Posted on 03/03/2007 6:20:13 AM PST by Phsstpok
Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:
NBC's "Meet the Press"
"Fox News Sunday"
CBS's "Face the Nation"
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CNN "Late Edition"
ABC's "This Week"
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The surge hasn't failed... yet, and the usual tactic of ignoring success doesn't seem to be working out this time for the DBM (drive by media). The word seems to be filtering back, however subtly, that it might actually be working, and they can't allow that notion to take hold. Therefore it's time to take it on directly, discredit it, not with any actual facts but with critics who can be built up as all knowing and wise. Hey, it's worked before, why not now? <grin>
The other always successful technique is to generate an alternate meme to distract the sheeple from the looming success of McChimpy Bushitler. The subpoenas are flying fast and furious over a handful of US Attorneys who have been asked to resign over policy differences. Remember, those folks who serve at the pleasure of the President? And who were all fired in the first weeks of the Clinton administration? For some funny reason it doesn't seem to be gaining traction even within the DBM. OK, how about a scandal involving the mistreatment of Iraq war vets? Except Bush and company have reacted promptly and properly, even perhaps in an overzealous manor, and the villains are easily pictured as union bureaucrats, not Bush loyalists. They'll give it the old college try, but it's not looking real promising so far. Sunday will tell the tale as to whether either of these arrows will find their mark.
And now for the dog that didn't bark. Dick Cheney wasn't killed in a terrorist strike in Afghanistan. Terrorists tried to murder the Vice President of the United States in a war zone. Honored leftist allies of the Democrats, hero's for their 2004 convention, lamented the fact that the attempt failed, loudly and proudly. And the entire incident doesn't rate a mention in the list of major pieces on the Sunday "news" shows. Okey dokey. I think maybe it's time we were no longer afraid to use the T word (that would be "treason," or "traitor," take your pick, for those from Rio Linda, as Rush would say).
NBC Meet The Press has the moonbats hero, John Murtha, to carry their "surrender now" banner into battle. Except his credentials and even his sanity are coming increasingly into question. Not only did Brit Hume smack him down in no uncertain terms last weekend, so did the Washington Post! Of course, the moonbats are screaming bloody murder about that one, but again, no traction. In a strategic move they have brought on one of the most dynamic presences in Republican politics and a masterful voice for the administration... Lindsey Graham... ? Now I'm not a great fan of Lindsey. Anyone who can walk around with someone else's hand up their...... posterior, and act as their sock puppet, particularly someone as squirrelly as Captain Queeg John McCain can't really ever be trusted. But so far he's been on the right side of this issue. Of course, McCain has started coming unglued this week with his "wasted lives" comment on Letterman and the Walter Reed scandal will box him in on things he can say, so this looks to be a Hail Mary to try to recoup the terms of the debate. I'm not sure that Lindsey is up to the challenge of fending this off. However, I have great faith in John Murtha to overreach, yet again. And to cap off the "hate America" fest Lil Timmah trots out our slave holder past. America, the guilty. That's the message, whether consciously or not.
Fox News Sunday continues to slide into mediocracy, with Feinstein, Rangel and Wallace tag teaming against (not the sharpest knife in the drawer) Hoekstra. Well, this is Pete's chance to really break into the bigs. After all, he's a McCainiac, so the press should love him, right? Feinstein is all over the map with her initiatives and causes. She surely will present the party line, with appropriate flourishes and concern for "the troops." I'm betting that she'll concentrate on the shame of Walter Reed and place blame squarely on the White House. She's comfortable with assigning guilt to others. She's done it her entire career. Diane, of course, is heavily invested in the cause of global warming. Watch for at least a few swipes at the evil McChimpy Bushitler over that issue, even if Wallace never raises it. Pete Hoekstra is trying to fight the good fight, lay out the case for our survival, but he just doesn't seem to have the dynamic personality to carry it over. My biggest disappointment in him, as stated earlier, is his devotion to John Q McCain. I think Wallace has set him up to fail this week, and to seal the deal they're doubling down on Dhimmicrats versus Republican guests. And that brings me to Charlie "American soldiers are all stupid" Rangel. Charlie is here to tell us that the single most successful economy in 50 years is a total disaster. Yep. Charlie Rangel is who I'm going to look to for honest reporting on the state of the economy. The good news for Fox is that Brit is back on the panel this week. The bad news is no Juan, so no Juan smack down. We can hope that Nina gets out of hand and needs some... schooling, in the facts.
CBS Face The Nation trots out Carl Levin. This is his third straight weekend on the talk shows and he's done worse each time. On top of that he over corrected in his Senate statements this week (from their point of view), apparently because he realized (or someone near him did) that he'd gone way too far last weekend. And Carl isn't real good at damage control, even in the most sympathetic environment of all, with Ol' Bob. He is clearly going to try to ignore everything that has happened in the last several weeks and only talk about Bush's "personal guilt" for the bureaucratic mess at Walter Reed, but I have great faith in Carl to screw up yet again. Oh frabjous day... I hope! I certainly hope someone has the guts to scream "Yo! Carl, how long have you been supposed to oversee the bloodsucking bureaucrats? Twenty eight years, isn't it? And this is the first you've noticed problems at the VA?" And as if the half hour format allowed for a second meaningful interview, Joe Lieberman makes one of his rare appearances. Count on loyal myrmidon Bob to push the Walter Reed "scandal" as the only topic worth considering when talking to Joe. With Anne Hull along to do the questioning and "interpreting" this is clearly the topic (and attack) du jour.
CNN Late Edition is likely to attack the administration for the recent diplomatic moves involving the regional summits in Iraq that include both Syria and Iran. The rhetorical target for this discussion will be Zalmay Khalilzad, our outgoing ambassador to Iraq, who helped set up the regional summits, and who is now going to be our ambassador to the UN. Watch for Wolfie to try to get some juicy sound bites condemning something, anything, done or said by John Bolton. Dodd, particularly, started off praising the administration at the announcement of the regional summit, but quickly reversed course and moved to attacking over the administration's "mistake" in talking to the "thugs in Tehran." Emerson may be ol' Chris' guide, with the classic (and unexplained) remark in his essay Self Reliance "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of llittle minds." Well, ipso facto, Chris Dodd must not be small minded then. Simple minded, maybe, but not small. Chris only looks small when contrasted with the other slice of white bread from their waitress sandwiches, Teddy the Swimmer. OK, that's all a bit esoteric, but I've always loved the Emerson quote and can't resist trotting it out. Sorry. Kyl should be interesting, but I expect him to mostly be peppered with questions about Walter Reed. It's also likely that Wolfe will try to push General Odierno off message with the hospital outpatient "scandal" and with criticism of his comments about Iran arming insurgents in Iraq. This weeks disclosure of the use of chemical weapons in IEDs (Chlorine gas) will be ignored or ridiculed, I'm sure. And Tancredo will be encouraged to make some statement that can be characterized as "on the fringe" or spun as racist in order to further marginalize him and all conservatives, particularly border security advocates. It's why they invite him on. Brownstein, Zuckman and Fund will offer up the DBM conventional wisdom for the week. Brownstein is one of the early authors of the meme that the Dhimmicrats won the election because the Republicans were too conservative, not too liberal. Never mind that it's 180% out of phase with reality, it fits the preconceived template and they've run with it. Zuckman continues this spin and particularly emphasizes that the Dhimmicrats won because the public wants surrender in Iraq. Hey, it's their story and they're sticking to it. Fund will bring the Clinton/Obama/Geffen kerfuffle back into the mix, or some similar inside the beltway bit of critical thinking. Regardless of his credentials and abilities, Fund too has been captured by the system and seems to only talk about what they want to hear, even if his spin may be a bit different than theirs.
The Saturday shows are, so far as can be determined at this point, the "mini me" versions of their Sunday big brother Dr. Evil betters. As of this writing (8 AM, CST, 3/3/07) there are no postings for CNBCs Tim Russert Show or Fox News Watch. When/if they post something I'll add it to the thread. That leaves the Boys and JER. The Beltway Boys are up to their usual inside the beltway conventional wisdom. It's what they do, don't you know? They managed to notice the Dhimmicrat meltdown over Iraq, but present it as the party being "divided." They characterize a long predicted and totally minor correction as a "meltdown." No agenda in that conventional wisdom! And the folks in the Washington bubble can't understand why conservatives won't spit on Rudy Giulliiani or Mitt Romney. It's just beyond them that conservatives aren't all the single issue Neanderthals they think. That's Washington group think for you. The Journal Editorial Report tackles the Dhimmicrat and DBM's big talking point this week, the "meltdown" on Wall Street. From looking at the stuff Brian Westbury has said and done I expect the usual reasoned and honest analysis of what's really going on. Don't expect any sound bites to be picked up from this show.... again.
This should be cross posted to my blog at Wizards.townhall.com later today. This post exists primarily as a heads up for who is on the weekend talks shows, what they've been invited on to push (based on their recent pronouncements) and the spin (meme) the DBM is likely trying to push based on that information. All of this is prep work for the weekly Sunday Morning Talk Show thread posted by Alas Babylon!. That thread provides a live commentary and analysis of the Sunday talking head shows, with valuable insight and exceptional fact checking. we are the Jedi Council of FreeRepublic, at least in regards to these DBM gabfests. You wanna know what was said and what it meant, as well as where they messed up? Read that thread!
Mark Kilmer always has his excellent preview of the Sunday shows over at Redstate.COM on Saturday. I will post a link to it when it is up. I will try to post a link to his Sunday review when it is up.
bump for later, long perusal.
If you want to read some sick, twisted reasoning, I can recommend the piece above by E.J. Dionne on Cheney.
Ouch, my friend.
Take it easy.
Your analysis is the required first stop on debunking, er, understanding the Sunday Morning Drivel Talk Shows.
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