CNN: Sarah Palin's 'Death Panel' Comment Wins 'Lie of the Year

If President Obama or any Democrat had actually won the dubious honor of committing PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year," do you think CNN would have reported it?Fat chance, right? Before you answer, consider the glee exhibited by CNN's Josh Levs Sunday when he announced Sarah Palin had "won" for her Facebook comment concerning a "death panel" in healthcare reform legislation (video embedded below the…
Noel Sheppard

ABC's Roberts: People Will Be Thrilled by Health Bill Once They 'Under

“There's a lot in” the health care bill as it now stands -- even without the “public option” or expanded Medicare -- “that people are going to like” and a “lot of people are going to like a whole lot once they see what's in it,” ABC News veteran Cokie Roberts contended on Sunday's This Week as she blamed Democratic messaging, not the substance, for declining support: “I think the Democrats lost…
Brent Baker

David Gregory: Healthcare Bill Is Not What Obama Campaigned On

A rather shocking thing happened on Sunday's "Meet the Press": host David Gregory complained to Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod that the healthcare reform bill ready to pass the Senate is not what Barack Obama campaigned on last year.Maybe just as surprising, Gregory showed recent polls to Axelrod reflecting the public's disinterest in this bill."I've got a few of the bullet points of…
Noel Sheppard

Stossel & Mackey Blame Govt for High Health Care Prices, People Die Wa

On Thursday’s Stossel show on Fox Business Network, host John Stossel got to do the kind of show he was not able to do earlier this year when he was at ABC, as he devoted an entire show to the debate over access to health care, and gave attention to the market-based plan utilized by most employees of Whole Foods, which uses health savings accounts and encourages employees to shop around for…
Brad Wilmouth

Chris Matthews Ties Palin, Limbaugh to ‘White Tribalism,’ Heileman

On the Sunday, December 20, syndicated Chris Matthews Show – during which the panel weighed in on who should be granted various dishonors for the year – Matthews seemed to lump conservatives like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh in with what Matthews saw as "white tribalism" as he also fretted over the "birthers" who promote the fringe conspiracy theory that President Obama was not born in America.…
Brad Wilmouth

Sam Donaldson: Passing Healthcare 'Terrible Mistake' For Democrats

Sam Donaldson said Sunday that if the Democrats pass the current version of the Senate's healthcare reform bill, it probably would be a terrible mistake.Such was surprisingly said during the Roundtable segment of Sunday's "This Week."After George Will shared polling numbers indicating how few people are actually in favor of what's currently on the table in Congress, Donaldson agreed saying, "[Y]…
Noel Sheppard

Rock The Vote Encourages Youth To Use Sex To Pass ObamaCare

The political advocacy group "Rock the Vote" has a new video out encouraging young people to abstain from having sex with folks opposed to healthcare reform.Sadly, this isn't your run of the mill call for celebacy, for the video also instructs youth to use sex to get people to change their minds on this issue.The group's YouTube posting asks: "What would you withhold from someone who opposes…
Noel Sheppard

NYT Alone Rises to Clinton's Defense on New Scandal Revelations

An upcoming book, “The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr," deals with Ken Starr's investigation of the Clinton scandals of Whitewater and lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Politico got an early copy of the February 16 release by law professor Ken Gormley, and broke out some of the juiciest bits Thursday evening. The headline: “Monica’s Back -- Says Clinton Lied.”…
Clay Waters

Garrison Keillor: 'Lousy Holiday Songs By Jews Trash Up Malls

Garrison Keillor thinks lousy holiday songs written by Jewish guys trash up America's malls every year.So wrote the public radio host and satirist in an article at Wednesday's Baltimore Sun called "Nonbelievers, Please Leave Christmas Alone."Given the rabid anti-Semitism in the following paragraph, one has to wonder how this piece managed to not only got published, but also escape media outrage…
Noel Sheppard

Sunday NFL Open Thread

New Orleans is no longer undefeated. What will today's surprises be?
NB Staff

Dean's Dubious Memory: Now Claims He Said He Would 'Vigorously' Suppor

Will ObamaCare cover memory loss?  Howard Dean better hope so.  On today's Meet the Press he seemed to suffer a serious memory lapse, claiming he had said he would "vigorously" support Pres. Obama's re-election [H/t reader Melody].  Problem: we have the video of Dean on Morning Joe of December 17th saying just the opposite: that he would "not vigorously" support PBO's 2012 re-election bid. So…
Mark Finkelstein

Open Thread

NB Staff

In Obit on Late Economist Samuelson, NYT Distorts His Kennedy Tax Cut

In its obituary on the passing of Nobel economics laureate Paul Samuelson, who died on December 13, Michael Weinstein at the New York Times lavished well-deserved praise on the winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Economics for building "one of the world’s great centers of graduate education in economics" at MIT, but erred seriously in recounting his most visible public policy role. Also worth…
Tom Blumer

Milbank Corrects Other Liberals on Lieberman as 'Just Another Right-Wi

Tim Graham