Congress

After the shock resignation of John Boehner, should you fear and dread the rise of a revitalized right wing in Congress? Sunday's New York Times front page featured a "news analysis" on the surprise retirement announcement of House Speaker John Boehner. The takeaway from Jonathan Weisman and Michael Shear's label-heavy story was encapsulated in the headline: "The Post-Boehner Congress and…

On Saturday morning, the major broadcast networks were at it again in bashing the “far-right” and “unruly hardliners” in the House Republican caucus for causing Speaker John Boehner’s impending resignation announced Friday that CBS added could hurt the party’s chances in 2016 if the “infighting” continues.

Speaking with fill-in host Alex Wagner on the Friday edition of MSNBC’s All In, Hardball host Chris Matthews and Daily Beast columnist Michael Tomasky continued the liberal media’s narrative of sudden respect for the soon-to-be resigning House Speaker John Boehner, lamenting that the “revolutionary” wing of the Republican Party had carried out a “mutiny” against “a rock-ribbed conservative.”

NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham appeared Friday night on The Steve Malzberg Show on Newsmax TV to discuss the Pope and President Obama. First they discussed the U.S. News website trying to argue the pope “echoed” Obama in attacking Christianity in his speech to Congress. That wasn’t true, Graham said.

Appearing as a guest on Friday's CNN Newsroom, CNN political analyst Carl Bernstein asserted that "zealots are winning the soul of the Republican Party" as he blamed the "zealots of his party" for Republican House Speaker John Boehner's announced resignation from the House of Representatives. Moments later, as he praised the Pope's speech to Congress, Bernstein took a shot at Texas Senator Ted…

Two journalists on Friday's NBC Nightly News played up how the supposed "far right" of the Republican Party pushed out Rep. John Boehner, who announced earlier in the day that he would be stepping down as Speaker of the House. Lester Holt underlined that Boehner is "resigning from Congress at the end of next month in the face of a challenge from members of the far right of his party, who believe…

As news broke of House Speaker John Boehner planning to resign from Congress, MSNBC’s hosts and correspondents used the opportunity to bash conservatives in the House of Representatives. Late in the 10 a.m. ET hour, Andrea Mitchell worried: “...he's stepping down under the threat of the caucus...and it remains to be seen whether the more radical conservative members who wanted to shut down the…

Mere moments into House Speaker John Boehner’s press conference on Friday discussing his resignation on October 30, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC were quick to chastise conservative House members on Boehner’s “far right flank” that compose the “no compromise crowd” and “some grassroots conservatives who happened to be elected members of the House.”

During MSNBC’s live coverage Friday morning of Pope Francis in New York City and the sudden announcement that House Speaker John Boehner will resign October 30, liberal personality Rachel Maddow couldn’t help but speak in admiration for Boehner, describing him as a “refreshing and lovable” politician as he’s dealt with “a fractious and self-righteously combative caucus.”

Reacting to the resignation of John Boehner, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Friday assessed the state of the modern Republican Party. After Brian Williams wondered, “who is the Republican establishment,” the cable host insisted that the GOP has been supplanted “by the sun belt because of the civil rights passage in ‘64.” He sneered, “Now, we have a Solid South which is pro-white in the South and we…

ABC’s breaking news coverage of John Boehner’s resignation from the House included George Stephanopoulos describing the Speaker as fighting “guerrilla war” against conservatives.  Analyst Cokie Roberts on Friday lamented “But it is going to be much, much harder for President Obama to make deals with the Republicans in Congress.”

An hour before news broke that House Speaker John Boehner would be resigning from Congress at the end of October, on CBS This Morning, Face the Nation moderator John Dickerson declared that the Republican leader “had the high and the low yesterday, spending time with the Pope and then three hours with those conservatives who are giving him a lot of trouble on trying to keep the government open…

Brian Williams, now demoted to breaking news anchor for MSNBC, on Friday lamented that John Boehner had to “put up” with the Tea Party as Speaker of the House. His colleague Chris Matthews cheered, “Everybody likes John Boehner. I can tell you the media like him.” Talking to NBC political editor Mark Murray, Williams blurted, “Talk about what John Boehner has had to put up that is unique to his…

Liberal Esquire political columnist Charles Pierce, formerly with the Boston Globe, joined MSNBC’s All In on Thursday during live coverage of Pope Francis’s visit to New York City and used the occasion of the Pope’s speech hours earlier before Congress to lash out at Ted Cruz and conservatives for not endorsing climate change or other liberal social issues as does the Pontiff.