Profile In Courage: Dubious Rubio

Sen. Marco Rubio is too scared to come out for or against the Arizona bill SB 1062. Rubio goes to great lengths to split hairs and try not to offend anyone. Short version: Rubio doesn't believe that gays should be discriminated against and Christian fundamentalists should be able to discriminate against gays. What a crystal clear position.

“Well, I don't believe that gay Americans should be denied services at a restaurant or hotel or anything of that nature. I also don't believe however that a caterer or photographer should be punished by the state for refusing to provide services for a gay wedding because of their religious held believes. We've got to figure out a way to the protect that, as well.”

Rubio doesn't have to worry about being challenged for babbling nonsense. Meet The Press anchor David Gregory is more likely to bust a move than ask a follow-up question.

David Gregory's Poor Journalism

I have not been a fan of Meet the Press host David Gregory. My long-standing view is that Gregory is a dancing buffoon that publicly admitted on Twitter it is not his job to fact-check the statements of his guests. This past Sunday, Gregory framed a question in a manner that accused Guardian columnist Glenn Greewald of breaking the law.

"To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even inhis current movements, why shouldn't you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?" heasked.

Greenwald replied that it was "pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselvesa journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies," and that there was no evidence to back up Gregory's claim that he had "aided" Snowden.

If this was an Obama administration official saying this to Gregory, the questions he should have asked were is the Justice Department going to indict Greenwald? How exactly did Greenwald aid and abetted Edward Snowden? Are you willing to go on the record with these accusations? If this administration official couldn't answer the first two questions and wad.'t willing to go on the record then he was bullshitting Gregory. Gregory could have checked with other sources. Most likely Gregory recited what his unnamed source told him ithout ever fact-checking his statements.

Quote of the Day

"But if we don’t pass immigration reform, if we don’t get it off the table and in a reasonable, practical way, it doesn’t matter who you run in 2016. We’re in a demographic death spiral as a party. And the only way we can get back in good graces with the Hispanic community, in my view, is pass comprehensive immigration reform. If you don’t do that, it really doesn’t matter who we run in my view."

Sen. Lindsey Graham, on Meet the Press.

Graham is right. The Republican Party will lose in 2016 if there isn't a good immigration reform bill that gets signed by President Obama. Conservative think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation is doing everything they can to kill immigration reform. A Democratic strategist said this to reporter Jamelle Bouie.

“Voting against this bill is a disaster for the Republican Party…They need to be reminded there are sound policy reasons to vote for it but also significant political reasons as well.”

That could be what happens when the bill reaches the House of Representatives. Speaker John Boehner has repeatedly proven incapable of rallying his caucus.

John McCain's Meet the Press Benghazi Hissy Fit

I am no fan of David Gregory. Sen. John McCain has accused the Obama administration of covering-up what happened during the attack on the Benghazi consulate. Gregory asks McCain a fair question about what the Senator thinks the administration is concealing from the public. McCain goes on a tirade and questions whether Gregory cares about the Americans killed at Benghazi. McCain never gets around to answering the question.

McCain: Do you care....do you care, David....do you care, David....do you care....I'm asking you, do you care....I'm asking you, do you care whether four Americans died?

Gregory: You said there's a cover-up. A cover-up of what? A cover-up of what?

There are actually legitimate questions about why Christopher Stevens requests for extra security were ignored. Unfortunately, we have a Republican Congress that is incapable of governing and congressional Democrats that do not want to make President Obama look bad. It appears we will never get those answers. John McCain doesn't even know what the questions are.

Quote of the Day

"If David Gregory's show was hosted in Florida and he had brandished that clip, Wayne LaPierre could have shot him under Stand Your Ground."

TBogg

David Gregory is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department. Gregory held up what appeared to be a gun magazine during his interview with Wayne LaPierre. I doubt someone of Gregory's media stature will do any serious time. I do find it silly that Gregory had to use a prop (real or fake) to make a point about gun magazines. Gregory is doing a news program. Not Masterpiece Theater.

Wingnut of the Day: Tom Coburn

On Meet the Press, David Gregory asked Sen. Tom Coburn about tea bagger protesters bringing guns and comparing President Obama a Nazi. Gregory made a reference to Timothy McVeigh and the threats of violence against Democrats.

"Well, I’m, I’m troubled anytime when we, we stop having confidence in, in our government," Coburn said. "But we’ve earned it."

Coburn was asked about possible threats to Democrats. Coburn said the tea baggers "earned" their anger. Gregory had to stop Coburn.

"I am talking about violence against the government." Gregory said. "That’s what this is synonymous with."

Coburn justified the behavior of tea baggers.

"What, what is the genesis behind people going to such extreme statements?" asked Coburn. "We, we have lost the confidence."

Coburn panders and plays to the fears of the tea baggers. It is despicable.

Fortunately, Rachel Maddow was on the panel.

MS. MADDOW: Whether or not, whether or not the government has acted in a way that you feel is defensible, I don’t think the government has done anything to earn, in your words, the, the, the threat of—that the blood of tyrants must run in the streets, which is what the literal threat was from that man with the gun strapped to, strapped to his leg in New Hampshire. I also don’t think that, that there is an equivalence between what moveon.org has done and with the comparisons of the president to Hitler that we’ve seen so often in this debate. I mean, some of the major organizations who are organizing these events, like Americans for Prosperity, a group that has some similarities to FreedomWorks but definitely a different group, they’ve had speakers going around the country not only comparing healthcare reform to Hitler, but comparing them to Pol Pot and Stalin, saying “Put the fear of God into your members of Congress.” I don’t think the government has done anything to earn that.

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

Write A Caption: Dancing David Gregory

We all remember David Gregory busting a move with MC Rove and turning the Today Show studio into his own disco. The man as a burning desire to burst into spontaneous dance. Let us hope Gregory doesn't spontaneous combust.

This Is Not A Tweet

Jim Johnson wrote I thoughtful response to my posts "Socratic Irony" and The Socratic Method. I continue to believe Twitter is not journalism. Johnson argues Twitter is a new portal for information. I don't have any major disagreement with that. I run the Pushing Rope rss feed on Twitter.

The media has badly hopped on the Twitter bandwagon. I don't feel more informed after reviewing David Gregory's Twitter page. I'm not interested in Gregory's reading choices. I want information on current events. The NPR Politics, Political Wire and Talking Points Memo feeds do a better job posting interesting links. Twitter serves as either friends texting each other or as the new Metafilter. (Minus the flame wars.)

Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts wrote how other journalists poorly used Twitter.

Which is not to imply that only pols have gone Twitter mad. CNN's Roland Martin is stuck at an airport in Chicago, trying to get to snowbound New York City even as I write this: ''No flights allowed in,'' he tweets. ``I was on plane in Chicago, we pulled out, got word, now back at gate.''

NBC's Ann Curry, meantime, is in New York enjoying the snow: ``All stars are not the proper shoes for NYC today. But seeing this dark city frosted in white is worth my cold toes.''

And you and I need to know this because . . . ?

America has two wars and the biggest financial crisis since the depression. News junkies don't need to know about Roland Martin's travel problems. If Twitter is the future of journalism then God help us all.

A Twitter user can not write a New York Times-style op-ed. Twitter only allows 140 text characters. Posts are designed to be short. If you have a short attention span, Twitter is for you. Complex issues aren't made to be shrunk into small bits. There is nothing wrong with Twitter as a portal to news services. The media needs to figure out posting random nonsense is not news.

Tom Tomorrow latest comic strip captures the silliness of people that think blogs and Twitter will replace the media.

Quote of the Day

"I think there is a national leader, his name is President Obama."

Gov. Charlie Crist, on Meet the Press.

Crist is a smart pol. He understands Republicans are getting smashed in the polls by Obama. Secretly, Republicans want the stimulus bill to pass. Gov. Sarah Palin made a stimulus wish list and went to Washington to lobby for passage of the stimulus bill. Publicly, Palin said, "I agree with the decision of Senator Murkowski and Congressman Young to vote NO on the package."

Senator Arlen Specter had this exchange with a fellow Republican.

Arlen Specter was one of just three Senate Republicans to buck his party and vote in favor of President Obama’s stimulus package. After he announced his decision, he says, a fellow GOP senator approached him in private to offer congratulations.

When asked, however, that unknown senator declined to join Specter because he was too afraid of drawing a primary challenge. He was glad somebody was doing the right thing, but he wouldn’t risk it himself.

As Specter put it, “there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who are glad to see this action taken without their fingerprints, without their participation. … I think a good part of the caucus agrees with the person I quoted.”

"They're like sheep in a way," former Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd said of fellow Republicans. "They're looking for someone to tell them what to do." Beltway Republicans were under the misguided impression John Boehner, Eric Canter and Mitch McConnell are more politically astute than Barack Obama. Obama got his stimulus package passed and Congressional Democrats are polling better than Republican rivals. The stimulus package hasn't hurt Crist's numbers, either.

Why are Congressional Republicans listening to the leadership that lost the past two elections? I don't know why, but it makes me happy.

Stimulus Package Caution

Kevin Drum makes a poor defense for the stimulus package.

Still, isn't the bill just a hodgepodge of unrelated spending? Sure. What else could it be? There's no way to spend $800 billion on infrastructure over the next two years, so most of the money has to be spent on other stuff. But so what? Employing clerks or crossing guards or home care workers counts every bit as much as employing backhoe operators or engineers. Spending money on contraceptives does as much for the economy as spending money on rebar. An unemployment check gets spent on food the same way a paycheck does.

I don't argue that there is a sense of urgency. The economy is bad. I disagree with Jim Johnson on two points. The economy will be bad past 2009 and we don't need to spend right away. The Obama administration needs to best use this money to jump start the economy. They won't get another chance.

Obama has wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama intends to increase troops in the latter. Iraq has shown security improvements. However, it would be foolish to make predictions of the withdrawal date. The wars and deficit will cause the U.S. government to continue to borrow money. The alternative is unemployment continues until 2011.

David Gregory of Meet the Press told Lawrence Summers economists said the stimulus package would fail, because it wasn't big enough. Summers dodges the question.

GREGORY: So let’s talk about that, and that is the stimulus or the recovery plan that the president has proposed. In December, this is what you wrote: “In this crisis, doing too little poses a greater threat than doing too much.”

That was an op-ed piece you did. In that same piece, you said at that time that the economy was headed to a position where it was underperforming, where it was falling short of capacity to the tune of a trillion dollars. Now, there are other economists that I’ve spoken to say actually that’s optimistic, that it’s actually falling short to the order of $2 trillion.

So why a stimulus plan that’s only 825 billion?

SUMMERS: David, this is the largest stimulus plan in the country’s history. It’s the largest investment in the backbone of our economy since the interstate -- since the interstate highway system. It’s going to double renewable energy. And it is only one phase of the approach that the president is taking.

The president has made clear that there will be strong action to address the terrible problems in our housing sector, that he will be using additional funds for a substantial financial recovery plan to get the flow of credit going. This is one component of our strategy to bring about expansion. And the president has also made clear that going forward we’re going to be leaning forward and that he is prepared to do what is necessary.

GREGORY: It is big, even...

SUMMERS: And so we believe this -- we believe that this is a properly sized approach to move the economy forward. You know, economists from several private firms have now corroborated our incoming CEA chairman Christina Romer’s estimate that the plan will create...

Contraceptives (which I support) or sod for the National Mall will stimulate the economy. A stimulus package should do what it claims. The alternative is just just as bad. Future generations are gonna be paying the bill.

Dancing David Gregory

Gregory didn't get enough of strutting his stuff with MC Rove. The Today Show becomes Gregory's personal disco inferno.

David Gregory: Fair and Balanced

Hardball host David Gregory gives an extremely slanted question to Al Sharpton that favor Don Imus. This isn't surprising. Gregory has been on Imus's show and made fun of Harry Whittington being shot by Dick Cheney.

Gregory: ... McClellan will come out there and not be straight up about what he knew about the guy's condition. And there was even a question on the floor from a reporter about, you know, Is there a sense of relief within the White House because this guy appears to be fine?

Imus: You guys hope Harry dies, don't you?

Gregory: No. That's actually... that's not funny. Absolutely not.

Imus: I'm not trying to be funny.

Gregory: Well, no, absolutely not.

IMUS: ... You want Harry to pull through and be OK.

Gregory: Obviously.

[laughter]

Gregory: God, you're an awful person.

[laughter]

Gregory is a frequent caller to Imus In the Morning. Gregory covering Imus is the journalistic equivalent of Tim Russert's fair and balanced reporting on the Valerie Plame leak.

In other news: Imus has been fired by CBS.