ABC’s the Note:
“Is President Obama Nixon-fying the White House?” Republicans ask
Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, who came pretty darn close to becoming a member of the Obama Administration, coined a new word on the Senate floor to criticize the President and his staff.
The man President Obama once nominated to be his Commerce Secretary wondered aloud on the Senate floor if the White House under President Obama is starting to be run like it was under Richard Nixon. “Nixon-fying” is how Gregg put it.
It is a point that is for debate, to be sure.
Do the men who write for ABC’s the Note have sex with barnyard animals, as some suggest? It is a point that is for debate, to be sure! Also, it would be irresponsible to not speculate.
I will give them high praise for excellent use of a Cavuto Mark in the title. But then again, the folks at ABC think Fox’s Neil Cavuto is their brother in arms (you really have to read that), so that is to be expected, I guess.
Kryptik
Does Jake Tapper molest sheep on company time?
Some suggest he does, while Tapper denies the allegations. It’s a debate to be sure.
Does Michael Gerson smuggle condoms full of Oxycontin across state lines for sales on the black market?
Some suggest he does, while Gerson denies the allegations. It’s a debate to be sure.
Does the Republican Party harbor psychic terrorists?
Some suggest it does, while the GOP denies the allegations. It’s a debate to be sure.
Bubblegum Tate
What a horrendous phrase. It’s basically a long-form Cavuto Mark.
dmsilev
Well, the question is out there.
Also, we must cover the controversy.
-dms
Zifnab
Nixon might have been a sneaky crook and a lying sack of shit, but he’s still miles ahead of Bush in competency. Is Gregg complaining about some specific ethics violations, or is he just really sad that everyone in the White House isn’t running around with their heads up their asses anymore?
Please keep throwing shit against the walls, GOP. By 2010, you’ll be covered in it.
Kryptik
@dmsilev:
Don’t forget that we have to leave it there! We’ll let the Note rebut the allegations when we have time, but next up, the Balloon Boy saga!
An Outhouse
Do the men who write for ABC’s the Note have sex with barnyard animals, as some suggest?
According to what I heard, some people definitely would say, ‘yes’.
Cat Lady
So they’ve worn out references to Stalin, Hitler, Marx and Mao. Nixon should be a good for a week or two, then they’ll have to trot out Bush, who as we’ve recently learned is a liberal.
Sigh.
Napoleon
@Zifnab:
Gregg is complaining that Obama is calling out Fox as a fraud. This is part of the push back from the right to see if they can intimidate Obama and his crew into shutting up about Fox.
kay
I don’t think it will have any more relevance than the “black Jimmy Carter” thing they tried last week.
Nixon was a long time ago. I just don’t think they can make the connection between Barack Obama and Richard Nixon,
Also, isn’t Richard Nixon the opposite of Jimmy Carter?
Really, my head is spinning here. They gotta settle down. I’m getting my recent-history cultural references all muddled up.
Get together, decide on a theme, or it’s going to be a long 3 years.
Darius
Last week, Obama was weak and naive, just like Jimmy Carter.
This week, Obama is ruthless and evil, just like Richard Nixon.
Can’t wait to see what they’ll come up with next week.
Redshirt
Judd Gregg is a dick. That is all.
Morbo
Nixon-fying? Really? Yeah, that’ll catch on. What a stylistic failure; “Nixonizing” is obviously the correct term.
And obligatorily:
“Belligerent and numerous.”
Zifnab
@Napoleon: Well, right. But trying to tie Obama to Nixon? It’s such a stretch. At best, he’s playing the “Bad President is Bad!” card. At worst, he’s just whining about how FOX News is getting whipped – presumably in the same way that media orgs in the 60s and 70s were whipped by Nixon.
Who is going to swallow this kool aid, besides the regulars?
kay
@Cat Lady:
No, it was Carter. They promised me he was Jimmy Carter.
I can’t make these abrupt transitions.
camchuck
Can we bring it full circle and call this “controversy” Nixon-fying-gate? Too much?
John Cole
@Napoleon: Bingo. What is funny about a lot of this is that Gregg is the front man for a lot of these attacks, which leads me to think that my earlier suspicions were correct- Gregg didn’t pass the vet and that is why he backed away. His aide was swept up in the Abramoff scandal, doncha know, and he isn’t running again in 2010. Why is he all of a sudden running point on these attacks? Who knows what?
It would be irresponsible to not speculate.
Zifnab
@Darius:
Just like Bush!
It goes in cycles, ya-see.
Tonal Crow
Are the MSM propagandizing America? It would be irresponsible not to speculate. Oh, wait, it isn’t speculation….
Dr. I. F. Stone
I understand that the Dean at U of WV has questioned a certain instructor/blogger’s growing unnatural attachment to his house pets. Hmmm.
inkadu
OT, but I’m at the end of my rope on this issue: I have been trying to register for comments on SciBlogs (Pharyngula) and big media Ezra Kleins site and was wondering if anyone could help figure out how to register. Obviously, it would be better to ask for help on those sites, but I’d have to register first.
1 – SciBlogs is using typepad / movable type… but every time I register via the link, I get some weird access-denied server error from Sciblogs.
2 – I can’t find where to register anywhere on Washington Post’s site. I haven’t read Ezra since he left his last gig, but … I miss our talks.
And, no, I don’t have a job.
dmsilev
@Darius: I’m going to go with ‘stupid and evil (and liberal), just like George W. Bush’.
-dms
kay
@Darius:
He’s multi-faceted. Think Nixon in a cardigan. With a peace prize!
What he is not and will never be is Ronald Reagan. As long as we’re clear on that.
slag
I would argue that the WH is 20 to 30 to 70 person less Nixon since Obama became President. But, on the other side, there are those who argue that ABC f#cks goats. Unfortunately, though, it looks like we’re out of time and are going to have to leave it there.
slag
Correction: I would argue that the WH is 20 to 30 to 70 percent less Nixon since Obama became President. But, on the other side, there are those who argue that ABC f#cks goats. Unfortunately, though, it looks like we’re out of time and are going to have to leave it there.
SiubhanDuinne
O/T but Bitsy’s over 2800 :-)
freelancer
No, you’re just having a normal reaction to having the curtain pulled back to reveal the CW/Wingnut history blender, suspended in a solution of saccharine and transfats, and fed to you through a beer bong.
You’ll see they put that funnel to further use later on…
CatStaff
Lamar Alexander was all over this crap today, too. Concern trolling around every corner, warning President Obama not to be like Nixon and have an “enemies list,” and he’s concerned because Obama’s doing things like calling out Fox, and the Dems are taking a look at the insurance industry’s antitrust exemption, etc.
Yep, just like Nixon. Could be twins.
joes527
Still waiting for Cavuto Mark to get added to the lexicon.
jeffreyw
@inkadu: There is an ongoing upgrade over there, no idea when they will be done with it.
cleek
Nixon-ifying?
does that mean he’s hiring Cheney, Rumsfeld, Pat Buchanan and Kissinger ?
The Bearded Blogger
@Zifnab: They’re running out of comparisons to nasty people. Next month, it’ll be Doctor Doom, something to do with healthcare…
I wonder if they’ll try Pol Pot or Idi Amin? I’m tempted to say it’s too much, but it’s the Party of Glen Beck we’re talking about…
Also, they’ve done Hitler, but what about Gibbs as Goebbels, Franken as Goering, Pelosi as Eva Braun…
Notorious P.A.T.
@inkadu:
Try this:
When you get to the “sign in to comment” screen, click on the little TypePad symbol at the right. That will send you to a different portal where you might have better luck.
thomas Levenson
My comment at the Note:
What’s bizarre about this, besides the depressing reconfirmation of the echo chamber nature of so much of the MSM, is the blunt ahistoricity.
Nixon White House: feloniously burgled opponents, violated doctor-patient confidentiality, conspired to obstruct justice and so on and on. Doing all that behind as thick a veil of secrecy (in defiance of court orders, at the end) as they could possibly construct.
Obama: publicly speaking an obvious fact (that Fox “News” is not a news operation in the same sense that, say, ABC is, however haltingly)
Arguing that a vociferous policy opponent is (a) actually an opponent and (b) wrong on the merits (the Chamber of Commerce)
Seeking publicly to block receipients of tax payer money to use their profits (made in part on those exchange) to lobby for further commercial advantage with their customer base (medicare insurers and so on)
Saying mean things about Republicans. (More of this please). True mean things. True things that will, if pressed, hurt the GOP in elections. (Did I say more of this please.
Why doesn’t ABC understand the most basic fact of a journalist’s life. Just because some Senator says something doesn’t mean that it has any connection to reality.
Obama is hardly a perfect person; his administration will no doubt make error after error. But anyone who can swallow the obvious partisan trial balloon that somehow all this public (and in any reasonable interpretation of a democracy, incredibly healthy) challenge to GOP orthodoxy is the same thing as the creation of a secret enemies list is simply incapable of doing the work of a journalist.
Find a new gig. I hear Fox “News” (sic) is hiring.
4tehluz
An source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the information, stated on the record that Jake Tapper not only blows goats, but also stole a goat from Mickey Kaus.
Messages to Kaus and Tapper were unreturned; however, another source confirms that Kaus was “distraught” over the loss of the goat.
Darius
Mike Halperin gives us tomorrow’s shitty media memes, today!
inkadu
@jeffreyw: Thanks for the info. I have a backlog of pithy sarcasm. I’ll have to stay away, lest my sardonic balls get any bluer.
@The Bearded Blogger: Don’t forget Sauron, Saruman and Grima Wormtongue. Those are still left to be used by the right. And who can forget the ring wraiths? Didn’t Rush Limbaugh say something like, “Much like the evil ring wraiths of LoTR, Obama looks black, but if you could see him as he truly is, you would see a skeletal white man knifing you in the chest.”
Though personally I would like to see Grima to be reserved for Rahm Emmanual.
Cat Lady
@thomas Levenson:
La la la la la la la la la can’t hear you la la la la la…
/journamalists
Cain
@The Bearded Blogger:
You know they’ve started scrapping the bottom when they start doing hollywood villains. “Obama is just like Freddy Krueger!” “Obama is just like that hot chick from Species!” The finale will be when they compare Obama to the ruthless tv exec from UHF.
cain
Cain
N o no, I just thought of another one. When they interview Dubya, and he says “Obama is just like my mom! The evil bitch!”
cain
Napoleon
@Zifnab: Everything they have been doing for the last several years has been a stretch. I think they are so cocooned in their own bubble they just do not know how stupid they sound.
@John Cole:
Maybe they are using Gregg for the attacks because they desperately want them to be come from a northern senator, and any senator that is from the north who has to stand for election in the future may be unwilling to risk pissing off the people who voted Obama. Voinovich also fits that bill but he is not the type to do that sort of thing, and so maybe Gregg is just being a good soldier.
inkadu
@Notorious P.A.T.: I’m not sure if you were referring to SciBlog, but Washington Post actually does have a “sign in / register” links… but at the very tippity top of the page above the masthead. I didn’t think to look there. I expected to find it in the right and left columns. I’m not sure if this means I’m young, old, or stupid.
Librarian
Gee, I wonder if the Note ever asked if Bush was like Nixon. Can I take a wild guess and say….no?
The Bearded Blogger
@Cain: What about: Obama is just like Charles Darwin?
Obama is just like King Koopah, Rahm is a mushroom and Gibbs is a winged turtle!
If only Sarh Palin could eat one of those fireball flowers…
Also, I am seriously expecting “Obama is just like Roman Polanski” any time…
Midnight Marauder
@Zifnab:
That’s the real question here. Who in the fucking world is really going to buy the comparison that Obama is a modern-day Nixon in the making? That is, besides the people already running around screaming that he’s Hitler; that he’s a pinko commie sympathizer; that he’s a dirty muslim; that he’s a stalinist. Where is this new block of sheeple going to emerge from?
I mean, really. What sane person is going to look at the early track-record of President Obama (however discouraging it may be in some respects) and the dark legacy of Richard.fucking.Nixon. and come away thinking “You know what? I can see it. Tricky Dick is now just Tricky O”? There’s just no way that this line of attack works with the non-27% crowd.
And if anyone Nixon-ified the White House, it clearly is George “America’s #1 Expert On Business Success” Bush. Have they really
forgottendecided to ignore entirely and totally the divisive and petty manner in which America’s #1 Expert On Business Success ran the Oval Office?If my mind wasn’t too busy reeling at the thought, I would be insulted at such an affront to intelligence.
Brick Oven Bill
Nixon Paranoia.
Obama is not as much paranoid as he is confused. It started in Copenhagen. He has never been told no.
This Administration will way overshoot the Nixon Administration.
I have no personal knowledge that men in the ABC newsroom have had sex with animals. I also have no knowledge of women in the ABC newsroom having sex with animals. But I do think that Andrea Mitchell should be compelled to take the last name of her husband.
valdivia
@Darius:
ugh Halperin.
What are these memes about? That foreing leaders hate him? That he is intellectually less engaged than Bush??? OMG. The stupid burns.
schnooten
Is this use of the long-form Cavuto (h/t @Bubblegum Tate) a way to blur the line between ABC and Fox News? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Today, we are all illegitimate news organizations.
Midnight Marauder
@Brick Oven Bill:
If you started off all your posts with the following disclaimer, we would all be much better off in this world.
Ash Can
Any time I feel myself losing touch with reality and thinking Obama is perfect, I recall this. It works like a bucket of ice water over the head.
Common Sense
Next week:
How Obama’s uncanny similarities to Papa Doc Duvalier are not limited to skin tone.
Why calling America under Obama the New Ottoman Empire has nothing to do with Islam.
Come the immigration debate he can be Santa Ana, with heroic Texan defenders fighting valiantly to the death against the invasion.
Demo Woman
@Darius: Mark Halperin is full of ____________ kool-aid.
gg
I vote “yes”. All the signs are there — commentary “moo”ving towards the right, “baa”d political analysis and, of course, they’re “cluck”ing stupid.
SiubhanDuinne
@Darius: Weak and evil, like Dubya?
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev: Sorry, I should have read yours before posting @SiubhanDuinne: mine.
Fencedude
Obama: So Rahm, its Monday now, who am I this week?
Rahm: (checks papers) Nixon, Mr. President
Obama: So I’m Nixon this week, am I? Who was I last week again?
Rahm: (checks papers) Carter, sir.
Obama: I see, who am I going to be next week?
Rahm: (checks papers) Bush, sir.
Obama: Which one?
Rahm: We’re not sure yet.
Bnad
Last summer McCain lobbed talking point after talking point at Obama hoping each would stick. Jeremiah Wright, celebrity, Ayers, etc. Since the election, that job has been taken up by the Villagers, who will continue those efforts until something sticks and Obama is politically damaged.
On the other hand, for Bush to be politically damaged, it took a four year quagmire and a lost American city. The Villagers’ fear of Republicans makes for pretty good teflon.
Calouste
Next meme will be that Obama signing health care legislation is just like Lincoln starting the War of Northern Aggression and freeing all those
darkiesslaves. See what has become of the real America after that. He must be stopped!freelancer
@Cain:
Or the greedy real estate mogul who threatens to shut down the summer camp/ski-resort/country club/swimming pool where all the cool kids work and have their cheeky 80s shenanigans.
Ed Drone
@Fencedude: Wow, doing Gary Trudeau’s work for him, eh?
Ed
SiubhanDuinne
@gg: @Fencedude: LULZ to you both.
ricky
When was the last time ABC noted Obama smelled like he had just smoked a cigarette or asked if he played the race card?
Pangloss
Do pengins control outer space? Why do pastries type so well? Why is the sky pink? Do people talk backwards in the Southern Hemisphere? Why do all robots look like Montgomery Clift?
Questions have been asked.
Ginger Yellow
You’d think self-respect alone would prevent American journalists from facilitating ridiculous comparisons with an administration one of whose officials recommended firebombing a research organisation. Apparently not.
ricky
@Pangloss: Yes, questions have been asked, but robots, even under EIT, will not say doodly about Monty.
ricky
Is ABC, devastated by the loss of Stoessel, Foxifying their newsroom?
slag
@Brick Oven Bill:
NOW will probably end up appreciating your contribution this time.
@4tehluz: To be fair to Tapper, I also have a hard time differentiating what he does from what Fox does. So, I can see why he’s so upset.
Napoleon
@freelancer:
Or maybe the guy who runs Faber College and is always shutting down the frat parties.
twiffer
@camchuck: i think “nixon-gate” has a nicer ring to it.
ricky
Has it occurred to ABC that they are allowing Gregg to use them in his effort to curry favor with FOX and the right after his “treasonous” flirtation with Obama?
The Saff
@Fencedude: FTW.
Crust
The Note piece begins:
Apparently, Mr. Wolf considers this reporting (rather than opinion journalism).
Sasha
Sigh.
Former Nixon aide wonders: Does Obama have ‘enemies list’?
So much stupid, so little time.
Mr. Wonderful
“Do the men who write for ABC’s the Note have sex with barnyard animals, as some suggest? It is a point that is for debate, to be sure! Also, it would be irresponsible to not speculate.”
And even if they don’t, what does it mean that we feel the need to ask?
Cain
@freelancer:
The gopher from caddyshack!
cain
ricky
I want to know what the hell the Z in Z. Byron Wolf stands for and why he is trying to hide it.
soonergrunt
I added some helpful stuff to that article. You can read it here.
If you don’t want to click, here it is:
IndieTarheel
@The Bearded Blogger:
Sorry, that train’s already left the station.
asiangrrlMN
Besides his egregious mangling of the English language, Gregg is clearly insane as well. Who gives a flying fuck what he thinks?
More to the point, who gives a flying fuck what Jake Tapper thinks?
Even more to the point, so this is what it sounds like with one hand fapping.
thomas
some would say that the barnyard animals are no longer allive when ‘the note’ writers have at it with them.
It’s a point for debate.
Bilejones
It’s called “Animal Husbandry”
according to this fucking moron State Senator from Miami
jonathanturley.org/2009/03/13/florida-senator-raises-alarm-over-animal-husbandry…
Batocchio
“Nixon-fying” sure does roll off the tongue!
I await Perlstein’s response.
Sm*t Cl*de
1. He doesn’t realize how some European leaders actually feel about him.
Let me guess. Obama talked trash to the British PM with his mouth full, and tried to give the German Chancellor an unsolicited backrub.
HRA
I skipped down to the bottom of these remarks and have only read a few at the top.
It was Senator Alexander (TN) who made a speech in the Senate likening the Obama administration to the Nixon administration. It was Senator Gregg who asked Alexander if he was Nixifying the Obama administration.
chrome agnomen
four more years!!