In preparation for Democrats possibly losing control of the Senate in the midterm election, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd and his panel actually tried to preemptively spin such a defeat as a good thing for the Democratic Party. On Sunday, Todd proclaimed: "What everybody in Washington knows but won't say, and that is, secretly...I'm convinced, I think we know this, Hillary Clinton would love to see the Senate in Republican hands going into 2016, wouldn't she?" [Listen to the audio]
Politico's Jim VandeHei agreed: "I think a lot of Democrats would. They never say it in public. Because everybody knows virtually nothing is going to happen over the next two years, and Democrats, Hillary Clinton in particular, would love Republicans, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, to actually have to take ownership of some of the dysfunction."
Mike Murphy
On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, moderator David Gregory lobbed this softball to Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez about the immigration bill being debated in Congress: "...are you going to be able to overcome conservative opposition to the idea of reforming a pathway to citizenship to get meaningful reform?" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Later on the show, after political director Chuck Todd fretted that the legislation may not pass the House, Gregory seized on comments from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham on the June 16 broadcast: "[He] was saying it's a death spiral for the GOP if they don't get reform done. But there are a lot of people in the House who might be willing to take him on, on that."
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh responded on Monday to comments from Republican strategists Mike Murphy and Steve Schmidt, who have called on the party to “stray away from a vision” that is right out of the conservative commentator's “dream journal.”
The radio personality deflected the criticism, noting that the moderate GOP consultants got the candidate they wanted -- former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney -- and stated that strategists get rich regardless of who wins the elections.
Last week it was Republican strategist Steve Schmidt blaming Mitt Romney's loss on conservative "loons and wackos," this week on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, fellow Republican strategist Mike Murphy joined the media chorus demanding the GOP move left: "...if we don't modernize conservatism, we can go extinct....we've got to get kind of a party view of America that's not right out of Rush Limbaugh's dream journal." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Murphy explained how to "modernize" the party: "We alienate young voters because of gay marriage, we have a policy problem. We alienate Latinos – the fastest growing voter group in the country, because of our fetish on so-called amnesty....It's a fundamental rethink that begins with policy..." Moments later, he asserted: "...the biggest problem Mitt Romney had was the Republican primary. That's what's driving the Republican brand right now to a disaster."
Appearing as a panelist on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, Republican strategist Mike Murphy called out journalists for refusing to provide balanced coverage of abortion: "It's always amazed me how the media assumes there's no such thing in the world as a pro-life woman, it's the most under-represented, you know, group in the world, we never talk about them." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
Murphy's observation was prompted by former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers proclaiming that Romney has "been all over the map on every issue that's important to women in this election," meaning contraception and abortion. Her comments followed moderator David Gregory declaring: "...understanding women's choices today, pressures they face, about access to contraception, about abortion...the President wants to – to drive up that wedge and get women to vote for him."
Norah O'Donnell hounded Republican strategist Mike Murphy on Wednesday's CBS This Morning, repeatedly hinting that Mitt Romney flip-flopped on the issue of abortion during his Tuesday interview with The Des Moines Register. O'Donnell conspicuously failed to mention that during the same interview, Romney promised to "reinstate the Mexico City policy....that foreign aid dollars...would not be used to carry out abortion in other countries." [Update, 3:55 pm Eastern: audio clips available here; video below the jump]
By contrast, the anchor's former employer, NBC, pointed out on Wednesday's Today show that "Romney did say he would instead use an executive order to reinstate a ban on using American foreign aid to fund abortions."
The Hill reported that National Public Radio has hired the firm Navigators Global to preserve federal subsidies through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The House GOP majority has organized several votes and bills to defund public broadcasting, and Navigators Global is a lobbying shop chock full of Republicans -- the most notable being Mike Murphy, the former Mitt Romney strategist.
NPR chief marketing officer Dana Davis Rehm told the newspaper "It is part of our mission to represent the interests of NPR member stations to Congress, executive, regulatory and judicial bodies." That's in part because NPR gets its funds from member stations sending in money for programming. Rehm sang the usual song about how public radio is such an effective way to spend taxpayer money:
No love on the Sunday morning television talk shows for Rush Limbaugh, not even a mild defense as the unifying theme was disappointment in Mitt Romney for not denouncing the leading national conservative talk radio host. “The problem with Rush Limbaugh,” NBC News White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie complained in pretending to care about the fate of Republicans, “is that he re-framed the debate on Democrat’s terms” and “Romney lost an opportunity there to speak out forcefully against” Limbaugh which “would have shown some political courage, some backbone and ultimately,” she argued, “that would help him with conservatives.”
Meet the Press host David Gregory jumped in to assert “Sister Souljah’s not just a rap reference, it’s a political reference.” He cued up Republican strategist/Romney backer Mike Murphy: “Was this a ‘Sister Souljah Moment’ that Romney missed?” Murphy, naturally, agreed as he added in a snarky shot at Limbaugh: “It could have been and it should have been. The big myth about Rush Limbaugh is he can’t deliver a pizza let alone a vote.”
Given his high unfavorable rating, Newt Gingrich “cannot win a national election,” MSNBC’s very liberal host Lawrence O’Donnell insisted early Saturday night when it became clear Gingrich would win the South Carolina primary, “it’s impossible.” O’Donnell’s assessment, however, is held beyond left-wingers animating MSNBC shows.
Saturday night, Fox News veteran Brit Hume asserted: “Republicans in Congress will be terrified to run with this man for fear they will lose the House and the Senate.” Sunday morning on ABC, George Will imagined “people are waking up who are running for office as Republicans – from dog-catcher to Senate – and they’re saying, ‘good God, Newt Gingrich might be at top of this ticket.’”
White House senior adviser David Plouffe said on Sunday's Meet the Press that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney "has no core" and would say "the sky was green and the grass was blue to win an election."
After Republican strategist Mike Murphy took exception with these comments during the program's roundtable segment, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw came to Plouffe's defense (video follows with transcript and commentary):
One of the iron laws of liberal media bias in every electoral cycle is that moderates are more electable than "ultraconservatives," and when moderates lose (John McCain, Bob Dole, Gerald Ford), the law is never junked. Naturally, Time magazine turned to McCain consultant Mike Murphy for a column that mocked the electoral chances of Michele Bachmann for President:
Liberals already nervous about the President’s failures on the economy and his cynical wiggling on gay marriage now curse at a new villain on their television screens, secretly hoping Tina Fey does something and quick, because this new GOP bogeywoman seems far more polished, and therefore more worrisome, than Palin ever was. GOP professionals curse under their breath and reach for another Excedrin. Damn, they say, what is it about our party base and hopelessly unelectable women in snappy outfits?
It appears Republicans need to be read their conservative Miranda rights: anything negative you say about Sarah Palin can and will be used against her by the liberal media.
Such was made infinitely clear on Monday's "Hardball" when the host first teased, "Has someone sounded the dog whistle," and later opened a segment, "Are Republicans putting out the word that it's time to stop Sarah Palin?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):