Friday News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-05-20/friday-news-roundup-hour-1
The GOP presidential field narrowed after Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump dropped out. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came under fire for his statements on the Ryan medicare reform plan. Senate Democrats said they weren’t ready to move ahead with a 2012 budget plan. The bipartisan gang of six that was working on its own budget compromise lost a key member. And Senate Republicans blocked Obama federal appeals court nominee, Goodwin Liu.
Guests
Steve Roberts
syndicated columnist and journalism professor at George Washington University.
Susan Davis
congressional correspondent, National Journal.
Ron Elving
Washington editor for NPR.
News Roundup Video
The panelists discuss the revelations that came to light earlier in the week about former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's affair with a housekeeper more than a decade ago and the child that resulted from the relationship:
Comments
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OK, the 2012 presidential race is underway like it or not. Race is a big part of it like it or not. 43% of white voters voted for Mr. Obama in 2008, 95% of black voters voted for Mr. Obama in 2008. If Mr. Obama was a white man saying and doing the exact same things in 2007 would 95% of black voters have voted for him? of course not. Now that we know who the racists are can we have an honest discussion on race and the 2012 election? I didn't think so.
It is going to take Obama a lot more this time to get black voters to the polls than just saying "I love you too Sister" like he said recently in Detroit.
There is already bunches of disgrunted people in minority circles saying "Where the Jobs You Promised"?
Newt Gingrich is an embarrassment. This is not a serious candidate. He flip-flops so much, I don't understand why people think he is 'brilliant'. I think he is a clown.
This is at least the third DR show this week in which someone called Newtie an "idea" guy. Can someone PLEASE tell us just a few of his "ideas" that EVER worked out?
(Other than political tactics, like shutting down the government - since everyone knows that that turned out so well.)
It's 18 months till the election. I think discussing the election at this point by the media only promotes the longer election season, spending more money. There is so much going on right now - we could be talking about more substantial things.
monte wrote:
"... Now that we know who the racists are ..."
You are right on, monte. The racists are on the left. THEY are the ones that are always dragging race into ever issue. When Newt Gingrich talked about Obama putting more people on food stamps (increased by 50%), it was DAVID GREGORY who made it a race issue, ostensibly saying that it's only black people that collect food stamps?! Gingrich contrasted growing food stamps vs. growing jobs. That's a fair criticism of the President's record.
The true racists are on the left.
I am not sure that $4 Billion in tax breaks to oil companies who make record Billion dollar profits is just a stunt. Can your panelists comment on this fact?
Also they have just begun drilling a new well in the Gulf of Mexico so it seems we are allowing more oil to e drilled in the US.
Thanks
Joe Roberts
Orlando FL
Your guests are acting as if the vote on oil subsidies was about the price of oil. It wasn't. It was about the deficit.
Why are we subsidizing big oil to a huge extent when they are reporting record profits? Not income, but profits.
Not subsidizing these huge corporations would allow us to continue sorely-needed assistance programs for the poor, and would go a great way towards balancing the budget.
Politicians suggesting we sell off public lands to finance the debt is a little like cashing in your 401k and IRAs to finance credit card debt. Short sighted.
All multinational companies benefit from these subsidies targeted by Democrats. The Dems are just playing politics and persecuting oil companies. What we should be targeting is profits with taxes, independent of what the companies do. We need general tax reform.
But more than that, we need to cut out-of-control spending.
Where are the Conservative Democrats? They don't exist. Democrats have become a party of grow-the-government where all solutions emanate, income redistribution from producers to consumers and the nanny state because we're all so stupid.
To say that Arnold Schwarzenegger and other high profile moral offenders misbehaved "because they could" ignores the example of others in similar positions who COULD indulge in such antics and yet don't. It's just that moral behavior is not news.
Can't we all agree that raising taxes and lowering subsidies both increase revenues for the federal government, critical to remove the debt that is called 'a threat to our national security'?
Can't we all agree that raising taxes and lowering subsidies both decrease the amount of money for the businesses and individuals thus affected?
Now we can talk about how the increased government funding and decreased private funding could affect the economy and security of our country.
Hi Diane,
I wonder why there seems only to be two proposals that are discussed on most of the media outlets, when there is another one presented by the progressive democratic caucus in the house of representatives. Can your guests explain this phenomena?
How do you get from Gregory's attempt to ask "hard questions" (which is what the MSM does to increase revenues), to the (erroneous) conclusion as to on which side the bulk of the racists are?
Don't know if Newt's comment was racist or not, but it sure sounded classist to me.
Has Newt come up with any ideas on jobs?
I'm disappointed to hear Diane use the term "borders" when the President said "lines" which leaves room for negotiations. I wish she would correct that remark.
Thank you,
R.L. Modell
Steve Roberts is doing his best David Corn impression. How is Palin, who is not even running for POTUS, not to be considered a "serious" candidate when she was already McCain's running mate in 2008? She is given to outrageous statements? Is this how Steve characterized candidate Obama's statements such as when he said:
"I think when we spread the wealth around it's good for everybody."
As far as I know, Obama is running for re-election.
Roberts refers to FOX News as "FOX World." As Ron Elving says that we must refer to Romny's health care plan as Romnycare, since we call POTUS Obama's health care plan Obamacare, perhaps he can convince Roberts to also refer to MSNCB as "MSNBC World," CNN as "CNN World," etc.
Why is it that commentators on your show, including Diane, talk as if the affairs being committed by politicians is due to some set of characteristics that are somehow unique to men in power? A phrase commonly thrown about is that they have a "sense of entitlement". But according to every statistic I've ever seen, infidelity among ordinary Americans is actually much higher than among politicians. In fact, most statistics I've seen suggest around 1 in 2 Americans have committed some form of infidelity.
It just seems bizarre, then, when infidelity is so common in American culture that we would single out politicians as especially prone to extra-marital affairs. Just the opposite seems to be fact. And to actually go further and suggest that there is something inherent in power that gives them "a sense of entitlement" is just plain hostility against people in positions of power without any real basis in fact.
It seems to me that power doesn't give people a sense that they can get away with anything, but just the opposite, that they need be extra careful since they are always subject to public scrutiny.
cicero wrote:
"... perhaps he can convince Roberts to also refer to MSNCB as "MSNBC World," CNN as "CNN World," etc."
Then perhaps he can convince Roberts to spit. How does somebody who always sounds like they have a mouthful of saliva end up in radio?
VanFromGreensboro asked:
"How do you get from Gregory's attempt to ask "hard questions" ... to the (erroneous) conclusion as to on which side the bulk of the racists are?"
Sorry, I just assumed any reader of this board would know that Gregory is a leftist. The point is, the accusations of racism always seem to be coming from the left. Yet, it is the leftists, like Gregory, that actually inject the race factor into factual statements about Obama's record on the number of people on food stamps vs. the number of people put into jobs on Obama's watch. Gregory did it again when Gingrich talked about Obama's policies mirroring those used in Detroit - a failed city. That's not a racist statement, it's just a fact. But, since Detroit has a large black population, Gregory took the statement as racist. This is little more than a tactic used by the left to try to control and squelch debate. The rubric is this; if you make an argument to which the LEFT can possibly bring in and attach a racial component, YOU are a racist. It's shameful and dishonest.
Reply to ecgberht, monte (2) and the other one who walks in circles-
I dunno... there's three guys on here with one much shorter leg doing a pretty good Klan job, and I ain't pullin' those legs.
Circus on sex, sex circus? I've never cheated on either of the girls I've lived with, and the first one died just as I met the second. Perception of promiscuity depends on your own lifestyle and how Jerry Springerish your TV habits are.
It is not too early to nominate Ira Flatow for president. He is one candidate that understands science. His Science Friday is now the most cutting edge thing on NPR. He can even explain tachyon particles and Japan's nuclear meltdowns. He's smarter than Jimmy Carter and Dwight Eisenhower put together, and he listens to children. He tells the deniers, with respect, "You're paid to be totally wrong." Mia and I would vote for him, campaign for him, even give $500 if he would run.
With regard to the show, "is college for everyone": Diane is one of my few intellectual heroes. Yet this was an astoundingly poor choice for discussion, and I am surprised she allowed it, in the form in which it manifested.
Not to encourage the vast majority of our populace to pursue a college degree is egregious. Higher education is to enrich a person's being, not to merely provide an economic safety net, nor an entity of massive debt accumulation to be feared; the costs of college debt were also greatly exaggerated. A liberal arts education, in particular, exposes an individual to art, music, political science, sociology, poetry, and on and on. One will go through life a different person.
The guest who attended Cornell and felt we could train plumbers or bakers, etc. at low costs showed very bourgeouis naivete, and a not so subtle racism.
I very much hope that Diane or one of her staff might actually read this; I seldom feel so strongly or am so disappointed. In our country there is a college for everyone. Diane: everyone I know, as well as myself, love and adore you. Please continue hosting your show forever. Bless you for how much joy you bring into our lives.
pancake, all you have is the cheap shot. You lefties are pretty much all the same, condescending name callers. Your posts seem to be inside jokes to yourself which are neither clever or substantive. People like yourself are no different than the ditto heads you just park your mind in a place that does not offer much challenge to what you want to believe and the D.R. show certainly offers that for you lefties.
Full hanging out microscopic monty:
So, in effect, the entire web is yours, and anyone who deviates from your way out fascist perspective doesn't deserve to comment. Wow, you are so bagger-whipped you can't hear the show for reading me. Some might think I should be flattered. If your ears are ringing, see your proctologist.