VIDEO: Andrea Mitchell labels Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg ‘anti-American.’

By GottaLaff

I am Laffy, and I am anti-American.

"Hi Laffy."

If being critical of the Iraq war is anti-American, then count me in:

On Morning Joe, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell echoed Brown’s attack on Clegg, saying that Clegg “is very anti-American” on certain foreign policy issues. Guest Zbigniew Brzezinski immediately rejected Mitchell’s claim.

So if we disagree with foreign policy issues, we are not "really" American. But I'm pretty sure I am. I even have the papers to prove it, should anyone stop me and demand to see them.

Tuh-WEET! There goes another right wing talking point

By GottaLaff

Via Andrea Mitchell just now n Twitter:


There you go, GOP, right there in black, white, and color screen grabs: The troops like President Obama. Imagine that.

Another talking point down the drain.

Liveblog: Majority Whip James Clyburn: "It was Cantor's member who yelled Baby killer"

By GottaLaff

Andrea Mitchell is discussing Eric Cantor's comments with James Clyburn on MSNBC right now, specifically Cantor's accusing Democrats of politicizing threats to Congress members:

James Clyburn [some minor paraphrasing]:

The whole world saw what happened Saturday [slurs being shouted to Congress members], and on CSPAN, they saw members of the chamber rise to their feet and cheer those who were disrupting the proceedings in the House of Representatives. And they saw members leaning out the window at the balcony, which I think is illegal. None of those people were Democrats.

Repkublican leaders should join Democratic leaders to do things not superficially, but get serious about tamping this stuff down.

Re: The You Lie incident: I said back then it would grow into something more serious, and it looks like it has.

Fire burning on Fire Pelosi site: If you play with fire you're bound to get burned. If they don't tamp this down, they will feel the heat for it.

Re: Cantor saying it was reckless to use incidents for political gain, accusing Van Hollen and DNC chair Tim Kaine of fanning the flames:

Democrats haven't overplayed this at all. It was his member who yelled Baby killer to Stupak, who next day sent out a fundraising letter using that. Fundraising was done using the You Lie incident. I challenge him to show me a Democrat doing the same thing.

We have learned the message of history, and have done what we can to maintain a civil discussion, make our children proud. That's how Democrats conduct themselves.

All this is poppycock compared to what we faced in the sixties, so none of this is a concern to me at all.

And that's the way it is.

Grassley 2010: "If [a mandate] was unconstitutional in 1993.. well, nobody gave it much thought."

By GottaLaff

We just had a giant scoop of hypocrisy from Eric Cantor.

Now Chuck Grassley is on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell taking credit for all the work he did on the health care bill. Yes, that health care bill.

There are "a lot of things in this bill" he likes. Suddenly there's a "consensus" for these things. But it increases taxes and destroys Medicare, see.

"The bad outweighs the good, it's just that simple," says he.

He's pretty simple himself, says I.

You came up with the individual mandate back when, says Andrea.

Grassley (paraphrased slightly):

"The difference between 1993 and the year Now [yes, he said "the year now"]... if it was unconstitutional then.. well, nobody gave it much thought. Lawyers didn't look at it until it became an issue, which it did just lately.

Besides, I came back to the P.O.V. Obama had during the campaign, when he said a mandate was wrong, and Hillary was for it.... Now the information is out that it will take a lot to enforce the mandate that we NOW think is unconstitutional."

Well then, that clarifies that.

Re: violent threats to House members:

"That is not what should be going on in America. We should have respect, get involved in the political process. Speak up, but no violence. Nothing illegal. We should all set an example of civility."

I guess he thinks it's civil to encourage volatility at town hall meetings, not to mention lie about death panels and killing grandma.

Grassley Face One, let me introduce you to Grassley Face Two.

Hyp. O. Crite.

Video- Andrea Mitchell Mocks Sarah Palin

Man, with DC down because of the snow, there is not much going on. Sorry for all the vids, but it's slow today.

VIDEO-- Liz Cheney, Punditiot Extraordinaire: "[Cheney] has not said that there's a connection between Saddam Hussein & 9/11."

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Earlier, I liveblogged this nugget from Liz "I Wanna Be Just Like Daddy Dearest" Cheney. Above is the video of the statements I grabbed.

Seems we're all getting nauseous from the dizzying number of Tee Vee Machine appearances she's made lately:

IS SHE A PROFESSIONAL PUNDIT NOW?.... [...] Apparently concerned that Liz Cheney hasn't been on the cable networks nearly enough lately, "Morning Joe" invited the former Bush administration official to offer more obligatory criticism of the president.

Former VP's daughter tells MSNBC she "was troubled by the extent to which I heard moral relativism."

[...] Concerns about "moral relativism," coming from a Bush administration official, are a little too ironic, anyway.

And therein lies the point: why is Liz Cheney on television every day? Are we approaching the point at which every important presidential speech requires a Cheney response?

We've all been asking that question here at TPC, now haven't we? The question is, why hasn't the corporate media? Oo! Oo! I know! Pick me!

1) Ratings.
2) She's a Cheney.
3) Ratings.
4) Corporate media bias.
5) Ratings.
6) Corporate media need to fill up 24 hours.
7) Ratings.
8) Everyone's sick of Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich.
9) Ratings.
10) Extinction of real news, genuflection to infotainment.
11) Ratings.

Liz Cheney: " [Dick Cheney] has not said there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11"

By GottaLaff

I'm watching the tail end of an interview of Liz Cheney by Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC right now. Here is what I caught, somewhat paraphrased:

Liz Cheney: "[Dick Cheney] has not said there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. ... only between Hussein and Al Qaeda... Tenet testified [to that].... This is a claim used to smear the administration."

Andrea Mitchell said she'd fact check and get back to her, to which Cheney, Jr. replied:

"That's not fair, Andrea... We know Hussein had the technology, but that's different from saying he was connected to 9/11."

Um....

Yes, Andrea Mitchell did just say this

By GottaLaff

On MSNBC just now, Andrea Mitchell was covering the Sotomayor interviews, and was introducing Richard Wolffe, who was about to offer some analysis. But she interrupted her intro to say:

But more importantly, he's the author of a new book...

Yes, Andrea Mitchell, interviewer extraordinaire, revealed her priorities on Worldwide Corporate Tee Vee. Selling a colleague's book took precedence over the latest news about our (likely) next Supreme Court justice.

As I've said ad nauseam, Tee Vee news has ceased to exist.

Sen. Wyden: Don't Let Anyone Fool You That Bush Admin Kept Congress in the Loop on Torture

Seymore Hersh "Cheney Told Israel Obama Is Pro-Palestinian"

Here's the video of Sy discussing what Gotta wrote up here.

Andrea Mitchell gets her show a name

If they spent the money on a new graphic, do you think they could get her a crash course on public speaking? I don't know if she's just bad with teleprompters or what, but her disassociated delivery kills me. h/t Media Bistro.

New "Meet The Press" Moderator To Be Named

The panel of journalist sounds very appealing. Maybe throw in some from some left leaning publications? And whatever they do, please, not Andrea Mitchell.

It appears Dec. 7 may be the day we learn who the new moderator, or moderators, of Meet the Press will be. The LATimes' Matea Gold reports, "According to network sources, that may be Tom Brokaw's last day on the air as interim moderator of the program, a post he assumed after the sudden death of longtime host Tim Russert in June."

Gold writes, "deliberations have been closely guarded by NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker and NBC News President Steve Capus, who have not yet made a decision."

The shortlist continues to include NBC's David Gregory, PBS anchor Gwen Ifill, NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell and NBC political director Chuck Todd.

It may not be one moderator at all, but a panel of journalists which would return the show to its roots — where politicians and newsmakers come to 'Meet the Press.'

Palin, McCain Camp keep on lyin' about Troopergate

There's a song in there somewhere.

On MSNBC this afternoon, host Andrea Mitchell asked McCain-Palin campaign spokeswoman Meg Stapleton: “Wasn’t [Palin] overstating it? She wasn’t cleared of anything unethical because the conclusion was that she had violated the ethics rules of the state of Alaska.” Stapleton responded, “This Governor did nothing wrong and did nothing unlawful.”

Via Think Progress.

Top McCain Advisor Can't Defend Smear Campaign

I heard this earlier and couldn't help thinking that if Mitchell could string words together to make a sentence, it could have been a bloodbath. Eakins is an idiot.

Andrea Mitchell has more experience than Sarah Louise Palin

GottaLaff

This was a "pat-on-the-head-you-have-a-lot-to-learn, dear moment."

"You try to avoid going to war when you can."

--MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell re: Sarah Palin's "blinking" comments.

Thank you, Andrea. Thank you.

Video: Andrea Mitchell Greenspan's Balloon-O-Rama

By GottaLaff

I mentioned this during last night's liveblog. Now you can see it for yourself:

From my post:

Andrea Mitchell is completely buried under balloons. Hilarious.

Keith: The political equivalent of a Chuck E. Cheese. Ha!

Brian Williams: The Where's Waldo of this convention.

She just said, "this is the least partisan speech I've heard."

I repeat: Has everyone gone stark raving mad?

I stand by that last question.

Three ridiculous comments from the talking heads

By GottaLaff

Between Andrea Mitchell and whoever else I heard (I was enjoying a blow-drying experience and missed the names of the commentators), I was ready to put my 1875 watts aside and start pulling my hair out:

1. Because Palin has a child with Down's Syndrome, she'll make a great candidate.
2. Because Palin is a woman, Biden has to go easy on her. So much for women's equality.
3. A hotel employee told Andrea Mitchell that Obama was too tough on McCain. Yes, really. Obama should stick to soaring speeches, instead of showing he has a spine.
   

McCain/Pentagon sabotaged Obama's military hospital visit?

Kudos to karpaty lviv for venturing over to the dark side to find the transcript from this morning on Bully Joe And His Lapdogs. The background is yesterday the wingers started frothing over a report that Obama had cancelled his visit to Ramstein AFB to visit injured troops. Of course, they gnashed their teeth proclaiming that Obama was more interested in German love than our brave soldiers etc etc. (pick your favorite winger meme and insert- they used them all)

When I was talking to Gotta last night I had already read that there was a legit reason-

Obama senior adviser Robert Gibbs told ABC News in a statement, “During his trip as part of the CODEL to Afghanistan and Iraq, Sen. Obama visited the combat support hospital in the Green Zone in Baghdad and had a number of other visits with the troops. For the second part of his trip, the senator wanted to visit the men and women at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center to express his gratitude for their service and sacrifice. The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.”

Seemed legit enough, especially since if Obama had gone the wingers would have just attacked from the opposite direction.

But this morning, Andrea Mitchell on BJ&HL said this-

JOE SCARBOROUGH: It's curious, if that's the case, why the campaign didn't make that announcement yesterday, and allowed stories to go like this. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of he said/she said in the days to come about this.

MITCHELL: But they thought that they couldn't win. Yeah. They thought that they were, you know, you know, no-win situation, that the Pentagon, perhaps the military with cooperation from some Republican operatives and, that's the sort of scuttlebutt, that there have been some foreign policy advisers of John McCain with connections in the Pentagon who had something to do with this. But that is, perhaps, just the normal political paranoia of the season.

Video above is from the Today Show this morning, fast forward to 1:55 to hear what Mitchell is saying about the broohaha now.

So, what do you guys think?

UPDATE- Ta da!!

Pentagon Confirms That It Told Obama He Couldn't Visit Army Base With Campaign Staff

Wes Clark on MSNBC : Liveblog

By GottaLaff

Wesley Clark is discussing his military credentials... national security.

Wes: McCain's service doesn't have anything to do with being able to wrestle with national policy.

Andrea Mitchell: (interrupts) Neither does Obama have that experience....

Wes: It wasn't my decision to bring this up. I haven't made the ruckus.

Andrea: You answered it.

Wes: I answered it the way he asked it to me. That's not always done in politics, but I answered. It's important that there's a distinction between courage and commitment in military, and the judgment to be president. Obama's not claiming experience in military, but if you look at their policies on war on terror and Iraq, Obama has better judgment.

Andrea: Republicans say there's an organized campaign... John Aravosis (AMERICAblog) wrote about it. [shows quote about McCain's propaganda] Nobody said McCain did any propaganda as Aravosis said. McCain was an extraordinary man, but the issue of an organized campaign against his military service...? [Shows MoveOn.org's ad, the one with the mother and baby]...

Wes: That says nothing about his career, it's about his judgment. What I said has nothing to do with the Obama camapaign, I've been saying it for months. It's about judgement...

Andrea: You could be a v.p. choice. Do you think this helps or hurts?

Wes: First, I've heard nothing about this except press rumors. It's immaterial. What I was asked was my judgment based on my experience and that's what I gave. The relevance of military to the office of president is the only issue that's important.

Andrea: Obama's judgment, and McCain's: Will either have the flexibility they claim they do, in Iraq? Won't conditions on the ground be releveant?

Wes: Obama will look at conditions, and more.. he'll open a diplomatic dialog with Iraq's neighbors. He'll develop a stratetgy... start to withdraw imediately, within a month of being elected.

Andrea: Thanks for sticking to your commitment to being with us today, you kept your word.

Wes: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to say I honor everyone who served, especially John McCain.