iraq, but sees them as honorable people.

Well, that just warms our hearts.

We fled the media room when we were warned by Tim of an impending round table segment that would include William "Satire." And we were left wondering if Tim is avoiding the "quagmire" by trying to frame his early questions in that $87 billion that Little George needed to pay for his Iraq blunder. The giveaway was his repeated assertion that not voting for the $87 million was tantamount to not supporting our troops -- and about the only mistake Graham made was not calling him on that spin. Other than that, Graham was impressive -- and the mercurial McCain not only sharp and entertaining as always, but more than adept at keeping Tim on his feet.

Quick take: Late Edition

We'll admit it -- we could use a few more Pap writers. We don't miss CNN's two-hour Late Edition (though we wish they'd return it to its three-hour format) -- and this week we particularly enjoyed Wolf Blitzer giving lots of play to Ted Kennedy's scorching of the White House. He got a rise out of just about everyone he asked about it. This came as a bit of a surprise -- we've always felt that Wolf was a bit too soft on Monkey-boy's White House (when he wasn't shilling for them outright), but he seemed downright delighted to bandy about Ted's rant -- and it struck us that he wasn't doing it to get the guests to blast the esteemed Senator from Massachusetts.

It gives us all the more reason to keep watching Late Edition -- and more evidence that the press is no longer content to recycle Karl Röve's "one-liners."