New York Times reporter David "hard-line" Herszenhorn is making hostile labeling of conservatives a bad habit, especially in his post-Boehner reporting. The shock resignation of the Speaker of the House gave Times reporters an excuse to target the "far-right" conservatives who had supposedly hounded John Boehner out of office, and granting the speaker never a popular figure in Times-land, some retrospective honor. Thursday's story on the reluctant Speaker-elect Paul Ryan included three "hard-line" adjectives and one "hard-right," from a newspaper that rarely if ever refers to American Democrats as "hard-left," and worked in strong adjectives like "harsh," "absurdist" and "cruel," all the while marveling at Republicans who found Ryan insufficiently committed to conservatism.
Budget
Is the Republican party actually two parties? In a sense, believes The Washington Monthly's Martin Longman, who contended in a Monday post that the forty or so congressmen who constitute the Freedom Caucus “are best understood in the parliamentary sense as being a party in their own right. In our system, they are still called Republicans, but in any other system they would be a minor party that has allied itself with another larger party to form a majority.”
Longman asserted that this unofficial party is so ideologically bonkers that it doesn’t deserve a role in resolving the central issue facing the House: “As long as the so-called Freedom Caucus of Republicans continues to demand a continuance of government shutdowns and debt ceiling brinksmanship, they do not belong in the majority and should not have any say in who the next Speaker will be…The Freedom Caucus has to be sidelined.”
As CNN's John King made appearances on the news network on Thursday to discuss the race to replace House Speaker John Boehner, the CNN correspondent suggested that conservative Tea Party members lack understanding of Civics 101 in trying to press their agenda in the House. In a later appearance, after the announcement that Rep. Kevin McCarthy was dropping out of the race, King used the words "hostage crisis" to describe the situation.
Over at the Associated Press, Andrew Taylor, contrary to the wire service's usual practice, referenced a pre-official Congressional Budget Office report to tout the federal government's "improved" budget deficit. The CBO estimates that the deficit, which won't become official until the Treasury Department releases its final Monthly Treasury Statement of the fiscal year in the next week or two, will come in at $435 billion.
Predictably, Taylor didn't disclose three facts he could easily have relayed in his brief report's available space, instead choosing to create artificial drama over deadlines which are three weeks and two months away, respectively:
CNN's Wolf Blitzer hounded Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Wednesday's Situation Room over his hearing on Planned Parenthood's federal funding, and carried water for the abortion giant. Blitzer quibbled over a chart that was used at the hearing that showed the increase in abortions that Planned Parenthood did, and a concurrent decrease in the number of cancer screenings and other preventive services it does. He then touted a chart from the left-wing Vox site that supposedly "gives a more accurate reflection of what was going on."
On Wednesday's CNN Newsroom, anchor Carol Costello defended federal funding for Planned Parenthood in a segment which included conservative CNN commentator S.E. Cupp and liberal CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill supposedly for balance, but was so slanted to the left that Cupp quipped that "I love doing your show because I know I'll get to debate two liberals."
On Wednesday's New Day on CNN, co-anchor Alisyn Camerota repeatedly fretted over the possibility that cutting off federal funding of Planned Parenthood would make it difficult for women to get abortions. In one segment, she asserted that, in doing so, "obviously it does take away a woman's right to choose."
In a later segment, she suggested that defunding Planned Parenthood would lead women to have abortions "in a more desperate way," and, speaking to GOP Rep. Diane Black, demanded: "Is that what you want for American women?" As he plugged the first segment on the issue at 6:16 a.m., co-anchor Chris Cuomo tagged Planned Parenthood's activities as "lawful," as if this characterization were not in dispute: Cuomo:
As Representative Daniel Webster appeared as a guest on Tuesday's New Day on CNN to discuss his intention to run for Speaker of the House of Representatives, substitute co-host John Berman pressed the Florida Republican to vow to work against a government shutdown in the face of calls by some GOPers to defund Planned Parenthood.
On Monday's New Day on CNN, anchor Chris Cuomo complained about Republicans wanting to defund Planned Parenthood as he questioned the "urgency" of doing so "before you investigate the allegations," leading guest and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to decry the "grotesque" revelations about the abortion provider.
During a discussion of House Speaker John Boehner's announced resignation and the impact it could have on whether there is a government shutdown as Republicans try to defund Planned Parenthood, Cuomo fretted:
During a live NBC special report minutes after Pope Francis concluded his address to Congress on Thursday, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd hailed the speech and hoped it would prevent a possible government shutdown over defunding Planned Parenthood: “I can’t help – and I apologize for bringing in crass politics into this, but we are six days from the government possibly shutting down and I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear the Pope give these words.”
Hannibal’s gone, but there’s still plenty of horrifying content on television. Cox hinted in a Monday column that some of it’s on C-SPAN, courtesy of congressional Republicans.
Regarding a possible government shutdown over funding for Planned Parenthood, Cox asserted, “Forget shrinking government to the size it can be drowned in a bathtub, the politicians clamoring for another shutdown want government done away with in the most gruesome manner possible—perhaps those Planned Parenthood videos are the inspiration for their actions in more ways than one.”
In a near 180-degree reversal to his interview the previous evening with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Democratic presidential candidate and socialist Bernie Sanders found himself on Friday’s CBS This Morning being repeatedly slammed from the right by co-host Norah O’Donnell on his far-left tax plans and hope for a universal health care system.