Lanny Davis

Lanny Davis Whines About 'Media Frenzy' Over Hillary Clinton, Who Should Be Left Alone, Like Astronauts' Spouses
By Tom Blumer | June 7, 2015 | 10:40 AM EDT

When they can't go directly after something a Republican or conservative candidate says, the establishment press attempts to make a big deal out of dumb things their aides utter or publish.

Leftist apparatchiks usually have no such worries. The latest example of an item which would be prominently in the news if a Republican or conservative had written something equally dense comes from Lanny Davis, longtime Clinton family apologist and career Democratic Party hack. In a column appearing at the Hill, Davis whined about the supposedly awful "media frenzy" which occurred two weeks ago at a Hillary Clinton event with supposedly "everyday Americans" in Hampton, New Hampshire. Davis compared the travails and indignities the poor, put-upon Mrs. Clinton suffered to ... well, readers will see who after the jump (bolds are mine):

Chris Wallace Battles Lanny Davis Over Hillary’s Use of Private E-Mail
By Jeffrey Meyer | March 8, 2015 | 11:34 AM EDT

On Sunday, Fox News Sunday moderator Chris Wallace repeatedly hammered former White House special counsel Lanny Davis for his repeated defense of Hillary Clinton’s sole use of a private email account while working at the State Department. Wallace pressed his guest to defend Clinton’s insistence that her employees use a state.gov email address when she did not and even wondered if Davis was “saying it's such a burden to have to use state.gov?”  

CNN Attacks Rove for Daring to Suggest Hillary's Health a Valid Campaign Issue
By Quin Hillyer | May 13, 2014 | 5:02 PM EDT

First, let’s get this straight: By very definition, Hillary Clinton actually did suffer a "traumatic brain injury" in 2012. She fell; she hit her head; she suffered a concussion; and she developed a blood clot which hospitalized her. A concussion is precisely a “traumatic brain injury,” according to official medical definition.

Thus, when Karl Rove indelicately -- and perhaps not wisely for political purposes -- raised a point the other day about Hillary Clinton’s health, based on the "traumatic brain injury" she suffered in 2012, he was technically on solid ground. What wasn’t so solid was the over-reaction by media outlets to Rove’s rather unchivalrous suggestion. To see the difference between the “pile on Rove” mentality and actual, balanced coverage, consider how CNN rushed to paint Rove as evil, compared to how Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza put the issue in broader perspective.

AP Waits Until Carney Responds to WSJ Story on IG's IRS Tea Party-Targeting Report, 'Forgets' to Mention WSJ Story
By Tom Blumer | May 20, 2013 | 7:33 PM EDT

Well, it looks like I was right earlier this afternoon when I thought that the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press, was among those holding off on reporting the Wall Street Journal's Sunday evening disclosure that Kathryn Ruemmler, the head of the Office of the White House Counsel, "learned weeks ago that an audit of the Internal Revenue Service likely would show that agency employees inappropriately targeted conservative groups" was "nervous about the Journal’s report, waiting for administration apparatchiks to tell them what to say, or both."

It turns out that the AP, in an unbylined report, waited until Jay Carney told them what to say and then pretended that the Journal's Sunday story didn't exist (the time stamp seen at story as carried at the AP's national site at the time of this post was 2:51 p.m.; the graphic which follows is of the identical story at Yahoo News):

Daily Kos Explodes, Says Bob Woodward Went 'Full Breitbart' On Sequestration Reporting
By Matt Vespa | February 28, 2013 | 4:45 PM EST

Hold the presses! The far-left blog Daily Kos is insisting that liberal reporter Bob Woodard, in doing his job as a journalist, has gone “full Breitbart” with his coverage of sequestration. Just a few short years ago, the Kossacks loved when reporters "spoke truth to power" in confronting Republicans in the White House. But now that Woodward has gone on record saying that he received threatening emails from senior Obama administration officials, well, that's a far different story.

On the February 27 broadcast of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Woodward said:

Longtime Dem Lanny Davis Also Reports White House Threat
By Tom Blumer | February 28, 2013 | 10:04 AM EST

I assume no one expected that Bob Woodward would be found to be the first and only ordinarily Democrat-friendly recipient of threats from White House officials over what he has written and said.

Another such person has come forward in the name of Lanny Davis, who among other things was a completely insufferable defender of the indefensible during the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky-impeachment saga in 1998 and 1999. The morning, on Washington radio station WMAL (audio is at the link), Davis said that his editor at the Washington Times received a threat as a result of what Davis was writing there:

Bill O'Reilly Slams MSNBC's Sneaky Editing of Romney Wawa Clip
By Matt Vespa | June 21, 2012 | 4:47 PM EDT

Two separate Fox News anchors on Wednesday took NBC and MSNBC to task for liberal media bias and outright deception. Bill O'Reilly slammed the egregious actions of Andrea Mitchell and her selective editing of Republican Mitt Romney.

O'Reilly played MSNBC's version of Romney mentioning the fast food outlet Wawa and the one that conforms to reality. The host mocked the liberal cable outlet for "doctoring" the tape. Video of both can be found below:

Fmr. Clinton WH Counsel Davis: Liberals Should Stop Cheap Shots at Bush Over bin Laden
By Ken Shepherd | May 5, 2011 | 12:27 PM EDT

This morning on WMAL's "Morning Majority" program, former Clinton White House counsel Lanny Davis slammed liberals who were taking partisan pot-shots at former President George W. Bush in the wake of Osama bin Laden's killing on Sunday.

While Davis didn't name names, he made veiled references to MSNBC and its "Last Word" host Lawrence O'Donnell. O'Donnell, you may recall, bashed former President Bush on his Monday evening "Last Word" program, insisting that President Bush had dismissed bin Laden's capture or killing as unimportant to the war on terror as early as 2002.

But Bush's rhetoric downplaying bin Laden was strategic, not to be taken completely at face value Davis argued.

Here's the relevant transcript (emphases mine, audio embedded below page break):

Larry King Guests All Conduct Love Fest for Eric Holder Despite Marc Rich Pardon Role
By P.J. Gladnick | November 19, 2008 | 7:48 AM EST

Last night, Larry King had four guests on his show to discuss the nomination of Eric Holder to become Attorney General. Even though Holder's role in the pardon of fugitive Marc Rich by Bill Clinton was highly controversial, not one of the guests had any real problem with that. Somehow Larry King couldn't find a single guest who would offer arguments against the appointment of Eric Holder. To get you up to speed on Holder's role in the Marc Rich pardon, here is an Associated Press story on this subject from last June:

The last time Washington attorney Eric Holder participated in a high-profile vetting, it was for fugitive financier Marc Rich.

The episode in 2001 became the final scandal of the Clinton administration and landed Holder, at the time the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, in the middle of a congressional investigation.

Now Holder, a co-chairman of Barack Obama's campaign, is one of three big names who will lead the search for a potential running mate for the presumed Democratic presidential nominee.

...In the Clinton pardon scandal, Holder was deputy attorney general when his duties intersected with the efforts of Rich's lawyer, Jack Quinn, who had been White House counsel earlier in the Clinton administration.

The entire matter was handled in an unorthodox manner - on a straight line from Rich's lawyer to the White House, with a consulting role for Holder.

Chicago Tribune Plays Name That Party: 'Rangel Had Interest-Free Mortgage'
By Mike Bates | September 6, 2008 | 1:01 PM EDT

In both the printed and Web editions of today's Chicago Tribune appears the short piece, "Rangel had interest-free mortgage:"

'Mika, I Know In Your Heart You're For Barack Obama'
By Mark Finkelstein | May 29, 2008 | 11:11 AM EDT

Lanny Davis let one of the world's worst-kept secrets out of the bag this morning: Mika Brzezinski's a Barack backer. But the Morning Joe host [in Joe Scarborough's absence] insisted on "taking issue" with the incontestable, and yet again cited her family's political diversity as a would-be shield against Davis's assertion.

Davis, former special counsel to Bill Clinton and die-hard defender of the Clinton clan, made his observation of the incontrovertible on Morning Joe at about 7:50 AM EDT today. It arose in the course of a discussion of Hillary's strategy for winning the nomination.

View video here.

Hardball's Haggard Hillary Promo Pic
By Mark Finkelstein | May 27, 2008 | 6:56 AM EDT

If NewsBusters were ever to use in its promotional material a photo this unflattering of Hillary Clinton, we'd be accused of the worst kind of sexism, of unfairly attacking a candidate based on her looks rather than her views. Check out the image of Hillary that MSNBC used in its promo of tonight's Hardball with Chris Matthews that aired at 5:59 AM EDT today just before Morning Joe came on the air.

Hillary, shot from below to highlight her wattles, lit like something in a horror flick about to emerge from a closet wielding an ax. If there's a less-becoming snap of Hillary in MSM circulation, I haven't seen it.

View video of promo, and Carlson's comments, here.