Republican To Republican … JoeScarborough Calls Out Tim Pawlenty On Death Panel Claim

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican who is fighting to keep himself in the national spotlight for a possible run at the White House in 2012, looked downright pathetic while interviewed by a fellow Republican, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. The subject was this ridiculous notion of so-called death panels that far-right conservatives have been aggressively pushing. This partisan showing will come back to haunt him if he does attempt to put together a campaign for the White House. He is going to be called out for using the politics of fear and distortion to campaign against health care. Scarborough appropriately spanked Pawlenty for these scare tactics about death panels and repeatedly tried to get the governor to explain where in the bill death panels were talked about. Then, Pawlenty (blindly partisan) was pretty much schooled by Scarborough on the differences between a so-called death panel (a scare tactic) and end-of-life counseling and had to concede that there is really no death panel stuff in this proposed legislation (although he does try to continue to imply there is something indirect … still a scare tactic).

Media Matters for America:
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200909110004

An Interesting Perspective From Joe Scarborough

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough made interesting comments that Think Progress has reported today. Scarborough, who I do not always agree with, seems to take a stance opposite of political partisan parrots like right-winger Mitt Romney (who will say just about anything to appease the far right).

Here is an excerpt that includes the comments from Scarborough:

Later on Meet the Press, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough seemed to rebut these right-wing claims, suggesting that President Obama’s outreach in Cairo “scared” the Iranian leaders into fixing the election:

SCARBOROUGH: You know, the law of unintended consequences came in again. I suspect that Cairo speech really scared the grand ayatollahs in Iran. If they were going to fix an election, this was the time to fix it, because the last thing they wanted to do was Barack Obama take credit for reformers winning in Iran, like they already have in Lebanon. And by the way, in the short term that’s bad news for us. I think in the long term, though – if the ayatollahs are seen stealing an election, as a result from what Barack Obama did in Cairo – I actually think that’s a positive for the United States and Iran in the long run.

That is an interesting thought, however, it is a reasonable belief that he would have done anything to remain in power as president. President Obama’s inspiration seems to be sparking people to stand up and assert themselves in the pursuit of fairness, freedom and to ensure they are not disenfranchised by a farce of an election, a rigged process with a predetermined conclusion. Perhaps Scarborough is correct in that this (what appears to some people to be a huge power grab) could spark people to continue to pursue change after being victimized by a process a large number of people see as crooked. If President Obama’s words have made people hungry for change then that seems to me to potentially be a positive.

Think Progress:
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/14/neocons-blame-obama-iran/

I Am Mr. Scarborough, Your Host … Welcome To Fantasy Island

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough apparently is beginning his cable television news version of the old television show Fantasy Island. All I could do is shake my head listening to Scarborough and others on his show talk themselves into believing that the Democrats are “weaker” than the Republicans if you factor President Obama out of the equation. First of all, that really makes no sense. That would be like saying other NBA teams are stronger than the Cleveland Cavaliers if you factor LeBron James out of the equation. Secondly, even if you factor out President Obama … it’s still quite a stretch to contend Democrats are in a weaker state than Republicans when you look at the numbers in the Senate, the House of Representatives, who’s in the White House and how soundly Republicans were pounded in the November election. Not to pile on Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, but the Democratic runner-up, current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, would have won by probably the same margin as Barack Obama.

Much like Media Matters, I find myself struggling to understand the basis for Scarborough’s point of view on his program, Morning Joe. I guess Joe is playing the role made famous by the late, great Ricardo Montalbán – minus the white suit.

Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/research/200905140032