Right-wing media takes a back seat- if they get to sit at all...

Conservative talkers are starving for access and decent interviews and cleave unto small potatoes skirmishes that get their names onto such sites as Drudge and Huffington Post.

(photo: Look who's in the front row now- Helen Thomas and Ed Schultz)

It's a new political universe with the Obama presidency, and conservatives' producers are getting plenty of no's and phone calls not returned by those in power.

They're not used to it. "We're chopped liver, " a producer told us recently.

During Bush, conservatives were accustomed to getting having their hinder parts smooched-up by congressional Republican leadership; presidential interviews once in a while; invitations to the White House, and were led to believe they mattered to the Bushies as something besides useful idiots

That was then. This is now:

~~ Billo Reilly, feasts on such minor mishegosses of his own creation such as his recent on-air mockery of 88-year-old White House reporter, Helen Thomas who asked a somewhat doddering question at the Monday' WH press conference. He compared her to the Wicked Witch of the East, from the Wizard of Oz, and said if he were Obama, h "would've poured water on her, and she'd dissolve." (Billo got his facts wrong, even in this farcical moment: everyone knows the Wicked Witch of the West was the evil one).

A women's rights group dutifully demanded he apologize, and Billo filled three quarters of his teevee hour Wednesday (and god knows how much radio time) arguing with a feminist from the Women's Media Center; then rehashing the "issue' and serving himself with hand-picked "media experts," and yes-poodles, Bernie Goldberg, and Dick "Shrimp me" Morris whose loyalty is bolstered by the fact they both flacking books.

(photo: chopped liver- "perfectly nice.")

~~ Laura Ingraham made page six HuffPo headlines after Pennsylvania GOP Sen. Arlen Specter reamed her Monday for snidely insinuating in a radio interview that Obama's "wining and dining" had influenced him to support the stimulus package. Specter replied angrily, "If the president wants to talk to me -- I talk to him and I make my own independent judgment. Don't give me the wine and dine baloney, young lady."

Ingraham didn't say much at the time, but now she's making the rounds of Fox News shows, and cutting Specter's gonads off with her razor-sharp tongue set, and calling him seven kinds of RINO. It's a meager meal -- she once went on a one-on-one bike ride with George Bush -- but it's nourishing enough for a neocon in this era.

~~ HuffPo's Sam Stein was actually called upon by President Obama.this was greeted with derision from most media: Ari Fleischer, O'Reilly, Ingraham said, " He looked about 14..."

~~Radio talker Ed Shultz (relocated recently from Fargo to Washingotn) was sitting in the coveted front row of the Presidential press conference, (right next to Grand Dame Helen Thomas)

Comments

[joanie]

Sorry, Baart, just saw it.

Ingraham didn't say much at the time, but now she's making the rounds of Fox News shows, and cutting Specter's gonads off

Sounds like 710DORI. doesn't it?

As for the billo-bilge about Helen, that's what rightwingers do to strong women. She probably takes it as evidence that she's smarter and tougher than they are. That's self-evident with Ingraham and O'Reilly.

Anybody with a brain can see that. Oh, I forgot, the rightwing trolls are sitting on theirs.

[joanie]

Conservative talkers are starving for access and decent interviews

I don't see why. They distort and fictionalize their reporting anyway. Who needs a "source" for that?

After listening to the southern Republican retards one too many times, I am convinced we should have let the Confederacy secede from the Union."

This from a blog on Rachel's show site. The poster is probably being facetious, but I'm not when I say I agree with it.

On her site, you can watch Billo defending his attack on Thomas. He compares it to the left's characterization of Palin. I'm not sure he's wrong...sometimes it gets messy, One of those "I know it when I see it" sort of things, I guess.

[Brian]

Hey Joanie,

Can you please explain to me why cutting e-verify out of the stimulus bill is a good thing?
Why are the Democrats eager to give our jobs away without checking to see if the new employees are able to work in this country legally?
I can't seem to find any good reason to make it easier for illegals to work in this country, especially with so many out of work. I'm sure you could explain it to me.

[Brian]

Oh, here's a good one:

Said Obama: "Today, the chairman and CEO of Caterpillar said that if the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan passes, his company would be able to rehire some of those employees."

"But Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens says that's not exactly the case. In fact, Owen says, Caterpillar will probably need to layoff additional workers before any rehiring takes place."

At least we're used to a president who lies constantly by now, yeah we're comfortable with it.

[chucks]

I see O'Reilly sent Helen Thomas a bouquet of flowers. Wonder if he sent any bath tub toys to go with.
The wicked witches came from the east and the west. Glenda was the nice one that came from the north.

[theo]

Love that photo. Which one is Ed?

[sparky]

Actually, Brian, I heard SOMEONE, not sure if it was the head of Caterpillar or not, say that they could rehire..but they were not saying it would be next week. More reorganization would take place, and then they could rehire, and that would be made possible by the stimulus package that would create projucts that would use heavy equipment. President Obama was not lying. For some reason, you guys feel that being the turd in the punchbowl is going to help our economic situation.

[Martha]

wht the hell are projucts

[joanie]

First of all, Brian, I haven't read the whole bill. Have you?

Big Eddie was just chastising Congress because nobody has read the bill. They've got lots of preppy interns and lawyers running around. They ought to read the bill.

Adam Smith admitted to Ross that he hadn't read the bill either.

And since I don't get my piece-meal information from any talking-points source, I can't really answer you.

How's that for honest?

However, regarding illegals? Who took it out? What was the reason? It sounds like you don't know either. You sure it was the dems? If you care about it, find out. And then let me know. I'm curious, too. But then, I'm not afraid of Mexicans working in America.

BTW, did you hear Ross the other morning discussing the issue that it is farmers who don't like the minimum wage because it is attracting more Americans to work and Americans don't work as hard as Mexicans?

Nothing is simple, Brian.

[Tommy008]

Dori Monson, KIRO's tiniest of talkers, is still dwelling on Henrietta Hughes.

[chucks]

"First of all, Brian, I haven't read the bill. Have you?"
Has anybody read the bill? Does any member of congress in the House or Senate know what is in it? Has any member of the press read it?
The whole damned group of them are voting on a $800 billion bill blindly.
Who do we know that this is going to be any better than what Bush and Congress did with the other $700 billion? That did not do shit for us that anyone can define. Those are a couple of pretty big NSF checks that the gumment is writing.

[chucks]

How do we know........

[joanie]

Has anybody read the bill?

Reread my post and put your glasses on this time.

That's exactly what Ed Schulz said this afternoon. You ought to try him.

[Brian]

Well Joanie, the e-verify funds were in the bill that left the house but the Dem Senators took the bill behind closed doors and removed it from the bill without debate or warning. Apparently the Democrats won't stop short of giving away American's jobs if it means increasing their Hispanic voting block.

Obama was right about one thing, Bipartisanship. There were 7 Democrats & all of the Republicans in the house who voted no for the spendulous/socialism package.

[chucks]

I guess I did not make it clear that I was agreeing with you (and him) for a change. Sorry.

[joanie]

And, Brian, does a united front on the part of the Republicans indicate anything?

[joanie]

Here's what I found on the e-verify issue:
"Currently, about 100,000 employers voluntarily use E-Verify, formerly known as Basic Pilot. Under an executive order issued by President George W. Bush, federal contractors are supposed to start using E-Verify in May, though business groups are challenging the order in court.

Critics point to relatively high error rates in the government databases used to determine initial eligibility. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which jointly runs the program with the Social Security Administration, estimates that about 4,000 U.S. workers in every 1 million would be initially denied eligibility because of the database errors.

Groups such as the Immigration Policy Center refer to E-Verify as “deeply flawed” because of the error rates and have warned of the danger of American workers losing or risking their jobs because of the shortcomings in E-Verify. They also said E-Verify would slow the impact of the stimulus spending.

On the other side, E-Verify supporters including the Federation for American Immigration Reform consider it to be a useful tool to protect jobs in the United States from going to illegal immigrants."

It looks like a pretty neutral site. That's a high error rate. Doesn't say much for government personnel keeping correct data.

[joanie]

One more thing...the House put it in and there are a lot more Dems in the House so they had to be on board with it.

One more:
Senate Bill 23, sponsored by Sen. David Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, also would have required employers to fire illegal immigrants not cleared by the “e-verify” system.

The measure failed in a 3-2 party-line committee vote, with Democrats opposing the bill and Republicans voting in favor of it.

There must have been support from Dems in the House, Brian. So you can't paint us with a wide brush. I don't really see anything wrong with it. I'd have left it in - knowing what I know.

[Brian]

Thanks Joanie, though I think the error rate is only 4/10 of 1% but I'm no mathematician.
I guess I should stop watching Lou Dobbs, he got me all fired up last night.

[joanie]

I'm laughing. After I posted that, I did a little mental math myself and thought the same thing. That's a fairly minimal error rate.

So, I guess I'll let the "gumment" off the hook on that one.

[KS]

"Actually, Brian, I heard SOMEONE, not sure if it was the head of Caterpillar or not, say that they could rehire..but they were not saying it would be next week. More reorganization would take place, and then they could rehire, and that would be made possible by the stimulus package that would create projucts that would use heavy equipment. President Obama was not lying. For some reason, you guys feel that being the turd in the punchbowl is going to help our economic situation."

False, Obama was lying by omission - the head of Caterpillar said that they would eventually hire again, but not before more jobs are lost, which is what the President purposely left out - duh ! The turd in the punch bowl was already put in there by the party in power. I won't even speculate about how many more are to follow.