Free Republic

Former Republican Rep. Tom Davis told The Hill newspaper: “The middle is getting squeezed,” but his comment vastly understates the crisis in the capital. Activists in both parties have declared war on moderates. The ideological gap between the two parties is widening rapidly. Paralysis is pervasive. Political scientist Keith Poole of the University of Georgia, who studies voting patterns, told the National Journal: “We are clearly as conflicted as we’ve been since 1905. The parties are, I think, completely dysfunctional and incapable of acting on major policy.” The National Journal reports that as recently as 1999, more than half of...

NPR Host/Occupy Protester Says She's Been Fired By Tim Graham Created 10/20/2011 - 10:56am AP is reporting NPR host/Occupy protest leader Lisa Simeone has been fired: "A freelance broadcaster who works for music and documentary programs has been fired from a job after NPR questioned her involvement in a Washington protest." Lisa Simeone said Thursday that she was fired from "Soundprint," a documentary show that is not produced by NPR, but by Soundprint Media in nearby Laurel, Maryland. "Simeone says she was fired Wednesday in a phone call during which NPR's code of ethics was read to her." Simeone is...

Baltimore broadcaster Lisa Simeone fired back Wednesday night after National Public Radio told the Baltimore Sun it was looking into her role as a spokesman for a group involved in the Occupy D.C. movement. The public radio veteran expressed puzzlement as to why NPR "objects" to her exercising her "rights as a citizen," and she questioned why such big-name NPR correspondents and hosts as Mara Liaason, Scott Simon and Cokie Roberts are allowed to operate under what appears to be a different standard than the one being applied to her. At issue is whether NPR feels her activities on behalf...

ABC's Cokie Roberts said something on national television Sunday that made her colleague George Will shake his head on camera. During a "This Week" discussion about the recent credit rating downgrade by Standard and Poor's Roberts said, 'The problem that we have here is the Constitution of the United States of America which actually does require people to come together from different perspectives" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

You don’t find many “gems” on a Saturday morning. It’s a lazy day, getting ready for football and a late breakfast---then Cokie Roberts, speaking on ABC’s Good Morning America, dropped the bomb.Roberts has apparently bought into the far-left's conspiracy theory that Republicans simply do not want to see Americans get jobs. Yep. Republicans are more interested in defeating old media’s Dear Leader than they are in Americans' well-being. ABC's Dan Harris sounded off in agreement.Harris set it up this way: “In the modern era no President has won re-election with the unemployment rate higher than 7.2%”

On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume condemned NPR for its “howling double standard” in firing Juan Williams for expressing an opinion, a standard “manifestly not being applied to other NPR people.” He forwarded the theory that “in the culture of NPR, appearing on Fox is a sin” and “for an African-American man” to “be kind of a Bill Cosby liberal, not a down-the-line liberal, is a sin as well.” Hume’s assessment came after host Chris Wallace read from a column in which Cokie Roberts denounced Glenn Beck as “worse than a clown. He’s more like a terrorist,”

Here is video of ABC News’ Cokie Roberts on This Week, where she flat out said President Obama “very clearly” endorsed the Ground Zero Mosque in his remarks to a gathering Muslims at the White House for a Ramadan Dinner, and called his attempt to backtrack on what he said “silly.” Roberts said Obama is already taking all the flack for what he said, and to backtrack on it now is “silly.” If Obama can’t convince Cokie Roberts, you know his “walkback” attempt is not going very well!

(See the embedded video of the exchange with George Stephanopolous and Cokie Roberts defending FLOTUS that inspired this post at the original post here or at eyeblast.tv) For years we've been howling about how biased the media is in favor of liberals, and we've been wrong. Bias suggests its a little accidental, and I think they know exactly what they're doing. Wherever George Orwell is right now his hand must be sore from high-fiving all the souls around him because this president vindicates his prophesies. Today's mainstream media has totally pulled back the bias mask to reveal the full-blown propagandists...

ABC News analyst Cokie Roberts said Sunday that Connecticut Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal (D) should end his campaign over his misstatements about his Vietnam War record. The New York Times this week reported that Blumenthal stated several times that he said he served "in" Vietnam during the war and that he told anecdotes as if he saw action there. Blumenthal served in the Marine Reserve in Washington, D.C. after receiving several deferments. Roberts thinks that Republicans could pick up the seat of retiring Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) due to Blumenthal's errors: TAPPER: Donna, you're a Democratic strategist. If he came...

Abandon the Constitution to Save it? 12. Apr, 2010  Written by: Brian Roberts Based on ideas from Cokie Roberts’ recent article found here, it is hard to draw any conclusion other than she prefers a dictatorship of the federal government to the balance of power guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.Obamacare has been signed into law. However, there are a number of other checks and balances built into the Constitution that are specifically designed to protect the states and ultimately “we the people” from unconstitutional laws. Unconstitutional laws would include any law passed by the federal legislature that was not specifically enumerated...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Looking out from the harbor here, it's easy to imagine a mortar lighting up the night sky as it hurtled toward Fort Sumter and signaled the start of the Civil War. It's also easy, standing inside the walls of the island garrison, to view today's nullification battle over health care less as a frivolous political game and more as a serious threat to the Constitution. "The last ray of hope for preserving the Union peaceably expired at the assault on Fort Sumter," mourned President Abraham Lincoln. Painted on the wall of the fort's small museum, those words...

Great idea Cokie, she'll be way-in over her head there also...Why don't he just nominate Ronald McDonald... ABC This Week Roundtable on the Justice John Paul Stevens replacement (at 4:15) Cokie Roberts: "Out of that group, I think the President would be very wise, if that is in fact the group, to pick Napolitano or someboday like her, this Court is all made up of appellate judges and those are not people with real life experiences"

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- The arrest of an outspoken government opponent for his critical remarks on a TV talk show drew condemnation on Tuesday from opposition parties and human rights activists who said the case shows freedoms are being eroded in Venezuela. Opposition politician Oswaldo Alvarez Paz was detained by police on Monday and has been charged with conspiracy, spreading false information and publicly inciting violation. A coalition of more than a dozen anti-Chavez parties said in a statement that Alvarez Paz was arrested for a "crime of opinion" in an attempt to silence criticism and encourage a climate of...

Former ABC "This Week" co-host, now panelist on the program, Cokie Roberts does not pull any punches in the syndicated column she pens with her husband Steve. She writes about a recent panel discussion that Steve was participating in during which "a beefy guy" stood up and claimed health reform was akin to fascism. Roberts writes, "We don't know what the beefy guy reads or to whom he listens, but we would bet he's a disciple of Glenn Beck." She then goes off on Beck's "incendiary language" and his corruption of "the very essence of democracy." We defended Fox News...

Journalists love the marketplace of ideas until people start selling ideas they find objectionable. The liberal media somehow manages to shout about its right to speak freely while demanding others be silenced. Glenn Beck is probably the most popular target for the left's demands for censorship. Cokie Roberts and her husband Steve picked up that ball and ran with it today in their joint syndicated column. They dubbed Beck "a traitor to the American values he professes so loudly to defend" and claimed he is "corrupting the very essence of democracy." And all this just by speaking. Unsurprisingly, the immense...

At least somebody on the left gets it.

“Art” cannot justify child abuse. In fact, “art” has no relation to morality. The commandant of Auschwitz arranged weekly concerts of classical music. Perhaps Beethoven helped him run the death camp more efficiently. If people weren’t elevated by the Ninth Symphony, why would we expect them to be elevated by “Rosemary’s Baby”? Many film personalities signed the petition. But as others have asked, how many of these people would have defended him if he were Father Polanski? Not one, I think.

And all this time I thought it was something in the water.

In the wake of political sex scandals including South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Nevada Sen. John Ensign, ABC's Cokie Roberts took the opportunity on June 25 to suggest that the fundamental flaw in each case was the male gender. "World News with Charles Gibson" anchor asked question of why such affairs ever begin. "It's an admission that can doom the most promising political career," Gibson said. "So, why do politicians tempt fate and cheat on their wives? Why do so many think they can get away it?" ...more (w/video)...

If Sam Donaldson was right, and getting “different perspectives” is important, then why did Good Morning America put together a segment on Pres. Obama’s Supreme Court nominee that had just one perspective, roughly translatable as “Viva Sotomayor!”? Did the ABC folks really think that MSM liberal Cokie Roberts was going to oppose Sotomayor? Could they have been counting on MSM liberal Sam Donaldson to do so? Oh, and let’s not forget the “expert” we heard from: a professor of . . . women’s studies. That professor, Phyllis Coontz, of Pitt’s women’s studies department, declared: “Women are more sensitive. They think...

Yada, yada, yada. ~~snip~~ The growing power of rumor is part of a much larger transformation in the way that voters receive information about politics. The old model was a vertical one, where professional journalists delivered their reports to a largely passive audience through television or newspapers. The new model is horizontal, where folks get information from each other and actively pass it on, through e-mail, text messages and viral videos. Everyone is a potential broadcaster. This "democratization of information" has many benefits - more sources, more perspectives, more choices. In a forum Steve moderated for The International Journal of...

You might have thought Bill Weir would have learned. Yesterday, CNN's John Roberts was roundly condemned for suggesting Sarah Palin might neglect her Down Syndrome baby while running for VP. But Weir, the weekend co-anchor of Good Morning America, posed a very similar question this morning. Coke Roberts, to her credit, called him out on it. Weir's guest during GMA's opening half-hour was McCain political director Mike Duhaime. BILL WEIR: I must ask. Adding to the brutality of a national campaign, the Palin family also has an infant with special needs. What leads you, the senator and the governor to...

Don't look for ABC's Cokie Roberts to turn up anytime soon on that comfy couch featured in Hillary's announcement video, enjoying one of those cozy "conversations" Clinton claims to want. Appearing on This Week today, Roberts left little doubt that she views Hillary as a seriously flawed candidate - if not person. Roberts began by damning Hillary with faint praise: "I think she's got a lot of great attributes: she's a very disciplined candidate, she's very smart, she can raise more money than God, she has a terrific staff, she's been through a presidential campaign or two and knows...

Looks as if Nancy Pelosi has found a rooting section at ABC. As we detailed here yesterday, Charley Gibson fawned over Nancy Pelosi's baby-clutching photo-op. This morning, Cokie Roberts joined the claque. Appearing on This Week, she enthused: "Great images, you're absolutely right. And completely natural. . . That baby knew that grandmother even though it's only a few weeks old. All those other children were completely comfortable with her. And it was, it was just, fun. It wasn't in any way stilted and awful." View video here.Pelosi, completely natural and comfortable? Not nearly as natural and comfortable as was...

When I first tuned to ABC this morning, I thought there might have been some schedule snafu owing to the switch to Standard Time. But no; I eventually realized I was indeed watching Good Morning America and not a late-night DNC infomercial. You could forgive me for being confused, because the first half-hour amounted to little more than a love-letter to the party of Pelosi.First up, GMA staged an "Election Pre-Game" panel, complete with that catchy NFL theme music. Cute concept, but then ABC fielded a lopsided team. Liberal lion Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts - voice of the center-left DC...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 7/1 and 7/2/06 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: Bush was wrong on all the issues McCain is right onThe Supreme's smack down the Bushies (who cares if it endangers the country, it's NEWS!!!) Topics: Hamdan, Immigration, and Iraq Guests Senator John McCain, Republican - Arizona He's BAAAAACKMcCain's back and Georgie's got himIt's such a tragedy that President Bush didn't listen to Saint...

Sunday Shows for 3/23/06This main post is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.Fox News Sunday (Chris Wallace) Meme: Hoekstra & Harman both don't like Negroponte, hurrah, hurrah!Panetta and Duberstein both don't like Bush's men, hurrah, hurrah!And Gilbert Arenas plays online poker at halftime....???? (that's the best I can figure as to why he's on) Topics: Reps. Peter Hoekstra and Jane Harman on Iran's nuclear ambitionFormer Chiefs of Staff Leon Panetta and Ken Duberstein on White House shake-upWashington Wizards' star Gilbert...

WHAT is the proper balance between protecting public safety and promoting public knowledge? Thats a question news organizations face constantly, particularly at a time when American troops are in action overseas. The answer is that we in the media must take both values seriously. Freeing citizens from fear, and from ignorance, are both profound acts of patriotism, but sometimes they are in conflict. The latest example of this conflict comes from the New York Times, where Steve worked for 25 years. Last week the paper disclosed a secret program of government eavesdropping that evaded clear requirements for judicial review. At...

During the roundtable segment on Sunday’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC reporter Cokie Roberts charged that “I do think there's sexism here� and went on to approvingly cite a left-wing Democratic Senator: “I do think that there is a degree of sexism, as Barbara Mikulski has also said, and I do think that there is a certain Ivy League prejudice going on here.� Roberts contended that Miers’ “experience on the Dallas city council showed her to be a great pragmatist and that's what people are really worried about." Roberts soon gushed: “Praise the Lord she doesn't have a...

When Good-Time Charley asked Kookie (Cokie) if the federal response was adequate, Kookie replied (paraphrased) that today there was another screw-up by FEMA. She went on the quote the latest DNC talking point that FEMA should not be part of DHS.

In the celebration of American independence this weekend, along with the parades, fireworks and hot dogs, come patriotic pride and prayers of thanksgiving. When we count our blessings as a country, we think first of the women and men in the military, willing to put themselves in harm's way to defend the rest of us. And we also think of all of the other Americans giving of themselves in some way in order to improve the community, in the remarkable tradition of service that characterizes this country.

Political news commentator Cokie Roberts stressed the importance of incorporating social justice values into public service at Marquette's 124th commencement exercises. Roberts, an analyst for ABC News who has won several journalism awards, said Sunday morning at the Bradley Center that the need for social justice values – which are the touchstones of a Jesuit education – and civility in government is great due to increasing political partisanship. "Those values are so important to bring into public service today," she said. Roberts addressed the declining popularity of politics as a profession, placing blame on the news media for too often...

I knew when Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elevated to the supreme leadership of Christianity's largest church that there would be many unkind things said about the new pope. I didn't think the problem would be rooted in his past connection as a juvenile with a wing of the Nazi Party, which was as all encompassing as Communist affiliations were in Russia and are in China. Only the immature London press, a freakish industry that is part New York Times and mostly National Enquirer, would attempt to frame this less than admirable shred as being representative of Ratzinger's 78 years. Maybe...

Anchors Dan Rather and , NPR Reporter Cokie Roberts, along with a U.S. Marine assigned to protect them were hiking through the Iraq desert one day when they were captured by Iraqis. They were tied up, led to a village, and brought before the leader. The leader said, "I am familiar with your western custom of granting the condemned a last wish; so, before we kill and dismember you, do you have any last requests?" Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan; so I'd like one last bowlful of hot spicy chili." The leader nodded to an underling who left...

Former "This Week" host and National Public Radio veteran Cokie Roberts blamed conspiracy filmmaker Michael Moore on Sunday for causing Sen. John Kerry to lose the presidential election. "I think Michael Moore actually had a very major impact - a negative impact - on the Democratic Party," Roberts told NBC's "Chris Matthews Show." "I think he exemplified all of the things that people hate about Democrats. And the fact that he was - it was a hate-America-first campaign and that hurts the Democrats every time." Adding insult to injury, Roberts also contended that Moore's "physical appearance did not help."

What did Sen. John Kerry know and when did he know it about a plot to assassinate pro-Vietnam war U.S. Senators hatched at a November 1971 Kansas City meeting of the group Vietnam Veterans Against America? According to presidential biographer Douglas Brinkley, that's the question Sen. Kerry needs to answer. If it turns out that the likely Democratic presidential nominee knew of the treasonous plan, Brinkley says he had an obligation to go to the authorities. "The question is: did Kerry quit [VVAW] before Kansas City or did he quit after Kansas City," Brinkley told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg. "If...