Oh man. I HATE it when I'm having problems with my Sirius radio. Hate. It. My ONLY backup on regular radio is local station WWWT, which, between 10am-noon EST, carries the Stephanie Miller show (LOVE it). The problem is, I'll get somewhere at about 11:30ish and turn the car off and go inside to wherever it is I'm going, and then I'll come back out sometime after noon only to find...
BILL-O. His horrible Radio-factor show is on immediately following Stephanie Miller. If I'm physically IN the car when this change takes place, I'll switch over to local news radio. But today, I got back in the car at about 12:10pm and there it was - the Bill-O show. And what he was saying was so hilarious yet, at the same time, so ridiculous, I couldn't switch off.
Follow me over the fold.
I went to the odious home on the internets of Bill O'Reilly (note that Daily Kos is FEATURED on Bill-O's front page. Heh.) to try to find an actual transcript, but no luck. So, I'm going to have to go on my memory.
The first issue up on his show is mentioned in a print teaser on his website:
Obama lets McCain insult slide
A left-wing radio talk show host introducing Senator Obama at a rally calls John McCain a "warmonger," but the Illinois senator is slow to repudiate his sentiments. Is this a stumble that will embarrass the Obama campaign, or will the mainstream press give it a pass? Weigh in on surrogates and insults in the first hour of the Radio Factor.
See, his whole point was that Obama basically is not exhibiting the same amount of character as did John McCain in another situation where a radio talk show host appeared at a campaign event and said things from which the candidate distanced himself.
In the case of McCain, it was whack-job Bill Cunningham who repeatedly referred to Barack Obama as "Barack HUSSEIN Obama" in some kind of infantile attempt to plant fear into voters (see here for a link to the original incident as covered in the New York Times Caucus blog).
In the case of Obama, the "flap" Bill-O refers to occurred when Ed Schultz was warming up the crowd at an Obama campaign event and referred to John McCain as a "warmonger".
Bill-O asserts that the two incidents are precisely the same and that Obama's failure to personally repudiate the comments of Schultz either shows him to simply be a lesser man than John McCain OR shows some underlying, conspiratorial reason that the average peon couldn't possibly see without the help of... Bill-O.
See, Bill-O went on to explain that the reason Obama didn't personally repudiate the comments of Ed Schultz was because he is beholden to "far left blogs" and other interests, all of whom are aligned and control Obama. He said that lefty blogs and George Soros and MoveOn wield such power and provide such enormous fundraising that Obama simply can't afford to come out and repudiate the comments of Schultz and risk offending the radical (and apparently fragile) left wing blogosphere (and other interests). This, to Bill-O, is the only explanation for why righteous repudiation did not occur. He's unsure whether or not repudiation can occur once Obama has broken free of the apparent choke-hold we (and George Soros and MoveOn) have on his campaign.
Giggle.
WTF - I'm feeling magnanimous today. Let's help Bill-O out. Let's start things really simply and break it down to the two actual phrases/words used by the two radio hosts.
Cunningham: "Barack HUSSEIN Obama"
Schultz: "Warmonger"
Try this. Finish this sentence with either of the two above:
Is [insert candidate name] a [insert radio host characterization]?
So in the case of McCain, it would read: "Is McCain a warmonger?" And in the case of Obama, it would read "Is Obama a Barack Hussein Obama?" See what I'm getting at?
Certainly Bill-O is smarter than this. Surely. Because while he may not agree with the characterization of McCain as a "warmonger", it IS a valid question. IS John McCain a warmonger? Is there even minimal credence to making such a claim? He certainly voted in favor of the AUMF. He loudly decried that Iraq constituted a clear and present danger to the United States (not so much, eh?) in the runup to the war itself. He's was and definitely is a huge proponent of the surge, and, in fact, firmly believes that we should send MORE troops to Iraq rather than begin any kind of withdrawal, even on surged troops. There's always his famous "Bomb Bomb Iran" moment, and, on a more serious note, he only yesterday said the following about Iran:
"I think you’re going to hear more about the Iranian influence, the arms they’ve provided, the money, the training, particularly the extent of their influence in Southern Iraq. It’s pretty extensive and I think he’s going to be talking about that," McCain said en route to Kansas City, where he is preparing to deliver an address on the war Monday.
The presumptive GOP nominee said he has not spoken with Petraeus about his testimony but said of Iran: "I hope that we can present the facts this time and they would be irrefutable, and they would be based on concrete evidence."
Exqueeze me? Baking powder? McCain is hoping to see "evidence" of what to what purpose??
So maybe it would be helpful to Bill-O, in my continuing spirit of magnanimity, to define "warmonger" for him:
war·mon·ger
n.
One who advocates or attempts to stir up war.
I'd say McCain qualifies to be considered a warmonger. And I'm furthermore glad Obama didn't personally repudiate it. Hopefully this whole exercise has shown Bill-O that there really IS no comparison between the Cunningham incident, where a bigoted right-wing radio talk show host tried to incite Muslim fear in an audience, and the Schultz incident, here a left-wing radio talk show host applied a label that is at least worthy of consideration.
Support the Vast Blogospheric-Wing Conspiracy!!
Too bad Schultz didn't call McCain a "potty mouth". There's loads of evidence on that front. A few tidbits, because I need a laugh:
"Only an a**hole would put together a budget like this ... I wouldn't call you an a**hole unless you really were an a**hole." --to Budget Committee Chairman and fellow Repulican Sen. Pete Domenici, during a Senate budget hearing
"No, I'm calling you a f*cking jerk." --to fellow Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, when Grassley asked "Are you calling me stupid?"
"F**k you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room." --to Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), during a testy exchange about immigration legislation
[This one is disgusting - bear in mind that Chelsea Clinton was about 18 at the time]
"Do you know why Chelsea Clinton is so ugly? Because Janet Reno is her father." --at a 1998 Republican fundraiser