Patrick Leahy

AP's Fram Neglects to Mention 'Filibuster' or 'Waterboarding' in Covering Judicial Confirmation of Obama's 'Drone Memo' Author
By Tom Blumer | May 24, 2014 | 9:51 AM EDT

At the Associated Press on Thursday, reporter Alan Fram covered the Senate's confirmation of David Barron without using the words "filibuster" or "waterboarding."

Given that he was confirmed on a 53-45 vote, it is highly unlikely that Barron's nomination would have survived had Senate majority leader Harry Reid not imposed the "nuclear option" last year to prevent senators from stopping a contentious nomination by requiring 60 senators to approve the idea of even having a confirmation vote. As for waterboarding, Barron's nomination became controversial because he is, as Fram noted, the "architect of the Obama administration's legal foundation for killing American terror suspects overseas with drones." 53 Democratic senators are apparently okay with that, even though many if not most of them have gone apoplectic over the idea of waterboarding known terrorists of any nationality who may have knowledge of their fellow travelers' plans.

CBS Continues Hyping $46 Billion 'Surge' Legislation 'Flooding The Border'
By Matthew Balan | June 24, 2013 | 4:32 PM EDT

CBS kept up its slanted reporting about the proposed border security amendment to the Gang of Eight's immigration bill on Saturday and Monday's CBS This Morning. Nancy Cordes trumpeted how "the plan, worked out by Senate Republicans, devotes even more resources to border security than conservatives were calling for". Cordes also spotlighted how "some Democrats called it overkill."

The correspondent later pointed out that "some are calling [the amendment] a border surge", which would end up "flooding the border with infrared cameras, radar equipment, and drones".

CNN Leans Towards Gun Control and Its Supporters
By Matthew Balan | January 12, 2011 | 7:10 PM EST

CNN indicated its sympathy for gun control on Tuesday with two segments on The Situation Room where sound bites from gun control supporters outnumbered gun rights supporters by a three-to-one margin. During the first report, correspondent Dana Bash stated that Senator Patrick Leahy "supports gun rights," even though the Democrat actually has the opposite record on the issue.

The previous evening, during the 9 pm Eastern hour of Monday's Anderson Cooper 360, the network's senior political analyst, David Gergen, indicated that he supported stricter gun control, in the wake of the attempted assassination on Representative Gabrielle Giffords, during a segment with Tea Party activist Dana Loesch.

GERGEN: ...How is it possible that someone who is this unhinged, when so many people understood that he was in mental deterioration, that he could still walk into a gun store and buy- you know, 9 mm semiautomatic Glock handgun, and also, then carry it concealed? I mean that's- if there's some cultural insanity here, it is the fact that we haven't put a stop to the capacity of these deranged young people to buy guns and then spray at people. It's just unbelievable.

Obama/Napolitano Handling of Immigration Leaves Much to Be Desired
By Cal Thomas | October 12, 2010 | 2:36 PM EDT

I was preparing to applaud the Obama administration and specifically Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano for announcing the deportation of a record number of criminal aliens last year. According to the Washington Times, "the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported 392,862 aliens in fiscal year 2010, slightly less than a 1 percent increase over 2009 but short of the agency's goal to remove 400,000 this year."

What curbed my enthusiasm was news that removal of other illegal immigrants -- those not convicted of crimes, though it could be justifiably argued that their status as illegal immigrants is, by definition, the breaking of American law -- fell to the lowest number since 2007.

Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), said that while it is nice that Secretary Napolitano believes removing people in the country illegally is an important function for the Department of Homeland Security, "policy directives from the highest levels of DHS clearly demonstrate that the administration is refusing to enforce laws against noncriminal aliens."

That bad cop/good cop approach is designed to pacify those on the political right while the administration and some Democrats in Congress simultaneously lay the groundwork for legalizing those who broke our laws to get here and remain in the country illegally.

Leahy: Bush Dropped Ball, 9-11 'Could Have Been Avoided'
By Mark Finkelstein | May 4, 2010 | 8:33 PM EDT
As appeals to bi-partisanship go, this could down as recent history's most contemptible and hypocritical . . .

On this evening's Ed Show, bemoaning the lack of conservative support for Pres. Obama in reaction to the Times Square attempted bombing, Dem senator Patrick Leahy accused Pres. Bush of having "dropped the ball," on 9-11, claiming it "could have been avoided."

Schultz was predictably peep-less in response to the doddering Leahy's outrageous accusation.
A Tale of Two F-Bombs: WaPo, MSNBC, CNN Bothered By Cheney in 2004, Not Biden Six Years Later
By Jeff Poor | March 24, 2010 | 3:12 PM EDT

You really have to wonder what was running through Vice President Joe Biden's head when he leaned toward President Barack Obama and said "this is a big f**cking deal." Did Biden think that after nearly a year of campaigning for health care reform he was alerting Obama to something new?

But Biden isn't the first vice president to allow an expletive slip in a public forum in this day and age of a geared up media apparatus. Back in 2004, then-Vice President Dick Cheney let the F-bomb slip in remarks he made to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., over political disagreement between the two.

However, the media, particularly The Washington Post, MSNBC and CNN, took Cheney's indiscretion seriously. But Biden's indiscretion - which was actually captured on national TV - wasn't seen as so serious.

Comparative Videos Below Fold (Warning: Also Includes Explicit Language)

 

NYT’s Frank Rich Throws Latino Firefighter Under the Bus to Protect 'Wise Latina' Judge
By Matthew Vadum | July 20, 2009 | 1:39 AM EDT

The serially dishonest Frank Rich, a New York Times columnist, wouldn't know an example of racism if it sat on his head. In his latest column he haughtily bloviates in an attempt to turn the tables on Republican senators by accusing those who grilled Judge Sonia Sotomayor during her Supreme Court confirmation proceeding last week of being the real racists. He writes

Maddow Guest Leahy Wants Bush-era Show Trials for 'Investigating' of Clinton After Presidency That Never Occurred
By Jack Coleman | February 11, 2009 | 10:16 PM EST

A so-called "Truth Commission" to investigate alleged Bush era crimes is fully warranted, Vermont Democratic Senator Pat

ABC Bashes Bush for Turning ‘Cold Shoulder’ to Vermont
By Scott Whitlock | August 24, 2007 | 11:39 AM EDT

On Friday’s "Good Morning America," reporter David Wright sought out a socialist, a liberal activist and a Democrat to bash President Bush for failing, thus far, to visit Vermont during his two terms in office. However, he didn’t discuss how President Clinton similarly neglected Nebraska for nearly eight years. Following up on a CNN report about Bush’s "snub," co-host Robin Roberts began the segment by asking why the Commander in Chief was giving the state a "cold shoulder." An ABC graphic continued the complaining, it read, "Vermont Feeling Left Out: Why Won’t The President Visit?

While Wright found time to note that the northern state is "eco-smart and gay-friendly," he managed to ignore the fact that Bill Clinton didn’t visit Nebraska until a little over a month before his term ended. (In its report, CNN did mention this point.) The ABC correspondent spent much of his segment discussing Bush’s absence with Vermont Senators Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy, one a Democrat, the other a self-described socialist, and also Ben Cohen, a liberal activist and founder of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream.