Last night's debate was not just a low point in civil discourse, in mainstream journalism, or in educating the public. It was also the end point for George Stephanopoulos's fall from principled Democratic fighter to sad media hack whose only object is to please his corporate pay-masters and to divert attention from the most exciting Presidential candidate in the last 40 years.
George's descent is strikingly illustrated by contrasting last night's "performance" with George's appearance in "The War Room", the brilliant D.A. Pennebaker documentary about Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign.
Everyone knows that the three principal aides to Clinton during that campaign were James Carville, George Stephanopoulos and Paul Begala. Everyone also knows all three of them have cast their idealism aside to cash in on their name recognition to shill for CNN, ABC and CNN, respectively. But not everyone remembers what Clinton's aides, particularly Carville and Stephanopoulos, were saying during those heady days during the 1992 Primary. Luckily, we have the benefit of Youtube, and after you make your jump, I will show you just exactly how George has made his jump, right over the Shark.
Just before the New Hampshire primary, Gennifer Flowers famously came forward and accused Bill Clinton of engaging in a 12 year affair with her, and that he pressed her to cover it up.
Now, the issue of Gennifer Flowers was pure theater, a gift to a lazy press corp that ignored the timing of the story, just like they the ignored the fact that the Pentagon leaked and Clinton's famous draft records at about the same time. Rather, they ate it up. It sold copy. It sold advertising. But what it also did was side line (temporarily, thank God) Bill Clinton from winning the nomination and ultimately the presidency.
At that time, Bill Clinton had the best campaign team a Democrat could ever hope for. In particular, he had people like Carville and Stephanopoulos who could take the slime that was thrown at Clinton -- justified or not -- and pitch it back for what it was: A diversionary tactic by monied interests and lazy journalists who did not want to tackle the real issues that Americans were interested in dealing with and to push away anyone that tried.
The clip below features the Clinton campaign's reaction to the Gennifer Flowers story. First, Carville meets with Clinton volunteers, to rally the troops, as it were, to remind them of what they are fighting for. Second, after about 45 seconds of watching Bush I glad-hand the crowds and a few news clips about how Clinton's campaign is falling apart, we see the journalistic black hole that is "This Week", ABC's Sunday morning political show, then hosted by Sam Donaldson. Sam, now universally recognized as a waste of good wig support, does his best to make up for the fact that Fox News would not be invented for another 4 years, and tries to frame a point of view as one-sided and shallow as he possibly can, much the same way Brit Hume would today. Despite this, Stephanopoulos does his best to stay "on message". Take a look:
Every time I look at James Carville in this scene, I shake my head with wonder at what a brilliant mind was guiding presidential politics at that time (and at what a descent into madness has followed). Carville's passionate argument bears extensive quotation:
Let me tell you what’s at stake in this election. Every time that somebody comes along that’s got some ideas, a Democrat comes along, the Republicans come up here, and they ambush him. Remember Muskie? OK? That is standard procedure. And here comes Clinton, and he comes to New Hampshire, people here are hurtin’, they want hope, they want somebody with vision, he gives it to ‘em, so what do Republicans do? They get together with their wedge issues, and they knock it off.
If they succeed this time, it’s gonna be every time. You are never going to get a Presidential candidate? OK? You are never going to get somebody to come up here and run for President that’s served 11 years as governor, that’s got any kind of experience. OK? And every time somebody comes up, they’re gonna do this.
[...]
And you know what kind of shit you’re gonna get? You’re gonna get the kind of Supreme Court that you got, you’re gonna get the kind of four different positions on civil rights that you get from ‘em, you’re gonna get tax breaks for the wealthy, you’re gonna get a guy who don’t know what a grocery store scanner is, and everything else. OK? So let’s go. We got, you know, we got six more days to go, and don’t forget who the real enemy is in here, and don’t forget what we’re really campaigning against.
This was a masterful address by Carville. One for the ages. And...gee, maybe it's just me but doesn't it sound just like what a lot of people around here have been saying about how Clinton and McCain have been bashing Barack Obama, how when the "people here are hurtin’, they want hope, they want somebody with vision, he [Barack] gives it to ‘em, so what do Republicans [and the Clintons] do? They get together with their wedge issues, and they knock it off.
The fact that Carville has said nothing about this amazing recurrence of events--and that the candidate he publicly supports has a large hand in "the shit" that keeps happening whenever a progressive "candidate of hope" comes along, is staggering. Almost as staggering as his accusing a popular, Democratic Hispanic governer of being a Judas by supporting Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clinton. It was at that moment, I would argue, that Carville jumped the shark, and became part of "the shit" that was fighting against "someone with vision" to lead the Democratic party and America out of the darkness.
But even more amazing is the change in George Stephanopolis. Not only was George front and center during the Gennifer Flowers firestorm, and as strong of a backer of Clinton as was Carville, he too jumped into the lions den for The Big Dog, zealously (and, we know now, wrongly) defending the character of Bill Clinton on shows like "This Week" and putting hacks like Donaldson in his place:
DONALDSON: Now Governor Clinton has a character problem, but I take it that your line of counter attack-
GEORGE STEPHANOPOLIS : Governor Clinton does not have a character problem, he’s passed-
DONALDSON: Well, I mean, he’s, he’s, he’s not denied that he has engaged in marital infidelity, he hasn’t denied it specifically–
GEORGE: He has said that he had problems in his marriage.
DONALDSON: That’s right. And he has talked about the Draft, and to some people it’s a character problem.
GEORGE (Shaking his head): Bill Clinton has passed his character test throughout his life, and throughout this campaign. And he’s shown it through his commitments to real fights. And what he’s going to do in this campaign is focus on what’s important to the American people, on the jobs and the education. That’s what the American people care about. They want to move into the future. They don’t want to be diverted by side issues, and they’re not going to let the Republican machine divert them.
Now think about George's last statement for a minute. Really let it sink in. Now, go back and look at the questions that were asked of our two remaining Democratic Candidates in last night's debate. By George "I won't be diverted by side issues" Stephanopoulos. By a person who has sold his soul to host "This Week". by someone who wasted a great opportunity for Democrats to talk about the issues that define our times. By a person who openly shills for the likes of Sean Hannity and allows John McCain to get a free pass. By a person who allows Charlie Gibson to frame a Democratic debate around -- of all things -- whether to cut capital gains taxes.
By a person who has now officially jumped the shark.