REPORT: GOP Lawmakers Outnumber Democratic Lawmakers 2 To 1 In Stimulus Debate On Cable News

By GottaLaff

Paddy and I were just discussing the glut of Republican talking heads v. the m.i.a. Democratic pundits/representatives, as was Ady in Comments. No surprise here except, oops,the Democrats hold the majority in both houses of Congress and have a Democratic president in the White House.

As Paddy and I recalled, when Bush was in office, it was all Republicans all the time. We both assumed that now that a Democrat is in office, we'd be better represented on the Tee Vee Machine.

Silly us:

Even though President Obama and his team are in control of the executive branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic recovery package. [...]

The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week:

In total, from 6 AM on Monday to 4 PM on Wednesday, the networks have hosted Republican lawmakers 51 times and Democratic lawmakers only 24 times. Surprisingly, Fox News came the closest to offering balance, hosting 8 Republicans and 6 Democrats. CNN had only one Democrat compared to 7 Republicans. [...]

As ThinkProgress reported on Monday, the cable networks, the Sunday shows and the network newscasts promoted a controversial CBO non-report 81 times before the actual CBO analysis of the stimulus plan was released.

So much for fair and balanced.

Poll-itics: Dem "one-party rule" is popular edition

By GottaLaff

Good lord! If only one political party (read: Democrats) ruled the entire government, the Republicans warned, everyone would have to dig brand new bomb shelters, grab the kids, and hide! A recipe for disaster! Who would ever want that? Um, America?

It was one of John McCain's closing arguments: "We're getting a glimpse of what one-party rule would look like under Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. Apparently it starts with lowering our defenses and raising our taxes," the Republican presidential nominee said repeatedly on the campaign trail in the final weeks leading up to Election Day.

But a new national poll suggests why a majority of voters didn't seem to buy that argument, as Barack Obama beat McCain in the presidential election and the Democrats made major gains in both the House, under Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate, under Majority Leader Harry Reid.

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Tuesday, 59 percent of those questioned said Democratic control of both the executive and legislative branches will be good for the country, compared with 38 percent saying such one-party control will be bad. [...]

The poll also indicates that the public has a positive view of the Democratic Party, with 62 percent saying they have a favorable opinion and 31 percent an unfavorable opinion of the party. For the Republicans, a majority, 54 percent, said they have an unfavorable view of the GOP while 38 percent hold a positive view.

Oh-h-h, sorry, Repubs! But there are parting gifts: your very own 2008 home version of "What Real Democracy Looks Like".