Russert expresses the outrage of the Village Elders at Ron Paul for being…well, Ron Paul. And rocking the Republican boat. Well, now we know what kind of a grilling Russert is capable of if he’s really irked and he’s not interviewing someone who "controls the message."
Why doesn’t he just say it: "Ron Paul…You’re no Dick Cheney."
Related posts:
- Meet the Press STILL Lets Guests “Control the Message”
- Gov. Patrick Names Paul Kirk to Replace Late Kennedy in Senate
- The Torturer Times: The Washington Post’s Partisan Press Release Service
- On “This Week,” Paul Krugman Dispatches 3 Wingnut Talking Points on Auto Industry in 2 Minutes
- That Beltway Thing You Do: DC Press Corps Feigns Outrage Over CIA Prosecutor
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Advanced search
lol
Zed….zed, it was Village Idiot Tim in the garden with a lead pipe that did in the Paul Campaign (well, according to the village idiot)
Ron Paul is no Dick Cheney;
but,
Tim Russert is no Edward R. Murrow.
Hell as far as that goes, Tim Russert is no Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, John Chancellor, or Dan Rather.
In fact, Tim Russert is no journalist.
It was a surprisingly strong performance for Timmeh. Don’t usually watch MTP, but this one was good.
I can picture the elder McFly pointing and saying:
Looks like GE is backing McCain.
Actually, I kinda liked Paul’s demeanor. He did flounder a lot, but he was unapologetic about his core beliefs, as far as they are away from the mainstream.
Timmeh was merely projecting Mrs. Timmeh’s utter devastation at the remotest possibility of having another fundie Texan running the DC weenie-circuit.
Pretty soon, the Punkin’ haids will be Clinton supporters, based solely on pah-tay potential alone.
“Ron Paul…You’re no Dick Cheney.”
*rolling around on the floor and laughing like Snoopy*
Poor Timmah. He’s really trying to forget himself and all he did the past seven years. He’s gonna have to remove the “Dick Cheney or bust” tattoo from his ass now! Poor thing.
This is the third week in a row he’s blown up a Gooper. Ghouliani (who should be GE’s wet dream one would think), Romney, and now Ron “Abolish the IRS” Paul.
All aboard the Straight Talk Express (or whatever the hell McCain named his pet bus).
LOL Perfect encapsulation of the upside down, back asswards media view of the world.
Howard K. Smith, or Harry Reasoner.
Did Timmah ever go after the other republicans who put in a record number of earmarks over the last six years? Nope! Oh wait a minute. He was “different” back then. *rolling eyes*
Didn’t see the other two. Too bad. I would have liked them. As for McCain, he has often said that the press is his base.
Ron Paul kicked his ass.
i have to agree with you two, all the while I was listening to the program I kept thinking what a jerk Russert is.
I didn’t get the sense that Tim was irked, but I take your point that he’s not softballing Ron Paul like he does with Dick Cheney.
I’d like to see some statistics comparing each politician and how many inside the beltway events they smooze with media figures like Russert. And then rate the difficulty of questions (softball to hardball) these media figures ask these politicians. I’d bet a correlation could be shown.
- Tom
Boy Hugh, your scroll really was a hit over at Digg the past few days (I guess Digg is now the world’s largest news service).
Pretty impressive…
In response to Crosstimbers @ 12
Ron Paul is no Dick Cheney;
but,
Tim Russert is no Edward R. Murrow.
Just testing to see if a ziggurat can be built, them was fun days ;-)
Why doesn’t he just say it: “Ron Paul…You’re no Dick Cheney.”
but Tim Russert is no Edward R. Murrow.”
but he is a big dick
Jane — love you — even when you’re wrong. Ron Paul — and I’m no Paulite — came off very well.
Tim Russert is no Jeff Gannon.
but he is a big dick
metaphorically speaking, of course.
Zig alert (for old times sake)
Bumzie,
I have to agree with you. Although I don’t always agree with him, I thought he was strong and spoke truth to power.
gee, allow me to provide digg links …*g*…
for this post
for the lhp scroll post
and last but NOT AT ALL LEAST Hugh’s List
I don’t think it changed anybody’s mind. If you loved Ron Paul before, you probably still love him. If you’re a smug beltway asshole, you’re probably applauding Russert’s masterful deconstruction.
I’m mostly amused at how Russert can be so aggressive (asking follow-up questions and everything!) when it’s not somebody from the DC chili cookout club.
You have some special knowledge?
/kidding
Perhaps these are the political parties?
Insiders and Outsiders.
no more elephants and donkeys?
Good. Don’t make me come over there.
Shorter Tim Russert to Ron Paul:
I don’t think you’re going to be deciding which jet engines
the Air Force will be purchasing anytime soon.
I’m really intrigued by the establishmentarian MSM who take on the constitutionally oriented candidates. Russert on Ron Paul, Rush on Huck, and so forth.
Fascinating.
Hopefully it will reveal these “journalists” as the lapdogs they are to the rest of us sixpack joes.
Who they really need is Pat Paulsen to run again for President
could resurrect worse
I thought it rather entertaining (and informative about Timmeh) that all but two of the “gotcha” quotes were from the 1987-1988 era. How can you be at all objective about grilling candidate X about 20-year-old op-eds when you give the two-week old flip-flopping of candidate Y a pass? Yes, Paul has some different views, but he must be deeply scaring some “serious people” when he talks about representing the so-called true Republicanism of the pre-Reagan past.
Pat Paulsen campaign. enjoy
Sorry about the ugly url. my linky thingie doesn’t work really well.
Mod note: Link repaired
He may be a fringe nut but if he says anything which is outside the status quo and people respond to it he must be cut down and so timmeh did the deed, or tried. If Dennis got the attention Paul got they haul his ass on MTP and do a hatchet job on him to because he wants to rattle the beltway chilli crowd or whatever you call it.
They need nice mainstream players who take cash and can be puppets and sound tough but do nothing… all corporate shills who cosy up with the LIC pass the sniff test and get a pass. The slightest hint of .. let’s clean up some of the crap and they get swifted and slammed to oblivion.
I think they built Hill up so they can take her down and declare the dems in disarray and they hardly mention John Edwards because he blames corporations as the root of all evil… almost got that one pegged… it’s free market capitalism, but close John.
In any case he just gets ignored because he’s got a lawyer’s mouth and could rebut their BS. Hill just spins her triangle. And Obie talks about a new direction to take the same crowd. Try a black face who can look white in the bright lights! Cue Oprah!
Riddle me this –
How in the name of science did Paul get to be a medical doctor?….with a degree from Duke yet!! The thought of having someone like him perform gynecological exams is quite enough to turn the stomach.
Your linky was faulty, is this what you were after?
I recall Pat’s Kansas Campaign and Mountain Climbing Expedition, you had to be there.
Thanks Arnie. My linking abilities are pretty lame. I blame Clinton.
Maybe he likes big dick.
I saw the show and I agree. Ron Paul kicked ass. If it came down to a Paul/Clinton final, I would vote Paul (at least from today’s perspective.
Russert is such a tool, and a malevolent one. It’s clear what his game is: get his russertlings to scan your past for anything — anything — that is seemingly out out whack, especially if you squint and look at it sideways. His point, apparently, is that Paul shouldn’t put earmarks in bills for his district, and because he does and then votes against the bill, he’s a “hypocrite.” This is approximately on the same level of dumbness as, “Al Gore SAYS he’s against global warming, but he flies in private jets!” Or “John Edwards says he’s for the poor, yet he’s rich!” Too stupid to live. It looks like hard, honest questioning, but it’s not: Russert has about the same level of integrity as a policemen wrapping a pipe in a towel and slugging a suspect without leaving a mark — in other words, he’s a thug. A good journalist asks a question and lets the politician lynch himself. (By the way, his rubber hose on Hillary about Spitzer rose to the same level of corruption.) But I don’t expect anything better from a guy who hired a ghost writer to write a book about his dad.
The thing that irks me is how many times someone from the mainstream media has already asked Paul these same questions. Do they not watch each others shows? Do they not do their research?
If I had to guess I’d say that’s why Paul seemed flustered. It wasn’t that the questions were anything he hadn’t heard or didn’t have an answer for, it was that he was pissed that he’d already answered the same question half a dozen times.
I thought this MTP was bizarre. timmeh asked ron paul about slavery, and mr. libertarian went off on Lincoln, blaming Honest Abe for the Civil War. Ole punkin haid took this sputtering response and didn’t follow up. On earmarks, he said he proposed them but didn’t ‘vote’ for them, He had a hard time with revenue streams after he would abolish the IRS….those were his weakest moments…Other than that I don’t think Paul lost many donors
stay tune folks , by watching russet next five or six interview of mccain then you’ll know , GE owns the press
I have not paid close attention to Ron Paul’s views but he articulated them well despite Russert’s attitude that they were sitting the parking lot of the country club. It’s no wonder Russert won’t have cocktails with Ron Paul. Russert’s career has been predicated upon everything Ron Paul wants to dismantle. Russert must think the man is the anti-Christ.