Say What? Voices of this Past Week [Reader Post]

Liberals:

President Obama: “We shouldn’t be campaigning all the time”

Vice President Joe Biden, in the middle of the Recovery Summer Tour, said, “There’s never enough until we restore the eight million jobs lost in the Bush recession. Until that happens, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it matters, but it’s not enough.”

Senate leader Harry Reid: “We are going to have a public option; it is just a question of when.”

On “Morning Joe” New York Times columnist Gail Collins championed the federal over state government (with regards to immigration laws), saying, “You do not want state legislatures ruling these things,” because basically, “They’re horrible. They’re all gerrymandered. They never get thrown out of office. They are all nuts!”

Jamie Sanderson: “FOX News is a right-wing propaganda outlet, not a legitimate news agency. In recent weeks the network has turned the volume up on its race-baiting political agenda. The media assault on Shirley Sherrod is just a latest in a series of racist and politically motivated attacks on targets like Van Jones, ACORN, and Eric Holder’s Department of Justice.”

Shirley Sherrod about Andrew Breitbart: “I know I have gotten past black vs. white. He’s probably the person who has never gotten past it and never attempted to get past it. So, he can’t see — because he has never tried and because he hasn’t, he can’t see what I have done to get past it. And he’s not interested in what I have done to get past it. I don’t think he’s interested in seeing anyone get past it, because I think he would like to get us stuck back in the times of slavery. That’s where I think he would like to see all black people end up again.”

Anderson Cooper, who interview Sherrod when she said that, later remarked, “I believe in admitting my mistakes….I didn’t challenge her that night and I should have.”

According to Eugene Robinson Arizona’s embattled S.B. 1070 “amounts to a prescription for racial profiling on a scale not seen in this country since the days of Jim Crow laws in the South.” It is “anti-Latino” and “patently unconstitutional.” Those who support it are “xenophobes” and “demagogues . who delight in turning truth, justice and the American way into political liabilities.”

Lizz Winstead (on the Ed Schultz show): “[Phyllis Schlafly] has made a career of her one party trick. Which is basically, she can empty her bowels through her mouth and just exhaust horrifying crap onto the universe.”

AP story headline: “GOP Gets Wish: Rangel Case in Campaign Season.”

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President Obama, when asked about his background, which includes a black father and white mother, said of African-Americans in general: “We are sort of a mongrel people. I mean we’re all kinds of mixed up. That’s actually true of white people as well, but we just know more about it.”

A future Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, in a 1945 letter, wrote: “Rather I should die a thousand times, and see old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels.”

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President Obama: “We need to pass it [the unemployment benefits extension] for Leslie Macko who lost her job at a fitness center last year and has been looking for work ever since because she eligible for only a few more weeks of unemployment, she’s doing what she thought she’d never have to do. She’s turning to her father for financial support.” Leslie did lose her job, but it might have been for good reason. It occurred one month after she pleaded guilty to felony prescription drug fraud, in March 2009.

Ed Schultz on Sarah Palin: “I think she is shamelessly stupid.”

It was the brilliant Ed Schultz, that, 3 weeks earlier, said, “A lot of Americans are circumspect about his [General Stanley McChrystal’s] involvement in the Tillman death.” Schultz confounded the word circumspect and suspicious.

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From a CBS news broadcast:

Erica Hill: “A Chelsea Morning. Just a couple of hours away from America’s royal wedding . . . All of the preparations, the security, you name it, we’ve got it covered in Rhinebeck this morning, but I know you’re also very busy back in New York this morning.”

Chris Wragge: “Exactly that. A couple of news items we have to address here in New York and we’ll get back to you in just a couple of minutes.”

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Crosstalk:

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James Rucker, Color of Change Co-founder, who led an attack against Beck’s advertisers (on videotape): “Unfortunately, Glenn Beck is in my brain all the time. It’s bad for your health – psychological health.”

Beck (commenting on this video): “Gee, that’s too bad, James. I haven’t spent a single moment thinking about you and my business has never been more successful. We’re having our best year of all time. But Rucker knows that we’re exposing the progressive agenda to the light of day and he doesn’t like it”

Rucker (on videotape): No one knew what Tides was until Glenn Beck started – I mean people outside of our political world knew what Tides was until they were on Glenn Beck’s blackboard.

Beck: Why would you want the American people to know about Tides? Aren’t they helping people? Aren’t they working for “social justice?” Isn’t that what all of your progressive friends are working towards?

Rucker (on videotape): One of the campaigns we ran last year, Color of Change, was basically going after Glenn Beck’s advertisers where we thankfully stripped him of normal brands, companies you’d recognize. But the reality is – and we knew this – we weren’t trying to – well, we were trying to, actually, we were trying to marginalize Beck. We didn’t expect we would get him off the air. We wanted to make him untouchable to a certain degree. Being on the other side of Beck it can be kind of a stressful thing.

Beck: Gosh James, I’m sorry. I’m sure that barely being mentioned on my show is much more stressful than four advisers to the president of the United States running smear and boycott campaigns against you. I can’t imagine how hard one or two mentions on my show has been for you.

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Reality has come undone and it’s doing our country a disservice. The more time we spend on them, the more we become them. America deserves better than this. We are better than this. This is politics of the past without even the past, except without the real past.

As I said, the tape of Shirley Sherrod was not going to be on my show. When it was – 24 hours later – I supported her. Cries of racism without an event?

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Howard Dean, former DNC chairman: Let’s just be blunt about this. I don’t think Newt Gingrich is a racist and you’re certainly not a racist, but I think Fox News did something that was absolutely racist.

Chris Wallace, anchor: The video had never played on the Fox News Channel before the White House fired her. It was on Andrew Breitbart, biggovernment.com, we’re not responsible for them. I agree with you it was out of context…

(Crosstalk)

Dean: And it was about to go – and it was…

Wallace: But it wasn’t on Fox News, so maybe you shouldn’t be using the racist phrase either.

Dean: And it – and it – and it was about to go – and it was about to go on Glenn Beck, which is what the administration was afraid of.

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Conservatives:

TEA party leader Mark Skoda on media smears against the TEA parties: “The couldn’t get the violence ot stick, they couldn’t get the racism to stick, so now they are calling us Republicans! (and that is offensive).”

Steve Moore, “There is a lesson in all this [the lack of a robust economic recovery]; government spending doesn’t create jobs.”

Neil Cavuto, in a panel discussion that he leads, said (with a smile), “Why did you not agree with everything that I said?”

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In case, you think that the conservative commentators on FoxNews are always anti-Democrat and pro-Republican, here are some remarks by Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer:

Bill Kristol: “Look, if he broke the law, he should be charged with tax fraud or with not declaring income, or whatever. I read through this Ethics Committee document and I am not actually overwhelmed by the severity of these charges. I mean, some of it are tax issues which should be litigated in court, presumably — that’s not really for the Ethics Committee to decide. Some of it is disclosure issues on financial forms. He was clearly not paying close attention or was sloppy. But at the end of the day he is not one of the wealthy members of Congress, and it would not have changed a thing if he disclosed $8,000 of rental income on some property or not. And then there’s the Charles Rangel Center, which is really at the heart of the charges, which is, I guess, part of the City University of New York. He obviously had an interest in getting donors to give money to it, it was honoring him. He did not have any direct financial participation in that that I know of. So it was a little bit of vanity, and obviously if you are a company that has business support, Ways and Means Committee, you might think it is a good idea to give a charitable gift to something named after the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. But compared to what happens in Congress all the time, compared to the airports that are named after sitting members of Congress, the post offices, compared to earmarks that are flowing around the Appropriations Committee, I think it is pretty small beer. So I hope he actually fights it and stands up for himself. He deserves his day in court.”

Krauthammer: “On the substance, I agree on almost all of the charges as being relatively minor, of the venial variety, like misusing the rent-control apartment. Everybody in New York who has one does that. However, the trading on your office to imply you would change a law or influence the writing of a law in return for $1 million donation, even if that is only for a center and not to put in your pocket, that is corruption and that’s why I think Rangel, who is a man of honor, would fight that and would not agree to it in a plea deal. ”

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When asked about Obama’s appearance of The View was presidential, Charles Krauthammer said, “Look, I’m in no position to look down at other panel shows, and in fact it was Richard Nixon when he ran for president when he appeared on Laugh In, which was a comedy show at the time, stuck his head through a wall and said ‘Sock it to me.’ That was the beginning of the end of American civilization, and it was a premise you could not go lower in presidential dignity.”

Charles on the liberal achievements of Barrack Obama: “I think we’ve had an astounding year-and-a-half. I think the president’s agenda as of now is done, political capital is spent. But he got a lot in return, historic. I think it is the most, the greatest amount of social change coming out of Washington since Lyndon Johnson and since the New Deal. What did he do in a year and a half? He’s revolutionized health care. It will be incremental, we’re going to see it, but it’s in law now. He has taken over financial, he has redone the financial system with consequences that are, as yet, unknown, but it will be profound, a $1 trillion stimulus and two appointments on the Supreme Court. In a year and a half that is an amazing achievement.”

Glenn Beck: “We must choose. Do we choose those who create fear, limit choices, lie, cheat and steal? Do we stand with ACORN, communist revolutionaries, Black Panthers, union thugs or the troops, cops, your house of worship, small businessmen and women, moms and dads who fear that America’s best days are behind her? Because the powerful forces of greed and corruption are blocking the road to individual freedom, individual faith, individual responsibility, inventiveness and volunteerism.”

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Neil Cavuto on his choosing Vince Curatola (Jonny Sack on the Sopranos) to sit in on his panel, “for those of you who criticize my choice of Vince as a guest, because Vince has a better track record.”

Vince added, “And if you don’t like it, come and tell me to my face.” (That is the best I can do from memory on that exchange).

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Brent Bozell on Shirley Sherrod suing Andrew Bartbreit: “Andrew Breitbart is going to be fine. He’s done nothing wrong. I wonder if Ms. Sherrod, who is such a champion of transparency, will publicly disclose who is putting her up to this. And I also hope this champion of honesty will stop lying about Fox News. I’m also waiting for Ms. Sherrod to publicly apologize for accusing anyone opposed to nationalized healthcare of being racist. Last time I checked, that was more than half the country.”

Sarah Palin about Arizona governor Jan Brewer, who is appealing the AZ immigration bill injunction: “Jan Brewer, bless her heart, she is going to do all that she can to continue down the litigation path to allow secure borders, because she’s — Jan Brewer has the cojones that our president does not have to look out for all Americans, not just Arizonans, but all Americans in this desire of ours to secure our borders and allow legal immigration to help build this country as was the purpose of immigration laws. If our own president will not enforce a federal law, more power to Jan Brewer and 44 other states who are in line to help support Jan Brewer in state laws, state efforts to do what our president won’t do.”

Crossposted from The Conservative Review