Senator Lindsay Graham went on the record and said that the Republican Party needs to distance itself from the fringe. He looks at various media that is known for whipping up people into a frenzy and he feels it is hurting his party. His distain extended to Glenn Beck:
“Glenn Beck is not aligned with any party. He is aligned with cynicism and there has always been a market for cynics. But we became a great nation not because we are a nation of cynics. We became a great nation because we are a nation of believers.”
He extended his criticism beyond individuals to include movements like the ‘birther’ movement and speculated what it would have been like to write the founding documents of this country in an environment where news channels were on 24/7:
Reflecting comments made earlier in the day by his colleague and close friend, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Graham said he was deeply worried about “the passions of cable TV” whipping up the emotions of the public. “If you get rewarded for being a jerk you are going to keep doing it,” he said, before labeling “Talk radio, MoveOn.org, and the 24-hour news cycle” as the main culprits in polarizing the nation.
“Can you imagine doing D-Day with cable television?” he asked. “Can you imagine writing the Constitution — you know, O’Reilly says Ben Franklin’s giving in on something. Can you imagine having to do that in this environment?”
We have had all sorts of ‘ers’ this summer. We have had lots of different birthers, including Lou Dobbs. They continue to beat the drum that President Obama is not an American citizen. Ridiculous!
Then we dealt with a truther, Van Jones, who somehow managed to get his name on a petition suggesting the Bush administration had some prior knowledge of the attacks on the Pentagon and the twin towers. Ridiculous!
So what’s worse? Truther or birther? Which takes the greatest fugue from reality?
Van Jones used potty mouthy directed at Republicans before he was brought into the administration. Oh well–so did President Bush when he thought the mic was off. So did Vice President Cheney when he dropped the F bomb on the Senate Floor. I didn’t want their heads though. So what.
Van Jones had some associations most of us would prefer not to be part of our government. It was time for him to go because of these associations and because of the truther petition. He was over the top and was causing too much negative attention regardless of any positive qualifications he might have brought to this administraton.
And finally, when are the right wingers going to quit? Never. Not until the last person in the Obama administration has been brought down, if they have their way. Jones was just the appetizer.
Birthers refers to those people who apparently believe President Obama is not rightfully our sitting President, for those of you who don’t know what mashugana means, it’s Yiddish for crazy. How many time does the state of Hawaii have to verify President Obama’s birth certificate. Will the third time be the charm? The congressmen in this very aggressive interview with Chris Mathews looks VERY uncomfortable to me, like he has been set up to do something he may not totally believe in, just my perspective though.
When George Bush won the presidency in 2000, by the final ruling of the Supreme Court, I accepted that he was my President and THAT was certainly a conflicted election! That is how this country works, its truly a miracle that we have such peaceful elections. Now it’s time for the other side to start governing and accept that they lost.
I love how Chris Mathews refuses to let Rep. Campbell off the hook and insist he answer the question whether HE believes President Obama is a U.S. citizen. By the end of the interview, the congressmen capitulates and finally answers that he believes President Obama is indeed a citizen of the United States.
