Say What? November 7, 2011 Edition [Reader Post]

Liberals:

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: “I think it’s really important to know that President Obama was a job creator from day one.  Now, was the ditch that we were in so deep that when you’re talking to people and they still don’t have a job, that that’s any consolation to them?  No.  But I’ll tell you this, if President Obama and the House congressional Democrats had not acted, we would be at 15 percent unemployment. Again, no consolation to those without a job, but an important point to make.”

President Obama, pretending to speak to Republican House leader John Boehner at one of Obama’s rallies: “In the House of Representatives, what have you guys been doing, John?  You’ve been debating a commemorative coin for baseball. You’ve had legislation reaffirming that ‘In God We Trust’ is our motto. That’s not putting people back to work. I trust in God, but God wants to see us help ourselves by putting people back to work.”

President Obama: “Michelle and I extend our greetings for a happy Eid al-Adha to Muslims worldwide and congratulate those performing Hajj.”

President Barack Obama at the G20 conference: “The most important aspect of our task over the next two days is to resolve the financial crisis here in Europe.”

Senate leader Harry Reid: “I can’t imagine that they really believe they’re doing the right thing by voting against asking the richest of the rich – .2 percent of the richest people in America – not contributing a small amount to creating jobs in America today.  I would hope someday we’ll see a few Republicans break from the pack.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.) And chair of the Democratic National Committee, of Mississippi passing a law on personhood beginning at conception: “For the vast majority of Americans, including people on both sides of the abortion issue, this is an extreme and radical step.”

The Reverend Jesse Jackson Jr. to dozens of Occupy Atlanta protesters: “It’s not the size of the crowd, it’s the substance of the discussion.”

US’s special coordinator for transitions in the Middle East, William Taylor on the Muslim Brotherhood being elected to power in Egypt: “[the US would judge elected parties in the Middle East based] on what they do, and not what they’re called.”

Oakland mayor Jean Quan of the Occupy Oakland protesters (who have caused approximately $1 million in damages to the city): “The highway patrol and other forces came and ensured that it was peaceful tonight. We will act if we need to tonight to maintain safety. But it looks like this was a good day for the demonstrators and for the 99% movement.”

LaughinWillow from Occupy Wall Street: “…you don’t see the right turning on its “extremists.” If they do, they keep it on the downlow. This is why you never succeed at anything – because you have no solidarity and you’re ready to turn traitor on people in your movement who use tactics you don’t like. Read some Derrick Jensen, please. Nonviolence may be the tactic you employ, but nonviolent protest as leftist dogma is just entitlement crap. The Indian people didn’t throw off colonialism solely with Ghandian pacifism – they employed a wide range of techniques, some of them violent.”

Michael Malloy, radio host: “The sporadic violence that occurred at a Whole Food’s store and other places was stopped by the protesters.  You know, once again, as we talked about the other night, this movement now is attracting its share of provocateurs, I’m sure sent by Andrew Breitbart and the rest of these freaks, I’m sure to disrupt what is essentially, at this point, a peaceful movement…so the scum that were sent to disrupt by Beck or Breitbart or Limbaugh or the rest of these right-wing pigs were stopped in their acts of vandalism by the occupy protesters in Oakland themselves, which, to some people, is surprising.”  Count me among them.

Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who served under President Clinton, said, of Herman Cain:”Well, he didn’t call me [for advice].  I’m the wrong gender.”

Michael Moore to a newsman who asked if he was worth $50 million: “You’re just punk media is all you are. You lie. You lie to people. Stop lying to people. Stop lying.”

The Compliant Obama Press Corps:

CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria: “The American dream seems to be thriving in Europe not at home”

On PBS, Mark Shields: Well, I think if I told you that by a 5-1 margin people thought the country was headed in the wrong direction, that 9.1 percent unemployment, an economy growing at whatever 1, 1.5 percent, you would say, where’s the president, you would say in the low 30s.  So I think he [Obama] has defied gravity so far, and I think that’s because there is a — still a residual reservoir of good feeling, people rooting for him to succeed.”

Touré: “We don’t see them dealing with this in a forthright way at all; it’s certainly not a presidential way. It’s not even really a professional way to deal with it, as a politician. But this is a major moment for the GOP because Cain is a really important candidate, perhaps more important than any of the other candidates because he serves a massive psychological purpose. Because there’s a lot of people in the GOP who’ve been critical of Obama and have been made to feel that they are racist because of their criticism. Some of it has been racist, some of it has been reasonable, some of it has been business as usual Republican/Democrat stuff. Ok. Cain comes along, offering salvation, liberation. You’re not racist if you support Herman Cain. So now they have this Herman Cain card they can throw at us any time they are made to feel racist. So this is like a beautiful thing for them. So they need him to succeed as long as they can deal with him so that they can get their Cain card and make it as valuable as possible.”  So, if I understand this correctly, the Republicans are still just a bunch of racists, but they haul out Herman Cain, whom most support as their president, to try to prove they aren’t racists?

Mark Shields, PBS: “Hey, don’t count out the chubby fellow from Georgia, Newt, the rehabilitated Newt Gingrich, carrying along a bogus IQ and some other baggage.”  This brilliant observation is paid for, in part, by the U.S. taxpayer.

The Compliant Obama Press Corps on Herman Cain:

Brian Ross: “But behind the scenes, several of the campaigns are still urging reporters to continue to dig, George, saying, there’s more to be found in the private life of Herman Cain.”

Brian Ross: “It fits with the kind of culture we were told that existed there, with young women who had been, sort of, lobbyists for the restaurant association, working with various states. They were the new ones, the young ones. And they say that’s where Cain often socialized.”  No facts, no eyewitnesses, no documentation to “the kind of culture we were told that existed there.”

George Stephanopoulos: “Another woman. Herman Cain facing new allegations that he was aggressive and inappropriate to a third employee, inviting her back to his corporate apartment.  Is the pressure finally getting to the front-runner?”

Stephanopoulos: “Now to the firestorm surrounding Herman Cain. A third woman is accusing him of acting inappropriately when she worked for him at the National Restaurant Association back in the 1990s. And an eyewitness to one of the incidents is saying that if the whole truth came out, it would sink Cain’s campaign.“

Lisa Myers: “For Herman Cain, this story is quickly going from bad to worse.”

Richard Wolffe, MSNBC political analyst: “[Herman Cain]  appeals to…this ultraconservative base who actually hate the media even more than the general population.”

David Brooks: “The fact that they [Cain’s campaign] didn’t do kindergarten-level preparation for this story is just incredibly damning. And so he’s charming, people are going to like him, but you have got to practice politics at the kindergarten level.”

Alan Colmes, from FoxNews: “I’d like to address those numbers [of far more stories being done on Herman Cain’s supposed sex scandal]. The reason the numbers are so different is because Herman Cain unlike Bill Clinton was out front on all of the media outlets talking about this, doing interview after interview as soon as this broke, changing the story numerous times. Bill Clinton, the accusee of who you mentioned previously, wasn’t out talking about it. Herman Cain has created a media firestorm because of the way he’s reacted to it.”

Mike Papantonio, being interview on MSNBC: “[Cain] is just the latest purchase by the Koch brothers. They purchased Michelle Bachmann, they purchased Sarah Palin, for this purpose: it’s to go out and talk crazy talk. It’s to talk about taking more things away from the middle class and giving more to the rich.  It’s about deregulating virtually everything to where the Koch brothers can go ahead and kill more people with their toxins.”

And quotes from Rush Limbaugh’s website of “news” people on Cain’s handling of the alleged sexual harassment scandal:

Piers Morgan: Is Herman Cain handling this very badly?

Jonathan Karl: …Cain handled this so badly.

Chuck Todd: (outdoor noise) This is a campaign that is falling apart.  Not ready to handle this at all.

Larry O’Donnell: How to handle one of these stories?

Clarance Page: Not the way to handle this kind of situation.

J. C. Watts: He didn’t handle it right.

John King: (outdoor noise) …how a candidate and his team handle pressure, handle crisis.

Eric Bolling: It’s no way to handle this.

Richard Stengel: Voters are looking at how candidates handle matters.

Let me remind you that this is only one week’s worth of commentary.  You could not find this much negative commentary on Bill Clinton throughout his entire career, where he is probably guilty of exposure and possibly of rape; and a number of sexual harassment misdeeds.  Cain, on the other hand, did things which were admittedly not quite to the level of sexual harassment; and, in the 3rd case, the word case scenario appears that he might have hit on a woman in his company.   If hitting on a woman is a crime, we might as well lock up 90% of the male gender.  If we restrict that to hitting on a woman in the workplace, maybe only 50% of the male population should be locked up.

Nia-Malika Henderson of The Washington Post, defending the press coverage of a Democrat versus a Republican: “This has renewed this whole argument that the press is somehow in bed with Obama or in bed with Democrats and that the press goes easier on Democrats than they do on Republicans.  You know, I don’t see that pattern, but I think it just feeds into, again, people are very partisan, people see the things they want to see when they look at the press and the press’ treatment of black Republicans or white liberals. And I don’t see any evidence of it.”

Katty Kay, NPR guest host, defended the presses lopsided coverage of Herman Cain as versus Bill Clinton: “And it wasn’t, of course, just the one woman. We should stress this, that we have three.”  And with Clinton, it was 20?

Liberals from the past:

President Obama, 2010, in Jakarta, Indonesia: “In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum — out of many, one”  Here is reason #1 why we might want to emphasize what the true motto of our country is.

Liberal civility:

U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson of congressional Republicans for trying to blame a sour economy on environmental regulations: “Those jack-booted thugs…”

Crazy Muslims:

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said, of a Christian prayer summit to be held at Ford Field: “There’s a bigger force or movement behind this prayer summit and how they’re literally demonizing Muslims.”

Liberals making sense:

Evan Bayh on Iran obtaining nuclear weapons: “There’s only one way of keeping that from coming on pass and that is military force.”

Moderates/Affiliation Unknown:

One Cain accuser sees “[There is] no value in revisiting this matter now nor in discussing the matter any further publicly or privately”

Peter Bella, Washington Times writer: “Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the hybrid semi-private mortgage entities, are issuing seven figure bonuses to some of their executives.  There is not one peep out of the media or the professional protesting mobs.  No one is averse to this, no groups are planning to picket the homes of the executives.  The White House is silent, both houses of congress are mute.  No one is threatening to drag these people before hearings to explain themselves.”

Crosstalk:

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell: “Did you see people throwing bottles and rocks at the police before they used those tactics [of tear gas and other crowd control actions]?”

Tasha Casini, Occupy Oakland protester: “Um, yeah [shrugs shoulders] , yes, people were doing that.”

O’Donnell: “And what do you think the police response should have been to that?”

Casini: “Um, I think that the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and, uh, blast grenades, are a completely, um, inappropriate response to bottles being thrown at police officers who are in full riot gear.”
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Keith Hall, the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal agency responsible for tracking unemployment in the United States, told the Join Economic Committee of Congress today that he knew of no study that would back the claim that House Miniority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) made on Thursday that the unemployment rate would now be 15 percent were it not for the economic stimulus President Barack Obama signed in 2009.

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) asked Hall: “Have you seen any reputable studies that would lead you to believe or that would show that the unemployment rate today would be 15 percent but for the stimulus program?”

“No,” said Hall, “but I haven’t, I haven’t looked. I’m not sure I would call – Was the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] estimating that?”

“No, that’s actually Mrs. Pelosi‘s office this morning,” Mulvaney informed him.

“Oh, okay. I haven’t looked at that study,” Hall said.

Mulvaney followed up: “Do you think there is a study?”

“I really have no idea,” Hall said.

“You’ve never heard of any study that would say that unemployment would be 15 percent?” Mulvaney asked.

“No,” said Hall, “but we’re pretty focused on the real data.”

“I’m focused on the real data as well, I just sort of was wondered if this had anything to do with real data and it sounds like it doesn’t,” Mulvaney said before concluding his questioning.
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Charles P. Pierce:

Have I mentioned the crazy raving flannelbrains that are out there?

For the record, the Tea Party was not “protesting Wall Street.” It was protesting, in order:

1) The president.

2) The president, who was a Democrat.

3) The president, who was a black Democrat.

4) The president, who was a blackity-black-black Democrat.

5) The president, who was a blackity-black-black Democrat, and also a Muslim Socialist Hitler who was born in Kenya.

P. J. Salvatore answers:

Why do progressives love saying “black” so much? Let’s try to fix obtuseness and correct Mr. Pierce:

The tea party protested, in order:

1) Big spending, which began during the Bush term

2) Continued big spending under his sucessor

3) Continued bigger spending and crappy, nationalized health care under said President

4) Continued mammoth spending, crappy nationalized health care, and job-killing new regulations under aforementioned President

5) Continued gigantor spending, crappy nationalized health care, job killing regulations, and massive Fast and Furious/Solyndra/IG corruption under said aforementioned President

But Charles Pierce, obsessed with race, can only see BLACK. Sad. Someone inform him that it’s 2011. Oh, and also share with him that the Democrats started the Kenya/birther thing. Thanks!

Conservatives:

Sarah Palin: “Barack Obama is owned by Wall Street. The fat cats, as he calls them, they’re his friends. They’re his pals. That’s where he gets his campaign donations. And he’s very generous about giving these cats their cat nip – bigger returns on their investments in bailouts.”

Sarah Palin on the occupy movement: “The nation’s dividing line today is how you answer this question: Are you entitled to other people’s money? The Wall Street crony capitalists, the Obama administration, the leftist politicos, big union bosses and the occupiers, they all say, `Yes!’ The rest of America says, `No!'”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: “I’m sure that it is the case that most Americans support raising taxes on high-income individuals. My guess is they might have a different view if they knew that four out of five of those individuals would actually business owners.”

George Will: “The problem is by next Sunday they have to have a plan if they’re going to get it scored by the Congressional Budget Office before the 23rd. The President needs this committee to fail because he’s already decided to run against what he calls “The Republican Congress.” While he was lecturing in Constitutional law, he missed that part of the Article I that says there’s a Senate also. And the Democrats control that, and as Boehner said, they’re holding up a lot of legislation.”

Monica Crowley, on the media coverage of Herman Cain: “This screams double standard.”

Dick Army (former speaker of the house and TEA party organizer) on Herman Cain: “He dares to go and campaign very directly and in a manner that doesn’t seem to be beleaguered by an excess of advice from political professionals.”

Charles Krauthammer: “The problem that Cain has is that he’s winging it. He’s a very smart guy and he’s trying to handle everything as he remembers stuff. The problem is that this happened a long time ago and we saw him contradict himself on whether he knew about the settlement. He said in the beginning no, and then on the Greta show he talks about details of it. What he needs to do, and it’s not as if he’s lying, people don’t.I can’t remember what I had a lunch yesterday let alone what happened fifteen years ago, he needs to retire with his staff to make sure he knows the facts, call people who might remember it, and get the story in his own head straight otherwise he’s in deep trouble.”

Herman Cain to the press: “What did I say? Excuse me. Excuse me! What part of “no” don’t people understand?”

Mitt Romney: “I’ve been as consistent as human beings can be.”

Newt Gingrich, about his mic when he is about to debate Herman Cain: “Mine’s not on; that’s a disadvantage.”

Star Jones, contrasting Obama and Cain: “They put up clean and the GOP is putting up smart and they don’t know how to handle it.” [quoted from memory]

Dennis Miller of Kim Kardashian’s wedding: “That train had the biggest caboose of all time.”

Bill O’Reilly: “I don’t know what that means.”
Greg Gutfeld on Michael Moore: “Talk about thin-skinned, which can happen when it’s stretched.”  This is one of the few snarky remarks made by a somewhat -known conservative about a liberal.

Greg Gutfeld: “Smith & Wesson has done far more for women than feminism ever has.” [quoted from memory]

Rush Limbaugh: “What kind of fools do you people at AP think we are? We don’t forget $787 billion to ‘build roads and bridges and schools’ back in 2009. That was $787 billion, and now they’re years later, 2-1/2 years later you come to us and whine and complain about a measly $60 billion being voted down for the same roads, bridges and schools? What happened to the first $787 billion? If you people in the media don’t get a handle on what’s happening, you’re gonna lose everybody.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Lot of conservative Republicans think that Herman Cain‘s place should be in the White House, and a lot of conservative Republicans thus like Herman Cain because he knows his place. For the left, Herman Cain knowing his place means he’s to shut up, grovel, say he’s sorry, and then go away.”

Rush Limbaugh: “Herman Cain did not seek Madeleine Albright‘s foreign policy advice for a simple reason: She’s Madeleine Albright! Who the hell wants her advice?”

Rush Limbaugh: “We got all kinds of people from Herman Cain‘s past coming up, ‘Yeah, I knew Herman. I didn’t like Herman’ or ‘I did like Herman.’ There is nobody from Obama’s past that comes forward, ‘Yeah, I knew Obama.’ We haven’t heard from any old girlfriends. We are witnessing here the attempt that appears to be press successful to take out every Republican candidate with this story, when you get right down to it — and that is starting to irritate me profoundly.”

Rush Limbaugh: “You can find no bigger star in the Democrat Party today than Bill Clinton. He’s bigger than anybody. With women, with the feminazis, with anybody, there is no bigger star than Bill Clinton.”

Rush Limbaugh: “What our side doesn’t understand is there’s nothing Cain can do to make this go away. They lie about us! If this turns out to be untrue, it’s gonna be reported as it was always ‘alleged.’ They’re never gonna let go of this. So trying to get the approval of the mainstream media or to get them to report the truth is a fool’s errand. ”

Rush Limbaugh: “Herman Cain obviously is proving he’s not qualified to be president, but Clinton? Not only could he be qualified to be president, he can be president and be a sexual harasser at the same time and be the most admired man in the Democrat Party because he apparently knows how to handle it right.”

Rush Limbaugh: “‘Michael Bloomberg said this morning that if there is anyone to blame for the mortgage crisis that led the collapse of the financial industry, it’s not the ‘big banks,’ but Congress.’ Bloomberg actually has said something now that makes sense. This is the first time I can recall in I don’t know how long that Bloomberg has said something that makes sense.”

Rush Limbaugh: “If Barack Obama can use taxpayer money to invest in risky private sector investments like all of these fraudulent, phony, there-is-no-business-there green energy loans…? If Obama could do that, shouldn’t we be able to put our retirement money in a safer place than Washington?”

Rush Limbaugh: “Social Security is broke, and it’s not because any of you misspent your savings. Social Security is broke because the people you are forced to send it to can’t manage it properly.”

Rush Limbaugh: “The government has lost $16 trillion since it was founded. That is the national debt. They’ve lost $16 trillion, and they tell us that we can’t be trusted with our money. It’s patently absurd.”

Rush Limbaugh: “The idea that the rich are not spending their money is so absurd. If the rich were not spending their money, we’d be a Third World country. If the rich weren’t spending their money, there would be no jobs. Unemployment wouldn’t be 9%; it would be a hundred percent.”

Rush Limbaugh: “The subprime mortgage is the primary reason for unemployment today; it’s the primary reason for economic collapse throughout other areas of the economy — and it was brought to you by Bill Clinton and Barney Frank and Janet Reno and Chris Dodd and any other Democrat you might want to name. ”

Republican Infighting:

MSNBC new-hire,  Sen. John McCain‘s daughter, Meghan McCain, about Newt Gingrich: “I think he’s delusional.  And him calling me clueless I think is so sexist and disgusting and lame and a really offhanded remark. . . that he’s making towards me. And I think it’s ridiculous. Any polls that he’s reading, if you were seriously running for president, you wouldn’t be taking vacations to Greece during the middle of your campaign trail. I think he has a lot of other issues that all of us are very well aware of. And I would bet my career he’s not going to be our next nominee.” I think it is only a matter of time before Meghan de-friends him.

Bill Krystol on Herman Cain: “He’s not going to be the nominee; he was never going to be the nominee.”

From the Conservative Review #202  (HTML)  (PDF)