New Media Meme: Obama Team Solely To Blame For Rush Story

Ari Fleisher is on Morning Joe right now spewing this bs (and being laughed at- I'll get the vid), and John Cornyn writes letters. Greg takes it down-

New media meme alert: A secret plot hatched solely by the White House is entirely to blame for the Rush Limbaugh story getting so much media attention and turning into a media circus.

This shiny new meme is popping up on the same day (today) that top Republicans launched a new offensive, accusing the White House of deliberately focusing attention on Limbaugh to divert attention from solving the country’s problems.

This version of events has its genesis in this Politico piece reporting on the inner workings of the Democratic strategy to hang Rush around the necks of Republicans. Drudge linked the piece with the blaring headline: “Enemies List: White House Plots Limbaugh Coverage.” Time’s Michael Scherer argued that it shows that this “entire controversy has been cooked up and force fed to the American people by Obama’s advisers.” Reporters pushed the idea at today’s White House press briefing.

But come on: None of this is really true. Or at least, it’s a grotesque exaggeration.

First of all, the Politico piece just doesn’t say this. If anything, the reporting in there proves the opposite. The piece says that the “strategy took shape” after Dem strategists James Carville and Stan Greenberg polled on Rush and found him to be deeply unpopular. But as Steve Benen notes, Carville and Greenberg aren’t Obama advisers, let alone White House advisers.

That’s not all. The piece explicitly says that groups outside the White House — the DCCC, the Center for American Progress, and the labor-backed Americans United for Change — were the first to push the strategy.

Mark Begich (D-AK) erupts over Jindal crack

Good for Begich, it was a stupid attempt at one of their zombie lies that needs to be called out every single time.

Alaska Sen. Mark Begich has a message for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal: Don’t make fun of our volcano money.

In his rebuttal to President Barack Obama’s address on Tuesday night, Jindal made a joke about a $140 million line item for volcano monitoring, saying: “Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.”

Begich, a Democrat, fired off a harsh letter to Republican Jindal on Wednesday evening, saying that volcano monitoring “is a matter of life and death in Alaska,” which has several active volcanoes. Indeed, one such volcano erupted in 1989, nearly causing a jumbo jet to crash, Begich said in his letter.

The federally funded Alaska Volcano Observatory, with offices in Fairbanks and Anchorage, monitors 31 active volcanoes.

Shuster calls out Rep Issa over "High Speed Rail" zombie meme

David shoots it down, but I'm sure it will get right back up.

Comment Of The Day

Okay, okay, I know since I'm working mostly solo today I'm leaning on the easy, but this was just too f'ng good. From the comments on a thread at Politico-

We need the Fairness Doctrine, and I think ACORN should be charge of regulating it.
/cue wingnut head explosions: 3, 2, 1...

Andy Card Is A Liar And So Is The New York Times

You know, you really have to wonder about the mentality of people who make shit up just for the sake of making shit up. The NYT started out parrotting the (now) zombie meme that jackets and ties were always required to even step into the Oval Office (refuted pictorially above) and now Andy Card (that would be him all the way to the right in the picture) is chastising Obama**-

“The Oval Office symbolizes…the Constitution, the hopes and dreams, and I’m going to say democracy. And when you have a dress code in the Supreme Court and a dress code on the floor of the Senate, floor of the House, I think it’s appropriate to have an expectation that there will be a dress code that respects the office of the President.”

Mr. Card went on to add that, while he would not criticize Mr. Obama for his appearance, “I do expect him to send the message that people who are going to be in the Oval Office should treat the office with the respect that it has earned over history.”

Well, F you Andy and all your war mongering buddies who literally took the constitution and wiped your white ass privileged asses with it. You're a liar.

**On fracking Inside Edition no less
*** h/t to Americablog and reader who found the pic. Wonder if there are any other pics floating out there?

UPDATE- Bite me Andy. More here.

CBO: House plan offers 'noticeable impact'

Oh look!!! A real CBO analysis of the complete stimulus bill!! Imagine.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- The bulk of spending and tax cuts in a House-crafted plan to stimulate the U.S. economy would have a "noticeable impact" by 2010, budget analysts said.

A Congressional Budget Office report issued Monday indicated about two-thirds of the measures in the $825 billion package would migrate into the economy by the end of fiscal year 2010, producing "a noticeable impact on economic growth and unemployment," The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Tuesday.

(snip)

The final analysis is only slightly different from a preliminary CBO cost estimate that caught the eye of congressional Republicans when it was released last week, the Post said, with House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio saying the preliminary figures proved that "slow-moving government spending programs" would do little to revive the economy compared with GOP-preferred tax cuts.

House Speaker Nancy of California praised the new CBO report Tuesday, calling it the "first analysis of the entire House recovery bill," and saying it proved the measure "provides immediate stimulus to help create jobs."

Why am I smarter than Chris Van Hollen?

Van Hollen is on right now with Norah O'Donnell (I'll give her props, she was just as hard with the R who was on) and predictably got hammered with the "100's of billions for contraceptives" meme. I figured since he is the chairman of the DCCC, he'd be prepared to deflect their talking points. No. Such. Luck.

Hey Chris, check this out-

First of all, the family-planning program that Pelosi supports expanding in the stimulus bill was created in 1972 under the leadership of Republican president Richard Nixon.

What's being proposed is an expansion in the number of states that can use Medicaid money, with a federal match, to help low-income women prevent unwanted pregnancies. Of the 26 states that already have Medicaid waivers for family planning, eight are led by Republican governors (AL, FL, MS, SC, CA, LA, MN and RI -- a ninth, MO, had a GOP governor until this past November). If this policy is truly a taxpayer gift to "the abortion industry," as John Boehner and House Republicans claim, where are the GOP governors promising to end the program in their states?

Next time you're going to go on the teevee Chris, drop me a line and I'll try and get you up to speed.

Added- Okay, I officially give up. I just surfed over to Fox where the "Chair of the DNC's Womens Group" or some such was also mawmawing herself to death about this with Neal Cavuto. Something really has to be done about all the mealy mouthing stupidity on our side.