Balls As Big As Church Bells!

I always loved that line from the movie remake of Dragnet, Dabney Coleman was great in that movie. Republicans never cease to amaze me with their gall and in the last couple of years they exhibit it many times in a day, it seems. It is much easier for them since the Foxification of all cable news outlets has come to fruition. The latest example shows as good as any just how big those balls are. Once again, Steve Benen of The Washington Monthly breaks it down for us.

THE PREDICTABLE RECESS-APPOINTMENT COMPLAINTS…. With the White House announcing six new recess appointments late yesterday, it was only a matter of time before Republicans began complaining. What I was curious to see, however, is what they came up with.

The Washington Post‘s Jennifer Rubin took a crack at it this morning. (via Memeorandum)

On Wednesday, Obama shed any pretense of bipartisanship in making six recess appointments. As were his previous recess appointments, this batch included two individuals whose records are so controversial that they could not obtain confirmation even with 59 Democratic senators.

According to Benen, and he knows a lot more than I do about this, the “too controversial” sentence is simply a lie. All six of them passed through committees and each was expected to get 60 or more votes for confirmation. So there’s that lie, but oh so much more. That lie is simply a mask that tries to hide the real face of what happened which was summed up by Benen in this excerpt…

Knowing this, conservative Republicans, who’ve engaged in obstructionist tactics unseen in American history, placed anonymous holds on the nominees. They could have simply voted against the nominees and urged their colleagues to follow suit, but that wasn’t good enough — Republicans had to shut down the advise-and-consent process altogether.

[...]

I am intrigued, though, by the notion of “partisanship” as a criticism from a partisan. Let me see if I have this straight — when Republicans engage in obstructionism, breaking down the confirmation process, that’s fine. When the president exercises the power available to him to circumvent this obstructionism, that’s “shedding any pretense of bipartisanship”?

It’s almost as if Obama is allowed to be affected by institutional abuses, but he’s not allowed to respond. There’s nothing wrong with political pugilism, just so long as Obama realizes he’s not supposed to punch back.

That’s quite a standard.

I remember a day when the media (not including opinion pages) was a check on such hypocrisy and in some ways, prevented this kind of tactic from either party because of it. These days, the media is complicit in the charade with no shame. For the most part, they just parrot the GOP talking points which at Fox News come in the way of daily memos. The other media outlets have just been infiltrated by people like David Gregory, who when confronted with blatant lies, just lets them float around out there with no challenge. And remember, Meet the Press is supposed to be legitimate journalism, fair and balanced…cough, spit, choke. I actually miss Tim Russert, who at least did his homework and did challenge people when they showed up with a silver plate of bullshit.

I’m not exactly hopeful that the corporate media is going to change anytime soon. They clearly benefit from Republican rule in many ways. And when I hear folks on the right talk about the liberal media I can’t help but think of Dabney Coleman saying…

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