Top 10 of 2007 -- Wurlitzer Prize for Wingnuttery™

Since we started awarding the prize late in 2007, we added two deserving recipients who are standard bearers from the past week to our Top 10 countdown of exemplary honorees. Who is No. 1 in all of Wingnuttia? We think you will applaud but let's start with...

No. 10: I see nutheeng! -- One of two recipients from the Heritage Foundation, Nina Owcharenko can face the problem of uninsured children, and without batting an eyelash, obfuscate the situation. Nina trotted out the fallacy that the government program to cover uninsured children is expanding in order to -- gasp with us in horror -- drive children from private insurance! Oh, what an affront to the profits of the insurance industry! "The truth is various states have been pushing for an expansion of SCHIP precisely because, faced with spiraling increases in health insurance premiums, more and more employers are electing to drop dependent coverage and more and more middle class parents, confronted with the same price spiral, are unable to pay for private insurance." The parental nightmare: choose between paying for their children's health coverage or the mortgage. But, pish posh, neighs Nina. She canters on, her award teetering on her ideological rump, leaving a trail of road apples for the kiddies.

No. 9: The poor couldn't possibly be really poor -- That's what an elite fellow of the Heritage Foundation, Robert Rector, explained, wagging his finger at us little people. When "one in eight" Americans lack "enough money for the food, shelter, and clothing they need," caught in a daily "struggle with incredible poverty," Rector pulled out his scented hankie, dabbed his pursed lips before opining, Let them eat dirt. Rector's award for excellence in denying the truth about Americans living in poverty earns him a special booby prize in addition to the award -- a miniature guillotine designed to trim his lengthy aristocratic claws.

No. 8: I'm a useful idiot -- Bill Sammon of the Washington Examiner knows how to lobe a softball to Bush during a WH press briefing so the pResident Evil can chortle, "Now, watch this drive." Sammon's question, ”Mr. President, what did you think of the MoveOn ad?” With that, aWol launched into a tirade against the "Democrat" Party. “I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. military....[blah, blah, blah]." For Sammon's efforts, he gets a brass-plated Kool-Aid sippycup inscribed with "D.C. Stenographer" to accompany his award.

No. 7: Wiping the ass of the GOP -- Home to the rants of crotchety white man Lou Dobbs, stenographer Malveaux, and groveling Wolf, the Cowardly News Network proves once again that liberal media is an extinct creature of mythical lore. In homage to their GOP favoritism during the presidential debates, the award comes with a magic CNN eightball that when shaken, always answers, "Carry water for Republicans or God will getcha!" They take the admonition Seriously.

No. 6: Harangutan Glenn Beck -- When Southern California burned, ravaging the homes of Republican-leaning Orange County and San Diego, a place where active duty and retired military also live, the right-wing nutjob of CNN poisoned with venom for the blue state -- and absent of fact-checking to whom he would spew his obscenities -- delighted in the inferno by announcing that "people who hate America are losing their homes today." A perpetual fountain of animosity toward liberals, environmentalists, Anyone Not A Wingnut™, Beck's bigotry earned him an award wrapped in a brownshirt for outstanding achievement in smearing non-Christians.

[Read on... the countdown continues after the jump!]

No. 5: War on Christmas kerfuffle -- Faux News & Friends hosted a curious holiday segment with the Catholic League's Bill Donohue as guest to kvetch about Huckabee's holiday campaign ad that "displayed an image of a white cross floating in the background behind the Huckster's head." WTF? Didn't the Flared Nostril realize there was a war on Xmas? How could he quibble with a cross, for chrissakes?! His "hypocrisy, partisan bias, and bullying are legion.... Donohue's hyperbolic media whoring and Judas act to progressives, Catholic Democrats, gays, Muslims, Wiccans, and Jews" tickles him pinko. "He excoriates or discounts anyone who disturbs his unbridled wingnuttery" and "Big Media, having given him a bully pulpit, turn a blind eye to his hypocrisy." For his yuletide performance and to complement his award, we bestow a super-size kazoo to play along off-key with the noise machine.

No. 4: O'shilling is me middle name -- NBC's Tim Russert never encountered a fact he couldn't dismiss or distort on behalf of his BFF, the Greedy Old Phonies. Describing Huck's victory in Iowa, he said that "the Republicans [were] embracing someone whose message was populist, and in terms of foreign policy, anti-George W. Bush." Wait a minute. That's not what Huck said: "I love the president. I've been with him on the war. I've been with him on the surge when Mitt Romney wasn't. So it's absurd to say that I'm against the president." Typical of Russert, his Meet The Press dog-and-pony show demonstrates an exercise in disregarding his buddies' misleading statements, allowing propaganda to flourish, and dissing Democrats every chance he can insert an attack. In special recognition, he receives a GOP-monogrammed chamois to polish his award along with the turds he serves up as journalism. Maybe he can use it to buff his brown nose, too.

No. 3: He's a Muslim (wink, wink) but I'm a slut -- He'll criticize others for spreading innuendo but when Chris Matthews does the same thing, he's oblivious to his brazen double standard. As a bona fide Hillary-hater, Tweety makes millions trashing Big Major Dems and he doesn't mind stooping to sexism to do it. He's been dissembling a long, long time. Ah, but he can't seem to cure his complusion 'cause he's in love! Republican he-men, Mr. 9/11, the Codpiece-in-Chief, and "Big Handsome" Fred Thompson make him swoon. We've re-engineered the Wurlitzer prize to accommodate a hidden compartment where Tweety can keep a bottle of smelling salts to use when he's overcome with the vapors. Should we toss in a hand towel for his, um, sweaty palms?

No. 2: Who can top Rudy!? Only Rudy Giuliani, a constant source of wingnuttery, can soar beyond himself like Icarus lifting on the thermal of 9/11 (video). He was for "socialized medicine" before he was against it, but Rudy's never liked facts much. He can out-howl the dogs of war louder than any banshee and he can scare little children and big people alike with terror, terror, terror. Oh, Rudy! "The serial exaggerator can't help himself." But when will he drop out of the race for the WH? His Wurlitzer prize comes rigged with a oscillating white flag. Maybe he will get the hint.

No. 1: Who's the wrongest wingnut of all? -- Taking the top slot, William "The Bloody" Kristol reigns as the King of Crap. For being spectacularly wrong as a pundit, the Gray Lady added him to her "stable of neocon stooges." I kid you not! With Bloody Bill "on board, the Nyuk Nyuk Times can whoop-whoop-whoop-whoop it up with the phoniest stooge of all. The infotainment value that a weekly dose of Bloody Bill can bring to Serious Punditry will surely elevate the laughing stock of the paper in the marketplace of Opinion as it bolts in the opposite direction of the nation's move toward progressive ideas. Who's next to [dis]grace its editorial pages? Ann Coultergeist? N'yaaah-ah-ah!" For such an colossal misstep, the sound of mailbox flaps banging shut on cancelled subscription letters lends a raspberry-induced a cappella to both the Times and Kristol's Wurlitzer Prize for Wingnuttery™.

Stay tuned for next Saturday's award to kick off the first honoree of 2008.

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John McCain Forgets That People Fact Check

TPM's Ben Craw did a little fact checking following John McCain's latest appearance on Meet The Press. Take a look if you want to know what Ben found.




This is exactly why the "YouTube" election is going to be the most liberating in history. Little blog based news organizations like TPM now have access to a whole lot of video tape and are motivated to watch it. The Internet gives them the ability to deliver what they find to the public. It seems that the stranglehold of the major news networks is just about broken. People don't have to watch OJ stories any more. Instead they can watch old men caught in embarrassing contradictions and inconsistencies without the loving protection of a Tim Russert or a Wolf Blitzer to shield them and the rest of us from the truth.

In this case, John McCain has simply gotten old. He can no longer remember what he said or heard just last week. It happens to all of us sooner or later. I honor McCain for his service to America, but at some point even the best of us have to call it a career.

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Why I Am A Lousy Blogger

I like to start my day with a cruise around the net. Usually I post something I find here. This morning I found something right away and instead of cruising, I lingered for an hour. Bill Moyers Journal has just posted Friday's show on the web. If like mine, your local public television show is doing a fundraising auction or if your local public television channel doesn't carry Moyers, spend an hour this morning watching his show. He has interviews with Josh Marshall and Jon Stewart, and a story about the late David Halberstam. Trust me, the hour you spend watching Moyers will be better spent than watching Tim Russert's dog and pony show.

Sorry for not finding the outrage or bit of humor this morning. Blue Girl needs to pay me more if she doesn't want me distracted by high quality television.

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Why Did Scooter Libby Pick Tim Russert?

If you have been following the Scooter Libby trial you know that Scooter Libby has pretty consistently contended that he learned of Valerie Plame's connection to Joe Wilson from Tim Russert during a July 2003 phone call. Russert has said that the two didn't talk about Valerie Plame during that phone call. In fairness Russert first told the FBI he couldn't recall discussing Plame with Libby, but later firmed up his position and has steadfastly acknowledged he talked to Libby but denied Plame was ever discussed.

Fitzgerald has presented a mountain of evidence showing that Libby learned of Plame's identity long before he talked to Russert. He has also presented a mountain of evidence indicating that Dick Cheney was obsessed with contradicting Joe Wilson. Cheney thought Wilson had said that Cheney sent him to Niger. Early reporting made it sound like Cheney had directly ordered Wilson to Niger. In fact, Wilson only said that he was sent to Niger by the CIA to check on a concern of the VP. Both Cheney and Wilson were 100% accurate. The mainstream media had simply screwed up the reporting.

Cheney was hot to prove he didn't personally send Wilson. He found out that Wilson's wife was CIA and had something to do with Wilson's selection. He decided to push the story that Wilson's wife had sent Wilson to Niger as a boondoggle. Why anybody would consider a trip to Niger a boondoggle is beyond me, but that was Cheney was peddling to the Right Wing Noise Machine.

Prior to Plame ever being mentioned in the press, and prior to his discussion with Russert, the overwelming evidence proves that Libby had been part of several conversations concerning how Cheney wanted to respond to the report that Cheney had sent Wilson to Niger. Libby is simply lying when he claims he learned about Plame from Russert.

Here has been what troubling me about this whole Libby trial. Something that just doesn't hang together. When Scooter Libby was scrambling for a story that had a chance of holding water, why in the world did he point to a specific conversation with Tim Russert, of all people, as being where he learned that Plame was Wilson's wife. Was he counting on Russert's reported bad memory? Was he counting on Russert's unhealthy coziness with Cheney's office and his chief of staff? After all Dana Milbank has reported that Cheney thinks he owns Tim Russert. You know, they call guys like Russert journalists because they often take notes. Why would Libby reasonably think Russert didn't make notes of their phone conversation? Or was there something else? If so what?

I haven't seen this blogged. If you have post a comment. I am truly puzzled. Just why would Libby point to a specific conversation with a specific journalist to bolster his claim that he didn't learn about Plame from Dick Cheney or some other Administration official, unless he had some reason to believe Russert would back him up. Any other explanation sounds like a pretty stupid move for a very shrewed operator.

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