Mediaite had some real gems today as the GOP civil war rages on:
– Bill O’Reilly has occasional moments of lucidity outside the echo chamber and they are often enlightening on the radical/establishment divide. These days it seems like the gap between the two is that the establishment understands the damage their agenda can do to their own interests because they don’t want to lose power. The other side cares more about agenda purity even when it represents a threat to the agenda itself. Even amongst ludicrus delusions like this, there’s still some sanity leaking out. There’s also kernels of truth, if you look for it. O’Reilly’s comment on liberals and money reveals how corrupted some people become. To some people, like I guess Bill O’Reilly, money is happiness and they can never have too much of it. And when money becomes more important than the welfare of your country, that’s pretty much the end of it.
– An argument between Chris Matthews and Texas Representative Blake Farenthold originally about the Affordable Care Act digressed into precisely what you’d expect from Matthews and one of the law’s dumbest opponents. Farenthold brought up Ted Cruz as a presidential candidate, Matthews brought up Cruz’s citizenship problem, and the two argued about Obama’s citizenship problem. It really makes you wonder if there’s any correlation between the strongest ACA opposition and birtherism.
– Fox News is unsurprisingly with O’Reilly. The Affordable Care Act isn’t going anywhere and the government won’t be shutdown by the GOP. The insurance exchanges will come online in nine days and millions of people who couldn’t afford insurance will suddenly be able to in the coming year. The countdown to Obamacare will end, and the countdown to it seeing majority public approval beings.
– Even racist Peter King thinks the radical wing of the GOP is nuts. That’s not good, really. It’s just funny when the modern version of Joesph McCarthy thinks your nuts, and your on his side.
– Joe Lockhart, a Clinton-era Press Secretary, explained to a CNN panel why the nuclear option isn’t just wrong for America, it’s politically stupid: “If can you go out and find me a bunch of Americans who sit around their table saying let’s defund ObamaCare, that’s a family I want to meet. This is a Washington creation.”
– Chirs Wallace asks Ted Cruz why he wants to filibuster a bill he supports. There is no good answer for this. The only two ways to stop the Affordable Care Act were to stop it from becoming law, or to take total control of the elected branches of the federal government and repeal it.
– The National Rifle Association’s Exec-VP reminds everyone that he’s most likely a sociopath.
– A guest on Howard Kurtz’s media criticism show on Fox News tried to sell the laughable myth of a liberal media. A few reminders: Conservatives have the highest rated cable news channel in Fox News, two of the nation’s most influential newspapers in The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, one of the most visited websites from Drudge, and the nation’s most-listened to radio program via Rush Limbaugh. If you look up and down the boardrooms of the billion dollar media conglomerates that own and control virtually every radio and TV station, cable and broadcast network, movie and TV studio in the country, you won’t find very many liberals. Conservatives are the media, just as Juan Williams said.