Congress

At an open NewsBusters thread this morning, commenter "ThisnThat" pointed to a Friday unbylined Associated Press item that twice used the label "ultraconservative" to describe Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle. Just for the heck of it, AP also threw in Reid's reference to Angle as being "too extreme," and his parroting of that biennial Democratic falsehood that a GOP candidate is for…

When a Democrat or leftist makes an ill-advised remark, it seems that there's a three-stage process at the Associated Press, and perhaps in most other establishment press outlets, for handling it. It goes roughly like this: Stage 1 - Ignore it as long as you can. If there isn't much outcry, keep ignoring it. Stage 2 - If there ends up being enough of an outcry from conservatives or…

MSNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan believes the recent developments in the GOP – including the rise of the Tea Party – have shredded the party of its "political traction" in the Senate. When asked by guest-host Peter Morici, an economist and professor of business at the University of Maryland, how much the Tea Party has set the Republicans back in their bid to retake the House and Senate, Ratigan…

 MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan is apparently so intent on depicting Republican candidates for office as stupid that he's willing to make asinine assertions to do it. Today in his "Ads Gone Bad" segment, Ratigan falsely insisted that an ad by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) attacking his Democratic opponent Rep. Charlie Melancon communicated to viewers that "illegal immigrants [were] crossing the border…

When it comes to so-called Super PACs spending money on TV ads targeting swing House districts, the Baltimore Sun seems to care a lot more about who's behind Republican ones than Democratic operations. Yesterday I noted how Sun staffer Paul West wrote about a PAC running ads against freshman Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil (Md.). West portrayed the PAC's ads as a clever end-run around…

The Democrats'  "localized approach to the midterms is understandable, defensible—and wrong. The best way to keep control would have been a national message targeted at independents," Newsweek's Jonathan Alter complained yesterday in an article at the magazine's website. And what exactly should the Democrats have touted in a national campaign strategy for the midterms? Why, shovel-ready…

In 2011, the two major legislative initiatives of the tea party Congress (pray the voters deliver such a congress) will be to get a grip on the deficit, and to begin to reverse the intrusion of the federal government in American lives and business. It remains to be seen whether Congress will have the guts — and even the tea party public will give their support-for the entitlement cutting that…

Liberal radio host Randi Rhodes attacked Rush Limbaugh Friday for an argument which he never made – namely that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid never privately practiced law. Limbaugh, in fact, affirmed that Reid practiced law – for two years. Smearing Limbaugh as a "fat freak," Rhodes criticized him for making facts up about Reid. "After [Limbaugh] said he did his research, he came back…

Exploring the question, "Why Are Democrats Down in Pennsylvania?" Newsweek's Ben Adler determined the answer was fairly simple: not enough stimulus spending to benefit the rural areas of the Keystone State, which he says is "sometimes called 'Pennsyltucky'" by virtue of its being largely "white, rural, blue-collar, and poor":

Conservative Republican Senator "Jim DeMint relishes life on the Republican fringe," a teaser headline on the website for the Los Angeles Times noted this afternoon (see screen capture below at right). "The South Carolina senator's refusal to compromise has made him a conservative hero. He showers cash on 'tea party' candidates like Sharron Angle and Rand Paul, but he's winning few friends in…

To Associated Press writer Jim Abrams, the 111th Congress seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of American politics. It just gets no respect. This despite the fact, Abrams laments in an October 18 story, that it's been a thoroughly "productive" Congress. Apparently to the AP writer, American voters are just ingrates who don't appreciate the "historic" nature of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid…

To the national establishment press, this appears to be another one of those "It's at the Politico, so we can ignore it" incidents. Thursday night, before a debate with GOP opponent George Phillips, nine-term New York Democratic Congressman Maurice Hinchey "had a heated exchange with a local reporter ... that became physical." Quite physical, in fact, to the point where Hinchey "pushed ... (…

It is interesting and disappointing that so many politicians treat "faith" — at least the Christian faith — as a poison pill they cannot touch, much less swallow. Republicans often run from it because of PC intimidation, and Democrats because it's in their DNA to do so.

While network correspondents complain about the unfairness of independent advertising, they might ponder the unfairness of their habitual tendency to omit or downplay bad news for Team Obama, especially in the crucial last weeks of a campaign. Consider some of the latest stories that would have drawn much more attention and media hostility if the shoe was on the Republican foot: