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Totenberg Eats Shoe, Admits Misjudgment on Iraq Election's Power
Media Research Center ^ | March 7, 2005

Posted on 03/08/2005 1:54:07 PM PST by billorites

NPR's Nina Totenberg eats her shoe. Asked on Inside Washington over the weekend if President Bush deserves credit for the democratic movements rising in the Middle East, Totenberg, a critic of Bush's Iraq policy, replied that "if I had a hat I would have to eat it." Then, as she briefly brought a shoe to her month, she noted that "I've got my shoe here" and conceded that "I really did not think that this election in Iraq would make that much difference and I was wrong." She quickly added, however, that "it really does help that Arafat died and they had a real election in Palestine." Totenberg soon returned to her liberal roots, cautioning "that we not engage in a certain level of triumphalism about this." The Wall Street Journal's John Harwood went even further in crediting Bush: "George Bush is going to deserve more credit," for democracy in the Middle East, "than Ronald Reagan did for the demise of the former Soviet Union."

     Opening the second segment of the panel program produced at, and carried by, Washington, DC's ABC affiliate, WJLA-TV, host Gordon Peterson showed video of protesters in Lebanon and then read from a March 1 New York Times editorial: "The New York Times wrote: 'The Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for many of these advances. It boldly proclaimed the cause of Middle East democracy at a time when few in the west thought it had a realistic chance.' Is this the Bush doctrine here?"
     Totenberg eagerly answered: "Let me say something here. If I had a hat I would have to eat it. [brings shoe to mouth] I've got my shoe here. I really did not think that this election in Iraq would make that much difference and I was wrong. Of course, it really does help that Arafat died and they had a real election in Palestine. That's just not insignificant. But, Charles [Krauthammer], when you were right, you were right."

     Peterson soon turned to former Washington Post reporter Eugene Robinson, who is now a columnist: "Can we put it at the foot of the Bush administration?"
     Robinson: "Well, you know, yeah, sure. I mean, a stopped clock is right a couple of times a day..."

     A bit later, Harwood proposed: "If we continue on this positive track we're on, George Bush is going to deserve more credit for that than Ronald Reagan did for the demise of the former Soviet Union and the felling of the Berlin Wall. When Ronald Reagan took office, a lot of people, including Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- a lot of Republicans' favorite Democrat -- were predicting the collapse of the Soviet Union because of internal strains. What George Bush has set in motion, with the Iraq war and Iraq elections, are something very few people thought were going to happen and it's almost entirely due to what he has done.".

     After some comments from columnist Charles Krauthammer, Totenberg cautioned: "I think it's important, Charles, that we not engage in a certain level of triumphalism about this."

     Inside Washington, the descendent of the old Agronsky & Company, airs Saturday night at 7pm local time in the Washington, DC area on cable's NewsChannel 8 and again at 11:30am Sunday on WJLA-TV, channel 7.

     The Web site for Inside Washington: www.insidewashington.tv

     The show's page on Totenberg: www.wjla.com

    



TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bushdoctrine; charleskrauthammer; eatingcrow; fairnessdoctrine; juanwilliams; mrc; ninatotenberg; npr; pbs; totenberg; vivianschiller
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To: Petronski

And that picture of the Hell sign with icycles is in order here also.


21 posted on 03/08/2005 2:07:17 PM PST by AaronInCarolina
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To: Brilliant

"It's a bad sign that the liberals are now saying Bush was right. "

I like what Rush had to say today. The real story is not that Bush was right, it's that the liberals were WRONG. It's hard enough to get them to say Bush was right. I want to hear them say they were wrong!


22 posted on 03/08/2005 2:08:40 PM PST by brownsfan (Post No Bills)
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To: Ruth A.
I can respect her for the gesture.
The respect would be deeper if she actually ate that shoe of hers, or at least a part of it, right on TV. As it stands now, it was only an empty gesture.
23 posted on 03/08/2005 2:09:46 PM PST by GSlob
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To: billorites

Nina Totenberg is a colossal and evil chronic liar, supported by my tax dollars against my will.


24 posted on 03/08/2005 2:09:56 PM PST by FormerACLUmember (Honoring Saint Jude's assistance every day.)
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To: billorites

Pigs do fly when Totenberg does this.

But wait just a minute!!! Let's figure out why these lefty journalists have taken this particular moment in time to eat crow. (I can't remember the ones who have decided to join Nina in this reversal, but there have been quite a few).

I think they are following Hillary's lead. She didn't have anything good to say about Bush's war until a few weeks ago. She and John McCain were in Iraq, being interviewed by Tim Russert on Meet The Press. Of course she was executing her expected move to the middle, but she wouldn't have been so bold in her support of Bush if she hadn't found out things there are going much better than the media has reported.

Hillary praises our progress, her media minions follow suit. So........I don't think we should take back slapping laps because these lefties are finally speaking/writing truth. I don't trust em, no matter what.


25 posted on 03/08/2005 2:33:16 PM PST by YaYa123 (@Always Ask Why.com)
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To: Recovering_Democrat

No, they won't say it "tastes like apple pie". They'll as it IS apple pie.


26 posted on 03/08/2005 2:41:33 PM PST by Emmett McCarthy
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To: billorites

The pigs are flying today.


27 posted on 03/08/2005 3:47:36 PM PST by KidGlock (W-1)
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