This report from News Hounds ("We Watch Fox So You Don't Have To") offers strong praise for Wes Clark's appearance last night.
I also enjoyed reading through the comments thread. Nearly all of them were very strongly pro-Clark. I agree, I think he did a great job last night and will counterbalance the lousy job that most Democrats who go on Fox News do in getting out our side of the story to its millions of viewers (sad, but true - they do have a big audience).
I'm not going to name any names, I wouldn't want to embarass folks like Susan Estrich, Joe Lieberman, or Alan Colmes, after all!
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/06/17/wesley_clark_surprises_hannity.php#more
Wesley Clark Surprises Hannity
Wesley Clark, new Fox News contributor, had a chance to test his debate strategies with Hannity last night on Hannity and Colmes. Clark was on to discuss Dick Durbin's comment about treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and if Hannity expected Clark to apologize for Durbin's comment, he was in for a surprise.
The segment opened with a video clip of Durbin's statement on the Senate floor. Seeing the complete statement in context with Durbin's intonations and body language gave a very different impression to viewers. Durbin described a detainee chained hand to foot, naked, on the floor covered in feces and urine for 18 to 24 hours. Durbin's point was that this scenario seems more consistant with a Nazi camp or Soviet Gulag or some other mad regime.Durbin was clearly concerned and sad that this had become U.S. policy.
Of course, Hannity called for Wesley Clark to condemn Durbin calling it "over the top, repugnant propaganda". Clark's response to Hannity was very effective.
" I'm not going to condemn Durbin. How we are percieved at Guantanamo on top of the bad press from Abu Ghraib is important. I'll fight anyone who compares our soldiers to Nazis but we have a policy issue here. How do we deal with it?"
After Hannity made his usual veiled accusations of treason, Clark calmly responded refusing to get defensive.He told Hannity that this should not be a political issue at all and we should all pull together and focus on the issue so we can find a solution.We need to look at the situation and evaluate. "We need a process."
Colmes then showed a clip of Rick Santorum comparing Democrats to Nazis and wondered why there was no outrage expressed over Santorum's comment. Clark dismissing the whole controversy said " Whoever uses the Nazi word first, loses. We have a national security issue here"
Clearly, he considered the bickering counter productive.
Comment: Clark's refusal to play politics sapped Hannity's power completely. In essence, Clark was saying this problem is real so stop deflecting our attention. Let's look at it and solve the problem together because it's wrong and the orders are coming from the top.
When Hannity thanked Clark for his appearance,his expression was somber and slightly sour.
Reported by deborah at June 17, 2005 09:42 AM |