Sunday, June 5, 2005

Sunday Morning Show Highlights

On Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace interviewed William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA. Schulz did nothing to help the credibility of AI. He showed himself to be a Dem sycophant, yammering on about the atrocities committed by America under the Bush administration, justifying the "gulag" label.

When Wallace brought up some numbers--out of 28,000 interrogations, only 10 instances of "relatively minor" abuse--Schulz imploded. Wallace said that was hardly indicative of a systematic pattern of abuse. Schulz claimed those numbers were questionable because they come from the Pentagon. He kept insisting, "We don't know." He insinuated that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg because AI is not getting access; and he made remarks about the "secret" prisons the U.S. maintains.

When Wallace said that the International Red Cross has had access, Schulz fumbled around and kept saying, "We don't know." In other words, the accusations of Gitmo being a gulag are grounded on "we don't knows." Schulz was throwing around anti-Bush comments, while crying we don't know the truth.

Completely illogical.

Wallace brought up the large contributions Schulz has made to the Dem party, contributing $2000 to John Kerry's failed presidential campaign and also $1000 to Ted Kennedy's up-coming Senate run. Schulz seemed hesitant to admit to the Kennedy contribution, but then came out swinging by demanding that he has nothing to do with setting AI policy. All reports come from the London headquarters of AI. That may be, but it was an utterly lame dodge of the fact that he clearly has an axe to grind. He can't claim to be nonpartisan.

All in all, it was an amusing interview.

After Schulz, Wallace interviewed Richard Ben-Veniste and G. Gordon Liddy. It was a bizarre image to see the two men sitting next to each other. Ben-Veniste said how funny it was that convicted felons were accusing Mark Felt of misbehavior. Talk about sticking the knife in and turning it! Liddy didn't seem to care.

Wallace managed to trip Ben-Veniste up royally. He had been saying how horrible it was that the Nixon White House conducted break-ins. Ben-Veniste set himself up to be called on Felt's conviction for authorizing the illegal home break-ins of radical Vietnam activists. Ben-Veniste said that was different because it was an individual, and not an administration. Naturally, he sounded like an idiot.

Also on FOX, Juan Williams defended Dr. Dean's anti-Republican red meat rhetoric, saying it was good for the party.

Meanwhile, on ABC's This Week, George Stephanopoulos interviewed Joe Biden. He was saying Dean's comments hurt the Dems. Biden said, "He doesn’t speak for me with that kind of rhetoric."

Regarding AI's report, Biden said "gulag" was too strong a term for Gitmo. Nonetheless, he thinks it should be shut down. He called for an independent commission to do the job.

After Biden, Steph interviewed Ben Bradlee. It was the same old, same old.

Bradlee referred to Felt as "MF," my friend. Since the identity of Deep Throat was revealed, I find it highly entertaining when Felt is called "MF."

Steph, Dem mouthpiece that he is, coaxed Bradlee to bash the Bush administration about silencing the press and creating an atmosphere of fear. Bradlee was slow to pick up on it, but eventually Steph got him to come around. He asked Bradlee directly if he felt he could withstand the "pressure" of today's environment. No surprise, Bradlee said he could.

I question ABC's wisdom in having Steph host its Sunday morning show. The guy has way too much Dem baggage to hold that position and claim to be unbiased. More importantly, he does a poor job of containing his excitement when someone criticizes the Republicans. ABC should replace him, quickly.

Where's my mimosa?

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