I’m home, still in need of sleep, with lots of stories and interviews from Netroots Nation to share. I began the process on the show this morning, and will continue for the rest of the week.
With so many highlights to spotlight, it’s difficult to pick out the best. But one of my favorite moments was watching my friend Jill Sobule win over the crowd with an original song she wrote for the “Freedom from Fear” awards ceremony.
Stay tuned for a studio recording of the song, bound to be our new NN anthem!
Another high point for me was getting to sit down with Governor Howard Dean for a one on one interview, which I played back on today’s show.
And the weirdest moment of the week was my run-in with Mr. Pimp himself, James O’Keefe. I spent ample time this morning on the show explaining how our “conversation” came about and why I was not in top-interview form for this encounter. But just watch the video to see his very carefully parsed and evasive non-answers to every question I asked.
In hour two, Nicole Belle of Crooks and Liars joined in for our regular Monday morning “Fools on the Hill” segment.
If it’s Sunday, it’s time for John McCain to be on the Sunday shows. Again. On his 23,000th appearance on a Sunday show, he scolded his party’s seeming movement towards isolationism and not being a war hawk in Libya and Afghanistan . (It’s a 12 minute ABC clip—I’d stick with 2:43 to 3:55) It’s a little upsetting to me that I find myself agreeing with the extremist Michele Bachmann than John McCain on this, but I’m hard-pressed to understand how it’s our interest—other than as humanitarian—to save the people of Benghazi and why that requires us standing apart from the rest of NATO. Interestingly, I think Secretary of Defense Bob Gates is coming around to my way of thinking and against McCain’s.
Besides being a war hawk, McCain seems to be a little unglued by undocumented workers in Arizona. Because you know those wildfires burning in and around Arizona? The fault of illegal immigrants, as far as he’s concerned. No, seriously.
Every once in a while you get a Democrat who gets to speak uninterrupted on a Sunday show and able to respond to the talking points of an earlier segment with a Republican. It doesn’t happen often. Most of the times Democrats are only allowed on with a Republican counterpoint or if solo, the Republican gets to have the last word. But on Face the Nation, Chuck Schumer got the rare last word on Mitch McConnell—still touting his tax cuts and deregulation magic show—and said what every single Democrat should say whenever they see a camera pointed in their general direction: Where’s the jobs, GOP? Listen to how host Bob Schieffer consistent frames the interview to favor the GOP talking points.
One of the most interesting interviews was on Fox News Sunday, believe it or not. Jon Stewart honored a promise he made on his own show to Chris Wallace and appeared on the Sunday program. The edited version that made it on air (full length version here) didn’t really give the viewers the full flavor of how badly Chris Wallace wanted to create some false equivalencies between Fox News and the “mainstream media” liberal bias and what Jon Stewart does. Stewart gamely tried to explain it, but there are none so blind as those who are handsomely paid not to see. (It’s an 8 minute clip, but I have no idea where to cut it down…it’s all so stupid).
And then finally, it’s not a Sunday show clip, but because I believe in Randi Rhodes’ oft-repeated truism “If they show you who they are, believe them.” I can’t let the entertainment for the Republican Leadership Council convention go unmentioned. They hired an Obama lookalike to take the stage. Which he did, to boos, jeers and calls for his birth certificate. Those hilarious Republicans. The actor, Reggie Brown, did a number of jokes that were quite racist in my view to the hoots and laughter of his audience. What’s telling to me is that when he turned the jokes to Bachmann and the tea party…he was booed and led off the stage. A little thin skinned when the jokes turn to them, but perfectly fine with likening the President and First Lady to Sanford & Son. One of our video crew got the whole 20 minute bit. You can hear where he starts joking about them
[tea party and gets pulled off the stage] at the end
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/obama-impersonator-crosses-line-rlcStill to come this week, my Netroots Nation interviews with Congressmen Raul Grijalva and Donna Edwards, The Nation’s John Nichols, Dan Choi, and Florida 22nd district Democratic candidates (to unseat Allen West) Lois Frankel and Patrick Murphy!