Washington Republicans:
Looks like MSNBC correspondent David Shuster may have deprived loyal MSNBC viewers of their favorite GOP talking heads — at least for now.
This week, the MSNBC reporter “sandbagged” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) during an interview by asking her to name the last solider from her district to die in Iraq. After she couldn’t, Shuster named the solider himself and then scolded the Tennessee Republican for her hypocrisy.
But it turns out that the soldier Shuster named — Pvt. Jeremy S. Bohannon — was not from Blackburn’s district after all. The incident landed Shuster in some GOP hot water, and the newsman was forced to make an on-air apology for the incident last night.
But that might not be the end of it, as irked Republican Hillers are now planning a boycott of Shuster’s employer.
“We don’t mind skipping MSNBC. No one watches that channel anyway,” says a high-placed Republican consultant.
Word is, a growing number of GOP lawmakers have become mysteriously “unavailable” when asked to appear on MSNBC. Numerous meetings have taken place in both the House and the Senate side regarding the interview and “what to do about it,” Hill sources report.
Apparently they will still go to the unbiased Fair and Balanced channel.
Zifnab
But wait, it gets better. Schuster wasn’t wrong after all!
Proving, once again, that you can never trust wingnut Republicans to get anything right.
cleek
and, regardless of whether the last soldier to die in her district was Bohannon or not… she still didn’t know.
Cassidy
Frightening prospect…
Evinfuilt
This is what they do now. To pretend the Iraq War doesn’t exist, they hunt down any journalist who speaks out. Ready to condemn the “non-patriots.”
Since Schuster is right, and also damn good. Its time for MSNBC to give him a permanent spot.
Dug Jay
How is this frightening? In context it is clear that the question under consideration is whether to suspend appearances on MSNBC programs, a practice already employed by many Democrats related to Fox.
Zifnab
Oh, and one other thing:
Do these people have any freak’n names? This is reporting? Gag me. What a rag.
Greg Greene
@ Zifnab: Yup.
Dreggas
Zif,
It also shows just how out of touch they are, MSNBC has been trouncing everyone last I looked.
Nim, ham hock of liberty
What a farce, for everyone involved. Despite being a crazy unhinged moonbat, Shuster’s question does strike me as a cheap shot….there probably aren’t many truly conscientious legislators that could name their district’s most recent casualty, off the top off their head. If for no other reason, that’s a lot of names to memorize…
But then, of course, the wingnut phony outrage is ridiculous and unjustified. Liberal bias, my ass….reporters throw gotcha questions at every politician. It’s like crack for them. And of course, even if Shuster was wrong, Blackburn still couldn’t answer it.
The GOP legislators ginning up faux outrage and generally acting like weeners is the fetid icing on this whole stupid cake.
whippoorwill
I got an idea. Why don’t we just purge the legislative calenders in both houses and have a big freakin’ food fight on the floors of the Senate and House. Maybe we could bring in large numbers of the Washington media and everyone could bring their own dish and have at it. There’d be Freedom Fries, Chickenhawk Salad and many turkey’s. C-span could cover it live and let it go on for several days until these idiots would be as sick of themselves as we are of them.
Zifnab
You know what, a certain Ballon Juice commentary suggests that these people don’t actually exist. “I think the Politico writer is just making up these quotes as she goes along,” he said, chuckling to himself.
One verbose commentary noted how “Shinanigans” seems to be a rather weak rip-off of Wonkette. Speaking frankly, the blogger noted, “I think that Wonkette girl is alot better looking, too.”
cleek
true. but TN’s had 82, total. of those, 2 were from Bon Aqua. i imagine there’s been a few more fatalities from her district, but not many – relatively speaking, of course.
maybe it was cheap. but to me, this just seems like something a Rep should know, if for no other reason than she should’ve recently sent the family a letter or something.
(here. warning, big download)
Cassidy
I took it to mean how should the gov’t get involved…a la steroid hearings, etc. Things our gov’t shouldn’t be involved in. The quote leads the reader to believe that the legislature was looking at it, not parties.
The Other Steve
I wonder if she has even attended any funerals?
Jake
Yes it is frightening to think people running the country seem to be operating under the miffed high school cool kids clique mentality.
Wilfred
I doubt it. Remember, she’s cheerleading for people that a) managed to prevent taking photos of coffins, and b)tried to prevent sales of t-sirts with the names of DFNs.
Besides, funerals are sad. We should be happy for them and their families! Jesus said so.
Off topic but to win a bet: How many people reading this know the current head of the United Nations is (without looking it up, obviously).
Punchy
If he’s 18, was he dating a 16 year old? How old could a 35 year-old mom’s child be? 16, 17, tops? Who allows a live-in boyfriend for a daughter who’s not even legal?
Dulcie
Punchy, it IS in Tennessee after all ;-)
magisterludi
Marsha Blackburn is a horrid little hag. She incited a wingnut riot in downtown Nashville some years ago. I can’t remember the details, except that she dialed up the local wingnut radio stooges and called on people to charge on downtown in protest. Scuffles and broken windows ensued.
OxyCon
If the Repubs are too cowardly to answer questions on a television station, then how can they stand up to al Queda?
Zifnab
Grr… Asian guy who replaced Koffi Anon. Can’t remember his name.
srv
You are so old fashioned.
les
132.
And Punchy, when we adopted our first daughter, the birth mother was the first female in her family’s history to not have a child by age 15. In her family, the 35 year olds were the grandmothers.
Bombadil
Amazing! How did you know that?
Tisse
I love the “what to do about it” – you know those asshats were sitting around FREAKING OUT about “what are we gonna do if the press starts holding us accountable? What if they stop swallowing our hollow, hypocriticial, pandering bullshit?” Good god.
cleek
not sure exactly how to spell it, but it sounds like Ban Kee Moon
capelza
So will Schuster now “unapologise”?
numbskull
Hey, sounds good to me. If the rethuglicans only appear on Fox, eventually both Fox and the GOP will be regional entities, a peculiarity of The South.
I’m willing to put up with it even though I live down here!
oh really
If you continue to not watch a program you already don’t watch and you weren’t going to start watching, that’s not much of a boycott.
jake
Ban Ki Moon.
Anonymous
If he’s 18, was he dating a 16 year old? How old could a 35 year-old mom’s child be? 16, 17, tops? Who allows a live-in boyfriend for a daughter who’s not even legal?
Tennessee age of consent law appears to be, like many states, 18 is entirely legal, but 15 is also legal as long as the other partner is under 19. Not that I spend too much time thinking about such things, but I do see many people using “18=legal;younger=you’re a child molester” as a universal guideline, and that doesn’t appear to be the case in many jurisdictions, depending on the age of the older partner.
whatsleft
Ban Ki-Moon(bat)
rachel
Someone who wants to make sure they’re not getting up to any hanky-panky?
Pb
Who is “Ki Moon”, and why should we ban him?
Incertus (Brian)
Well, if republicans want to avoid the one cable news channel that actually grew an audience last year, then who am I to suggest otherwise?
Cain
Our governor probably does. He’s attended every funeral of every fallen soldier in Oregon. He doesn’t consider that a political issue and he goes and honors every single one of them. You can’t ask for anything better than that. He’s a Democrat by the way.
cain
Fred
I thought this was already settled. The soldier WAS living in Blackburn’s district. His legal address was there for a year prior to his going to Iraq. He was not born there, nor buried there, but his last legal address was there. Hence, Shuster was right all along and was forced to apologize on air by Dan Abrahams who wanted to put the episode behind them so as not to dampen MSNBC’s faltering ratings (with the except Olberman’s ratings of course).
Sirkowski
She still didn’t know the name of the last soldier to die in her district.
Xenos
Back when I was an AFDC caseworker in rural Florida I ran across a 44 year-old great grandmother, registering her second great grandchild for benefits. There had been a 13-year old mother somewhere along the line to make that possible.
carol h
The fact that this young man was living in his girlfriend’s mother’s house speaks volumes about his life. I suspect that he was 18 and had no where else to live. What happened to him and why wasn’t he living with his familiy? If his family situation was as sad as it appears on the surface it is not surprising that he joined the Army. It gave him a place to go, a paycheck, and health insurance. he probably also got a fat bonus when he enlisted, probably more money than he ever saw in his life. Of course it was risky, and he gave up his life for it. I think he is represenative of a large part of the troops in Iraq.
The Other Steve
All the cable channels have faltering ratings.
With the exception of Olberman.
The Other Steve
Ok, I heard on NPR… That apparently Clarence Thomas wants to talk about Anita Hill some more. So he’s written a book.
HUH? Wouldn’t he just want to forget about all that?
canuckistani
Careful there. A lot of people will crap on you if you suggest that not every single soldier is a dedicated, true-blue hero in the war against terror. If you suggest that some of them are poor and/or dumb kids with no futures elsewhere, you might as well brand “Allahu Akbar” on your forehead.
D-Chance.
How could a black guy ever forget a lynching?
Yes, Thomas is comparing being asked tough questions by a Senate judiciary committee to being hung a noose by a mob of angry white bigots.
And Limbaugh will have him on Monday. Birds of a feather…
Soliton
When I met my wife of thirty years she was sixteen and my parents had been dead for two years, both of them having died after prolonged battles with cancer.
We had been an item for about two years when I suffered a serious compound fracture of my lower leg and was unable to walk or keep my job. I lost my apartment and would have been on the street but for one thing.
My wife’s parents took me in and gave me a place to stay and recuperate.
I’m not so quick to rush to judgment on such things as many other people I know.
chopper
uh, one?