Blitzer agreed with Rep. Rigell, remarking “Well said. You can can [sic sic] certainly disagree with policies, but you have to respect the President of the United States. He is the President, not only twice elected, but the last time by more than 5 million votes of the American people.”
That sentiment would seem to be uncontroversial, but in this political era, any gesture of generosity, even calling the President “the President,” can cause backlash. Rep. Rigell won his 2012 House race by a comfortable eight points. Wolf Blitzer, for his part, is the face of a network that is a favorite target of media watchdogs on both sides, so it will be interesting to see if even this mild statement becomes fodder for outrage.
Well, you think about the sly Wolf's statement, "... you have to respect the President of the United States. He is the President, not only twice elected, but the last time by more than 5 million votes of the American people."
I don't recall enough detail from a few years back, Bush may have had a 5 million vote edge over Kerry, but in candor, I have to admit I then thought a vote margin of that kind irrelevant to the degree of respect I had for Bush. Twice elected, that too. But I will say Bush always wore nice suits, and he had a good tailor.
I know Al Gore had enough disrespect to sue the man and talk for some reason a lot about Florida, and that makes me wonder how Wolf might feel, now after a passage of time, about Al Gore. However, --
Back to Larry's having, seriously now it is true, critics: Here. "mediamatters.org" is the name of that website, so debate can start right there, but with regard to (I almost typed "with respect to" but I try to choose my words carefully) with regard to Larry, his antics and affection for a microphone (like Bachmann, perhaps a bullhorn from time to time, place to place) his willingness to say something over and over, again and again, is his way of making a point and a living, so why criticize? I have to say I find it judgmental, not necessarily at all false, but judgmental, to write in headlining an item
Shutdown's Radical Birther Streak Cannot Be Ignored
Press Needs to Detail Driving Force Behind Today's GOP
That IS the item headlining. It hints that - perhaps even tips off - a less than puffing and adulatory report is to follow.
Indeed
Over the weekend, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the architect of the Republican effort to shut down the federal government, spoke at a Washington, D.C. rally, hosted by activists who were angry that the nation's memorials had been closed as part of the government shutdown. Sarah Palin also addressed the crowd.
Soon after Cruz spoke, and after Palin handed out small American flags, organizers turned to Freedom Watch founder Larry Klayman. Best known in recent years for his evangelical pursuit of birtherism and all half-baked conspiracies related to the debunked claim that Barak Obama wasn't born in America and that he's an undercover Muslim, Klayman told cheering activists in Washington that the president "bows down to Allah." He announced that Obama's "not the president of 'we the people, he's a president of his people," and that Obama needed to "put the Quran down."
The Obama's-a-foreigner ugliness fermented by Klayman was soon showcased after shutdown protesters marched to the White House where, according to the conservative Washington Times, the crowd numbered "about 200," including curious onlookers.
How can they be that cruel? That "about 200" has to be a gut punch to Larry.
Larry bothered to put on his expensive trenchcoat (probably to avoid or lessen the likelihood of catching a cold from a microphone that others had touched and used) and these mediamatters.org folks cruelly say his million man thing, Klayman, Palin, even the 21 hour wonder of our times, all of them, couldn't gin up a decent croud of the size that often fills up Ramsey's council chambers.
The Vikings despite their current record even draw better than that. A public hanging in Wichita would draw a bigger crowd.
They really know how to hurt a guy. Consider this, later in the same item
Note also that the recently failed right-wing truck rally in D.C. was organized by a proud online birther, and that attendees to the far-right Value Voters Summit in Washington over the weekend were invited to hear addresses by birther exhibitionists Joseph Farah and Jerome Corsi.
If anyone's surprised that a proud and unapologetic birther (in 2013!) was front-and-center at a right-wing anti-Obama rally this week, or that the birther charade plays a central role in government shutdown activism, then they haven't being paying close enough attention to the conservative movement in America.
And that includes most members of the Beltway press corps.
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow recently addressed the birther issue and stressed [...]
How can you hurt Larry more, than getting off topic, the topic for Larry of course always being Larry, but this hatchet job on the poor man, it segues first to a truck rally thing, and then adding insult to injury, you can see it surely heading to opinions of Rachel Maddow.
Larry will tell you, tediously and repeatedly, the topic is and must always be opinions of Larry. That's how he makes a buck, pays judgments off, pays child support, buys the nice suits (I will not compare his to those of Bush, it would not be a fair thing and would make me look as if I too were piling on), but Larry does dress well and my understanding is he has an upscale address or two in Florida where he lives and does the work he does.
After Maddow, that item moves again
That failure to appreciate helps explain why the shutdown to defund a three-year-old health care law remains so perplexing to most outside observers. [...]
Another gut punch. How can people fail to understand Larry, and take him for what he is? He does not mince words. He speaks in cohesive sentences. His pronunciation of words in the English language is sound. He does not seem to be one who equivocates. Then this -
The extraordinary shutdown maneuver, based upon unprecedented demands, only begins to make sense when the truly extremist nature of the GOP'S activist base is taken into account. It's a rabid base where blowing through the nation's debt ceiling, and plunging the global economy into chaos, is considered a justifiable consequence to brinkmanship. Yet at the same time, it's a group where loud voices claim Obama can be impeached for defaulting on the national debt - and for raising the debt limit.
And it's a base that still clings to the dark fantasy that Obama's an African-born impostor who's ineligible to be president or to command the U.S. military. And yes, Republican members of Congress still push that nonsense; House Republicans who fueled the futile shutdown. (i.e. "There's no question President Obama's hiding something on his citizenship.")
Amidst the avalanche of news coverage and commentary about the shutdown, the birther strain that runs through important parts of the Republican Party remains essentially off limits for Beltway reporters and pundits. That's a mistake. I'm not suggesting it's the dominant story of the day or that it requires constant attention. (Or that birtherism afflicts Senate Republicans.) But it remains a pivotal flash point that provides crucial context for trying to understand the completely unprecedented nature of the current crisis and the mindset fostering it.
The media's birther blind spot is part of the larger press problem in its failure to grasp, and accurately detail, the truly radical nature of the procedural sabotage that Republicans are engaging in; the plotted chaos and dysfunction that's being employed in hopes of halting Obama's second term. (A second term that couldn't be stopped at the ballot box.)
Okay. See. Finally these critical people are forced to admit. Larry IS getting his message across. His rhetoric is being heard. The media IS paying attention. The man's justification, as in his own eyes, is established.
Vindicated. Larry, by your own measure of things you stand entirely vindicated. They, as I, pay some attention to you.
_____________UPDATE_____________
And now for me to segue to something apart from and totally unrelated to Larry (I said that and you know I mean it), this item.
____________FURTHER UPDATE___________
A modest nursery rhyme -
Larry Larry quite contrary,
How do your lawsuits grow?
By leaps and bounds so it astounds,
But no damage judgments to show.
For the original rhyme, explained interestingly, this link.