Here's something you don't see every day: a well-known liberal journalist slamming the owner of Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas.
Yet, that's what happened on Wednesday's "Hannity & Colmes" when NPR's Juan Williams was invited on to discuss the recent hiring of Moulitsas by Newsweek.
In a rather stunning turn of events, Williams seemed absolutely disgusted by the announcement (video available here, relevant section begins at minute 3:37):
When Newsweek announced Tuesday that it was hiring Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos to be a contributor during the 2008 presidential campaign, Kos told his readers, "Newsweek is ‘balancing' me out with someone that should make heads on our side explode."
As reported by the Washington Post moments ago, Moulitsas was quite prescient:
Newsweek has signed the president's former deputy chief of staff [Karl Rove] as a commentator who will turn out several columns on the 2008 campaign through inauguration day.
The Post continued (emphasis added throughout, h/t NBer Right2thePoint):
It appears the good folks at HBO must have been extremely concerned that "Real Time" host Bill Maher was going to lose many of his viewers as a result of his tossing 9/11 truthers from the audience two weeks ago.
After all, Maher even admitted at the opening of the discussion segment of Friday's program, albeit almost apologetically, "I'm not going to pretend that we have ideological balance on this panel."
Ideological balance? Are you kidding?
Here were Maher's attendees this fine Friday evening in no specific order:
Whether or not one agrees with the political views of Markos Moulitsas, there's no getting around the fact his website has become not just a powerful force in the blogosphere, but is also shaping the Democrat Party.
This raises an important question: Why isn't there a conservative website like Daily Kos?
How pathetic are the posters on a large blog when its own founder berates them for being gullible fools for being easily scammed by an obviously phony story? Such was the case with the posters on the favorite "progressive" blog of the MSM, the Daily Kos, when its founder, Markos Moulitsas, tore into them for being suckers because they fell for a story about a supposed imminent U.S.
Folks that watched Sunday's "Meet the Press" debate between former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tennessee) and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas might have witnessed the final transformation of the Kossack leader from Netroots chief to Democrat Party operative.
In fact, you could almost hear Emperor Palpatine cackling in the background.
Ignoring the actual lack of substance in the discussion, one thing was made impeccably clear: Markos is now fully ensconced in today's Democrat Party, while Ford and his centrist DLC are persona non grata.
By no means does that validate Moulitsas' absurd claims that Kossacks and Netroots members represent the center of American politics as reported here and here. However, the inanities and hypocrisies uttered by Moulitsas Sunday could easily have been stated with a straight face by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).
For instance, read the following nonsensical assertion made by Markos if you have the stomach for it, and ask yourself how many of the current Democrat leaders and presidential candidates could have said the exact same thing (video available here):
After the press spent last weekend gushing over liberal bloggers with nothing but glowing coverage of the YearlyKos convention in Chicago, the media's fascination with the Netroots continued with reckless abandon this weekend.
On Saturday, the Washington Post published an op-ed by Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, to be followed by a debate on Sunday's "Meet the Press" between the head Kossack and the chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, Harold Ford, Jr.
Are media recognizing the power of the Netroots, or just trying to assist their efforts to move the Democrat Party further and further to the left?
Regardless of the answer, Moulitsas continued to posit in the Post the same absurd assertion from his keynote address last weekend that he and his ilk represent the center of American politics (emphasis added):
As the folks at Daily Kos scramble to explain what transpired at their convention in Chicago Friday morning when a soldier in uniform tried to speak at a breakout session called "The Military and Progressives: Are They Really That Different," it has been revealed that Markos Moulitsas supports such attired military members attending anti-war rallies.
In fact, so do many Kossacks.
Quite fortuitously, Moulitsas posted on this very subject on June 2, 2007 (emphasis added, h/t Charles Johnson):
Pajamas Media is reporting that some fireworks broke out Friday morning during the YearlyKos convention in Chicago (h/t NBer Saw the Light).
During a breakout session ironically titled "The Military and Progressives: Are They Really That Different," an as of yet unidentified soldier in uniform stood up to address the panel -- which included Wesley Clark -- to discuss how the surge is going.
According to Pajamas Media (video available here):
It appears Daily Kos proprietor Markos Moulitsas is drinking the same Kool-Aid as NPR's Juan Williams.
During the opening address of his third annual YearlyKos convention, Moulitsas actually said (please get fluids out of your mouth and away from your computer):
There is no Jesse Jackson wing of the Democratic party anymore. We are the center.
How'd you like to ask him for directions?
Fortunately, as reported by Rick Moran at Pajamas Media Friday, this wasn't the most ridiculous statement coming out of Markos' mouth last night. Not even close (emphasis added throughout, h/t Glenn Reynolds):
On Saturday, NewsBusters reported an Associated Press story about the campaign by MoveOn.org and Daily Kos to get sponsors to pull their ads from Fox News.
According to Advertising Age magazine, "MoveOn has been pitching this story for weeks now," and has "been trying, with absolutely no success, to target Home Depot."
As a result, in AdAge's view, the AP bit on a story that nobody else was interested in covering until maybe this effort had some success.
As Ken Wheaton wrote Friday in an article entitled "MoveOn Gets Someone to Bite on Faux Fox Protest" (emphasis added throughout, h/t Glenn Reynolds):