What I found particulary disgusting with this episode of MTP was how much time that Matilin was given. Tim gave her a good 10 minutes first to spread her BS all over the airways about how Poor Dick Cheney had to go through this awful event. He then gave everyone else only about 3 minutes. It was appalling.
Posted by Anjha at February 19, 2006 01:00 PMMatalin also said on the show that she eas simply shocked, shocked, that anyone could possibly think that Cheney drinks alcohol, despite the fact that Cheney had been arrested in the past for DUI and that Cheney himself said that he may have had a "beer or two" at lunch on the day of the shooting. She also said cited Katharine Armstrong as being a witness to the shooting, while Gregory and Dowd sat there mute, not bothering to mention that Armstrong was 100 yards away from the shooting and telling the Corpus Christi reporter that she thought the Secret Service and the medical team were rushing to the scene of the shooting because she thought Cheney had fallen down.
Posted by Erroll at February 19, 2006 01:19 PMIt was appalling? I'd say it was typical.
And another thing. Is Maureen Dowd supposed to be the "liberal" who "balances" the show? Has anyone ever asked Maureen Dowd if she is appearing to be the voice of liberals and/or the Democratic Party? I don't think she would agree to play that role and I am positive that neither liberals, generally, nor the Democratic Party, specifically, would agree to have Dowd be their representative. I am certain that she does not represent or promote my world view. I don't even think she understands my world view.
Posted by James E. Powell at February 19, 2006 01:26 PMMary was more vicious this morning than she usually is. She was also extremely caustic to Dowd. I guess having to defend the indefensible is difficult. I will never understand how Carville can live with that bitch. Rumors have it that she and Coulter are sisters.
Posted by Judith at February 19, 2006 01:47 PMWell, as I said in the Open Comment Section, I would have smacked Mary's smug face if I had been Dowd. You don't let people make smartass remarks about you, and then just sit there unresponsive.
Posted by Judith at February 19, 2006 01:51 PMWell, I laugh at Matalin. Screeching conservatives are funny.
Posted by Ga6thDem at February 19, 2006 02:11 PMWell, Matalin is desperate. I love the smell of screeching conservatives in the morning!
Posted by Ga6thDem at February 19, 2006 02:12 PMAs I listened to Matalin, who has her fair share of brain cells, I saw a more exaggerated stance and choice of words on her part than even in previous interviews. Incrementally, I've noticed the heavy handed neo con apologists getting almost more cartoonish in their replies and the middle of the roadies, perhaps like George Will, actually losing the lockstep. The increments are small, but the crack in the bubble is there and Matalin has fewer and fewer tricks in her bag to offset Cheney's ill chosen obsessions & lies. Jihad was just stupid to try and make into a slang word. I for one was happy to see Tim let her rip. If Mary Matalin can't spin it, the whiskey bottle is empty.
Posted by mainsailset at February 19, 2006 02:17 PMWhere did she get that hideous haircut and equally hideous floral pin?
Posted by Daryl at February 19, 2006 02:45 PMMy last four posts are not showing up. What do I need to do, if anything?
Posted by Judith at February 19, 2006 03:03 PMThree points.
1. Nothing is more ridiculous than a wealthy and powerful Republican engaging in self-pity which has been happening since Nixon discovered that it works rather well.
2. According to at least one story I read, Cheney had a stiff martini an hour or so after the shooting accident. Yes, he drinks. How much given how many layers of staff protection he has is hard to guess.
3. Cheney's first response was to blame the victim through proxies. I suspect Karl Rove has changed the agenda to blame the media for not allowing Cheney and his staff to spin the accident up one end and down the other. Cheney finds it temperamentally impossible to accept responsibility for his screw-ups.
Posted by Craig at February 19, 2006 03:06 PMThe fact that anyone would refer to George Will as 'middle of the road' is a clear sign that a revolution has taken place in this country, and that the good guys lost.
Posted by James E. Powell at February 19, 2006 03:08 PMSaw part of the Matalin roundtable interview....complete with republican faux outrage mannerisms including multiple heavy sighs, eye rolling and head shakes in the negative ...all with her whiny filibustering even though there were 3 other guests and Timmeh never interupted her....sickening.
Enough of this crap, that victim faux outrage schtick is growing old Mary,that dog won't hunt anymore (just like your boss Shooter I hope).
Posted by emal at February 19, 2006 05:52 PMEmal, I hate to correct you, but the correct phase is "this Cheney won't hunt anymore."
Posted by Judith at February 19, 2006 06:13 PMgod.... I can't stand Matalin. First, she always looks like she was forced to down a bottle of lemon juice and in her opinions she reminds me of the Jon Lovitz pathologic liar character from Saturday Night Live. "Yeah, Whittington was dressed in a giant quail suit, yeah, that's the ticket".
Posted by at February 19, 2006 06:17 PMWhat really happened on the Armstrong Ranch? Here are some possible explanations:
http://jonswift.blogspot.com/2006/02/what-really-happened-on-armstrong.html
Where was Paul Gigot in this conversation? I the C&L clip, he didn't say ONE WORD. Where is the WSJ on this?
Posted by Poika at February 19, 2006 07:43 PMI've read dailykos and here and I think people that
watched Meet The Press missed it.
Russert asked Mary M. to say exactly how many beers
the VP had. She went on this long rant and towards
the end of it said "he had a beer at lunch". She
still didn't answer the question of how many.
This is the same answer that Cheney gave on Fox.
Here is from the transcript:
----------------------------
MR. RUSSERT: The suggestion being that perhaps there had been drinking going on that afternoon, and it could have been detected that evening as opposed to the next morning. And again, pointing to Ms. Armstrong’s own words, quote, “None in the hunting party was drinking alcohol, Armstrong said. No, zero, zippo. No one was drinking.” And then on Wednesday, the vice president, with FOX News, said, quote, “I had a beer at lunch. After lunch we take a break, go back to ranch headquarters. Then we took about an hour-long tour of the ranch. We didn’t go back into the field to hunt quail until, oh, sometime after 3 p.m.” Was alcohol in any way, shape or form consumed during the afternoon? And should we accept the president’s “a beer” as literally one beer?
MS. MATALIN: What Katharine Armstrong was answering is a literal fact going to the question she was asked, which is always the case on the Armstrong ranch, you don’t drink and hunt, and you don’t hunt with drinkers. And that’s what the sheriff reported, that’s what she reported. It is true that the vice president had a beer at lunch, and let me ask anybody sitting at this table who knows the vice president, has known him for many years, has seen him in social situations, he’s known not to be a drinker. But let me ask you a more logical question—you think the Secret Service would let the vice president out, tanked up, with a loaded gun, or let him be around anybody who’s drunk with a loaded gun? It just defies common sense that the press would even go there. And that’s why these adversarial question-and- answer periods set up the presumption that Cheney would be drunk, or having to deny that Cheney was drunk, as opposed to presuming what we all know, that he doesn’t drink, he wouldn’t hunt and drink, the Secret Service wouldn’t let anybody around him who is drinking and hunting.
That’s why we get into the—that’s why we take our time, try to slow down, try to get as many facts out as possible before we engage in what ended up, as was the case this weekend, happens way too frequently inside this bubble, inside this parallel universe of a feeding frenzy in the briefing room.
Posted by at February 19, 2006 08:06 PMAfter Matalin used the word "jihad" to characterize the W.H. press response to the Cheney shooting and Gregory said that that was an unfortunate use of that word, Matalin retorted, "Oh, okay. Been saving that for long?"
What??!!
First off, what Gregory said hardly qualifies as a quip, the sort a person might save for the right opportunity. Rather, he made an observation.
Second, what the heck could her remark even mean? That Gregory knew if he waited long enough, someone would misuse "jihad" and he could then respond??
That woman is just deranged.
Posted by Lindy at February 19, 2006 08:14 PMMEMO to Mary: Shut the Fuck Up!
Posted by Christopher at February 19, 2006 08:19 PMWhat we too often forget is that we are not dealing with a political party or even an ideology but a cult. MM is a typical PR person for a cult.
Posted by Ron In Portland at February 19, 2006 09:02 PMI watched the entire sorry affair, and the first thing that struck me was why the hell Russert gave that witch so much time at the top of the program to spew her venom. Then I recalled that just a few short weeks ago, Carville and Russert were "coyly" hawking James Junior’s new radio gig. Perhaps "Mommy Dearest" was unhappy with THAT lame performance; hence, her attempt to "salvage" hubby’s previous appearance
AND remind Russert that being "pussy-whipped" means never having to say "but you’re wrong."
Coincidentally, I saw Mrs. Russert (Maureen Orth) on C-SPAN hawking HER latest book about a week ago; and did a double-take when I heard her rip into President and Mrs. Clinton with the SAME BITCHY VULGARITY displayed by the aforementioned Right-Wing Wenches. They’re all truly Bitches-in-Arms.
That Russert said and did NOTHING to intervene in Matalin’s tirade is not surprising. Her "jihad" crack was truly disgusting; the sort of idiom that should have been "bleeped" by the network censors. That remark—even more than Matalin’s disgraceful behavior—tells you all you need to know about this wretched administration. After all, these are the same thugs that use our soldiers as fodder for their ideological fantasies and the poor as props for their political skullduggery.
Watching Maureen Dowd calmly and deliberately admonish that bitch was pure Nirvana.
Watching David Gregory apologize for doing his job was sadly pathetic. If Russert were truly a "journalist," he’d have stood up for his colleague—and the American people— instead of deferring to silence as we’ve come to expect.
I’m convinced that Matalin and Kate O’Bierne are evil twins. They both come across as embittered old hags who trash the very movement [Feminism] that has enabled their "success." Add (Ann) Coulter to the mix and you’ve got a triumvirate of trash.
Ah, for the good old days…
Posted by at February 20, 2006 12:57 AMI spent the whole show wondering if MM was actually Carville in a wig, they're both cadaverous.
Posted by jerry at February 20, 2006 05:06 AMNow that Mary Mattedhair broke the ice with the "J" word, will she be trying her hand at cartoons demeaning the prophet? Injecting HER caustic poison into a toon could produce some REALLY lethal riots.
How come you can't holler "fire" in a crowded theater, but screaming "jihad" in a jammed mosque is OK?
Posted by TIKI AL at February 20, 2006 06:09 AMMatalin looks like an ancient transvestite. She's too bizarre for Jerry Springer and too conservative to be embraced by the LGBT community.
Posted by Christopher at February 20, 2006 06:25 AM
Dowd says she's been on these Republican hunts. Why did no one ask her if drinking was a regular feature at these? Why didn't she volunteer that it was / wasn't?
Matalin's act struck many of us on the Left as nasty and irrational. I have to wonder if it was a deliberate attempt to play to the wingers who love that Jerry Springer style of "debating."
Posted by justfortoday at February 20, 2006 07:24 AMSo, last week started off with the shooting and it ended with the new david gregory ( by new I mean the Castrated david gregory!)
What a pathetic display by what may well have been the most vociferous wh press critic still working the beat.
Well, if you go back and read the transcript from MTP, you can see that they only people talking were Matalin and Timmy baby. Russert received a nice email from me yesterday, not that it means anything.
Posted by Judith at February 20, 2006 09:35 AMlet them keep talking, it tighten's the rope
soon those committing treason can dangle at the end of the rope
After watching the "discussion", I would like to strangle Mary Matalin with my bare hands, very, very, slowly. She is brain-dead already, so what is the point of keeping her on life support?
Posted by tempus at February 20, 2006 11:46 AMForget the unfortunate choice in accessories and the Republican hair helmet, nothing on Matalin's face moves when she speaks--the clenched jaw is a sure mark of overexposure to both surgery and botox. Quite frankly, Matalin can't save Cheney's face, let alone her own. Meow.
Posted by trueblue at February 21, 2006 09:49 AMwhat was the diva comment by Mary? I can't believe Maureen didn't give it back to her. I was very disappointed. Maureen can't keep using her 'phanotm cliches' she loses all credibility especially with the wall street guy nodding in the background. And what's with the parallel univererse from Matalin. what the heckis that?
Posted by at February 21, 2006 10:18 AMWell, no one reading the witch, bitch, cadaverous, bad hair, death threats and desire to strangle someone very, very slowly comments will ever mistake us liberals for pointy headed intellectuals again. Any chance of reaming Mary on the facts without the gratuitous, irrelevant misogyny? jw
Posted by jessica way at February 21, 2006 12:08 PMDoes she have Michael Jacksons plastic surgeon? Matalin doesn't even look like someone who breathes air and drinks water.
Posted by Snap at February 21, 2006 06:04 PMI read the comments and--You guys are sick, sick, sick---get a life please. Ask yourself how much good you are doing this country by condemning everything you see!!!!
Posted by at February 24, 2006 11:07 AMI read all the comments---you guys are sick, sick, sick---get a life please---What service are you providing this country by criticizing everything you see in your miserable little life???
Posted by carl holder at February 24, 2006 11:12 AM