It’s a sad time when the only tough questions and real journalism we get from the media is found on a basic-cable news-satire show. Included below is a partial transcript from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His guest is Henry Bonilla (R-TX), one of the “rapid-response team” the GOP set up to rebut the Democratic National Convention. In this exchange, Stewart grills Bonilla about the talking point that Kerry & Edwards are the 1st & 4th most liberal Senators — more liberal than Hillary Clinton
Sheesh. A fake newsman helps expose political spin, but what you get from someone like Brian Williams on MSNBC, when Al Sharpton came off the stage after his speech, is “…whatever it is you were riffing about…” You were just watching the speech live, Brian! Try reporting on it.
Now I can’t wait for someone to start hammering away at the other talking point about Kerry not doing anything significant in the Senate over the last twenty years. Lessee, in 20 years, Senator Kerry signed-on or co-sponsored 89 bills that were signed into law. In 11 years in the House, Representative Cheney signed-on or co-sponsored 2 bills that were signed into law. And during the 20 years Kerry was in the Senate, where was George Bush? Not to mention that Kerry was part of the committee that investigated Iran/Contra.
Or as Matt Yglesias in the American Prospect puts it: “While John Kerry was serving as an officer in the United States Navy, leading men in a shooting war and winning an armful of medals in the process, Bush was a male cheerleader and fraternity president at Yale. He later went on to use family connections to land a spot in the Air National Guard, duty from which he took ample time off to run losing political campaigns. Kerry became a leader in an influential movement, a candidate for office, a successful prosecutor, the Lieutenant Governor of a medium-sized state, and then a U.S. senator during a period when Bush was letting alcoholism nearly wreck his marriage, doing something with drugs he refuses to answer questions about, and running a variety of businesses into the ground, losing his dad’s friends a bundle of money in the process.”
Between the “irrelevant Senate experience” attack and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth [sic] attack, the GOP is preparing their own noose. They’ve got nothing to run on. Today’s job creation report shows only 32,000 new jobs in July. The Dow is below 10,000 for the 2nd day in a row. There will likely be over 1,000 dead American soldiers from the Iraq conflict right around the time of the Repug Convention. Oil is over $44 a barrel, projected to break $50… those $2.50/gallon gas prices are on their way!
The only things that will save Bush’s bacon are the capture of Osama bin Laden, the anachronism we call the Electoral College, rigged voting machines, a partisan Supreme Court, and behind-the-scenes machinations by well-connected Bush supporters in the key swing states of Florida and Ohio. Uh-oh.
From www.dailykos.com:
STEWART: How do you– now, like, when you say, so… Tell me who [Kerry] is.
BONILLA: Well, my question better yet is in all his twenty years in the Senate, can anyone give me three things that he’s done? That are significant?
STEWART: Kay, that are significant? I guess he could. Do you think? Or no?
(LAUGHTER)
BONILLA: I’m listening.
STEWART: Do we have–
BONILLA: One thing. How about one thing.
STEWART: Well what about this. So when you say tell us who he is. So who– when they come out, they say he’s a liberal.
BONILLA: Voted for bigger government, three hundred and fifty tax cuts, against a lot of the trade bills.
STEWART: Right. But he’s the number one ranked liberal in the, ah–
BONILLA: Well, he’s to the left of Ted Kennedy. Now that’s fine! Be proud of that.
STEWART: Now where do they come up with those rankings?
BONILLA: We’re all ranked every year.
STEWART: By who?
BONILLA: You have conservative groups on our side, there are business groups, there are people who track tax bills and spending bills and things like that, trial lawyers track us, unions, and all of these groups are kind of the, ah, understood authorities.
STEWART: You know who seems to be the only people not tracking you? The American public. We’re the only ones!
(CHEERING)
BONILLA: No, they track us. They track us.
STEWART: So tell me. (CROSSTALK) I turn on the TV, and I see the response team.
BONILLA: Because we can’t be here unless they vote for us!
STEWART: That’s… yeah, it’s sneakier than that, but alright. But so I turn on the TV and they say, he’s the first most liberal Senator, John Kerry, and John Edwards is the fourth most liberal Senator.
BONILLA: Right.
STEWART: So, the only thing, because I watch it at home and I’m … stupid.
(LAUGHTER)
STEWART: How is that, how do they figure that?
BONILLA: I haven’t even seen your show.
STEWART: I know. How do they figure that?
BONILLA: They, we have votes, and bills that we sponsor, and they tra–
STEWART: I’m not retarded. I mean, how do they compile, who–
BONILLA: They list them. They take a list and–
STEWART: Who’s “they”?
BONILLA: These groups that I told you about. The conser–
STEWART: But which is the one that said they’re the first and the fourth?
BONILLA: The– well, you take the trial lawyers. Or the, ah, the people that follow the union votes. The people that follow the small business votes, or the corporate votes, and they all go you’re either with us a hundred percent of the time, or none– zero percent, and they kinda average them all together.
STEWART: Who!?
BONILLA: These groups do!
STEWART: But which one– how do you– when you say first most liberal and fourth most liberal, what is the group and how is it — because I’m not…
BONILLA: I hope I’m explaining it clearly.
STEWART: I don’t think so!
(CHEERING)
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: It’s coming, it’s starting to come. I just want to know, like, alright. What is the group that–
BONILLA: These groups have lists of votes that we take.
STEWART: But which group says they’re the most liberal? Which– you know, because the one– that is a point that you guys make. This is the first and the fourth.
BONILLA: The liberal groups do, and the conservative groups do. Both of them do.
STEWART: No no no, I know that, but you know how like when you guys go on the show and you go, he’s the first most liberal and the fourth most liberal, which group is that? The one that you guys are quoting?
BONILLA: It’s a group that does it, it’s a group on each side. It’s not one individual, um, it’s not just the trial laywers, it’s not just the small business group, it’s not just the corporate…
STEWART: You’re making this up.
(LAUGHTER)
BONILLA: No, I’m not! And they–
STEWART: Okay, I’ll tell you who it is. It’s actually called the National Journal. And what they do is–
BONILLA: Well, that’s a magazine!
STEWART: But they’re the ones that put it together.
BONILLA: Right, they actually compile all this stuff.
STEWART: Right. But is that over their career, or over just…
BONILLA: Over their career.
STEWART: But see, no!
BONILLA: But they’ll do it every year as well.
STEWART: The first and fourth–
BONILLA: They do it yearly and for career.
STEWART: But you know that the– but Edwards over his career is actually more to the right than the median Democrat, and actually Kerry is more to the right of Kennedy. So I just, you know, like you say.
BONILLA: You’re right.
“Radical” Russ — Keyes is going to run against Obama in Illinois… sheesh, at least “carpetbagger” Hillary owned property and lived in New York… what was that you said in 2002, Alan?… oh, yes, “I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton’s willingness go into a state she doesn’t even live in and pretend to represent people there, so I certainly wouldn’t imitate it.”
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