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
It's a bad sign that the liberals are now saying Bush was right. I have an uneasy feeling of impending doom.
A picture is worth a thousand words
"I think it's important, Charles, that we not engage in a certain level of triumphalism about this."
Not much chance of that, especially on the Mountain of the Dead.
"Dogs and Cats Living Together! Mass Hysteria!"
We could use a few more "stopped clocks." And Nina Totenberg? I'm floored. Just stunned.
I can respect her for the gesture.
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..."
Oh, yeah, the current administration just stumbled on to this outcome - like old saying 'even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then?' A bitter statement from a bitter man.
The new international sign for liberal foot in mouth disease...
Mind you, a stopped clock is correct more often than that "reporter" Robinson.
Love that big 'W' in the background of the pic...it sure fits!
I predicted this would be the "new history" by liberals...though with the spread of the New Media, it won't be as effective. Ann Coulter points out in her book "Treason" how the liberals in the early 1980s insisted Reagan was an idiot for taking on the Soviet Union...and when the Soviets fell eight years later, the liberals found a way to say "The Soviet demise was inevitable, and had been underway for years..."
The same thing will happen in their minds to G.W. Bush...they'll spend 8 years talking about what an idiot he is to take on big things like terrorism...and when success is seen, they'll say, "Oh, but it was inevitable...and Bill Clinton planted the seeds for it at Oslo....blah blah blah...."
Horse crap. But they'll eat it, smile, and say it tastes like apple pie.
Except for Hillary. Who thinks several moves ahead and is way smarter than that pseudo-intlellectual bunch of windbags.
the quotation marks you added are very fitting. 'biased MSM' is a redudant phrase.
Yep. Sort of like when they admitted that Quayle was right when he criticized "Murphy Brown." But they never really lived that down.
The problem is that the Democrats did not simply express respectful disagreement with Bush. When you behaved the way the Dems did, you better not later admit you were wrong.
As Al Bundy might say, "if the shoe fits, eat it!"
She's a pretty good reporter.
Her NPR reports on the Supreme Court are straight forward and even handed as far as I can tell.
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