The best line concerning Thursday’s filibuster rule change by the Democrats goes to syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer.
Appearing on Fox News’s Special Report Friday, Krauthammer said, “What’s essentially happened is that this action has turned all the Republicans into Sicilians.”
"Look, folks, we love the filibuster when Democrats use it against Republicans, but really hate it when Republicans use it against Democrats."
If the New York Times editorial board were completely honest, that's exactly what they'd admit in print to their readers. Instead the Gray Lady keeps shifting her point of view on the parliamentary maneuver depending on whose ox is gored. On January 1, 1995, the Times gave the incoming Republican majority a new year's resolution: substantially trim back the filibuster to fall in line with the proposal of liberal Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin (emphases mine):
ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today on Friday did their best to downplay Senate Democrats' Thursday move to curtail the Republican Party's filibuster power. The two newscasts devoted a combined 39 seconds to the controversial vote, which ABC's Dan Harris labeled a "bold move". GMA apparently thought the potential marriage of serial killer Charles Manson was more important, as it devoted over two minutes of air time to that eyebrow-raising story. [audio of the ABC and NBC coverage available here; video below the jump]
By contrast, Friday's CBS This Morning spent nearly three minutes on the "historic change in the Senate", as Norah O'Donnell put it. O'Donnell also wondered, "Will Democrats regret invoking the nuclear option?"
Jonathan Karl, ABC's chief White House correspondent, continued his crusade of attacking Ted Cruz during Sunday morning's edition of This Week With George Stephanopoulos, when the reporter asked the GOP senator from Texas a very harsh question.
After accusing the freshman Republican of being responsible for the 16-day government “Ted Cruz shutdown,” Karl asked: “How much do your colleagues just despise you right on the floor? I mean, I hear some really strong language from your own fellow Republican senators.”
The hatred on the left is just despicable.
After a debt ceiling deal was struck Wednesday in Washington, famed sitcom producer Norman Lear published an article at the Huffington Post wherein he expressed faux concern that conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh had exploded as a result.
The Obama-loving media couldn't wait to report findings from an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll concerning how the public are giving far more blame for the government shutdown to Republicans than the President.
What they chose not to report was that 51 percent of respondents in the very same poll said of Barack Obama, "He is putting his own political agenda ahead of what's good for the country":
Just hours before the Senate voted to approve a measure that was passed by the House on Wednesday in a 425-0 vote to restore the death benefits paid to the families of fallen soldiers, liberal radio talk show host Bill Press showed his true colors when he said it would be a “big mistake” for the government to do that because “once the government starts making special exceptions, it allows the shutdown to continue.”
In a stumble similar to one Senate majority leader Harry Reid made last week, when the Nevada Democrat accused CNN reporter Dana Bash of being “irresponsible” and “reckless” for asking if he would help “one child who has cancer” and is receiving treatment through the NIH, Press stated: “When you shut down the government, a lot of great things are not going to get done, and why should we make an exception for those that just happen to pop up and get a lot of media attention?”
Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer smells a rat concerning the current negotiations over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling.
Appearing on Fox News’s Special Report, Krauthammer said, “I suspect a bait and switch here on the part of the Obama administration.”
In recent days you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some media member or politician blaming the Koch brothers for the government shutdown.
On Wednesday, Koch Industries sent a letter to a number of people on Capitol Hill trying to set the record straight while attempting to end the misinformation campaign (published with permission):
President Obama has pretty much completely outsourced his negotiations on the government shutdown to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), a move which pleases hard-core liberals in Congress, reported Alexander Bolton of The Hill this morning.
"This is a welcome change for Democrats who thought Obama was too accommodating to Republicans during previous crises," Bolton noted, adding, "Simply put, they believe less is more when it comes to Obama’s involvement in negotiations with the GOP" (emphasis mine):
In a story published early this morning by Manu Raju at the Politico which is primarily about Senate Majority Harry Reid's plans to aggressively pursue reelection in 2016, the Nevada senator took shots at the establishment press for "trying so hard to be fair that you are unfair."
Proving Reid wrong in real time, Raju failed to mention Reid's response last week to a question by Dana Bash at CNN — which by the way, as Matt Hadro at NewsBusters noted earlier today, has been pounding Republicans ever since as if to compensate. Bash asked Reid if it would be worth it to continue to fund clinical trials at the National Institutes of Health if doing so could help one child with cancer. His answer, on tape: "Why would we want to do that?" Excerpts from the Raju's report follow the jump (HT Ed Driscoll; bolds are mine):
Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada is closed during the 17% government shutdown.
That was also the case during the last major government shutdown in 1995-1996, but private homeowners on the area's land were allowed to stay. Not this time. In a development which the national establishment press has ignored, a Democratic presidential administration is doing what it has constantly told the American people Republicans would do: kick elderly people out of their homes. Excerpts from the related Saturday evening Las Vegas Journal-Review report follow the jump (HT Twitchy; bolds are mine):