Sean Hannity And Melanie Morgan Solemnly Vow To Put Partisanship Over Patriotism
Reported by Ellen - November 14, 2006 -
Sean Hannity and Melanie Morgan demonstrated just what kind of “patriots” they really are as each vowed to thwart the will of the American electorate on last night’s Hannity & Colmes (11/13/06) by doing their best to block a Democratic Congress in order to promote their own partisanship and personal philosophy.
At the beginning of the show, Hannity gave a teaser for a later segment about a college where some students don’t want the Pledge of Allegiance recited. The screen read “Patriotism under attack.” But the FOX News producers were willing to allow Hannity and Morgan to smear Nancy Pelosi in a blatant attempt to undermine her leadership. FOX News execs seem to think that saying the pledge is more important to our country than a spirit of national co-operation.
The Pelosi segment was clearly designed to make her look like a hypocrite by highlighting the pork she has gotten for her district while vowing to eliminate earmarks once she becomes Speaker of the House. The focus was on her appropriation of federal funds to renovate a schooner in California. Alan Colmes read from a prepared script, “Pay close attention to the bottom of your screen where you can see how else the porkbarrel money that Pelosi brought home to her district has been spent.”
Juan Williams was the other guest. I know Williams gets a bad rap on FOX News, and it may well be deserved, but last night and the one other time I saw him on Hannity & Colmes, he did an outstanding job. He started by pointing out that Republicans had the chance to address the issue of earmarks and didn’t, that they still have the chance to eliminate them but haven’t, so why go after Pelosi who has promised to eliminate them when she assumes leadership?
Morgan had no answer for that, of course, though she later made it clear she was furious with Republicans. But rather than do her part to unite the country and help it move forward to solve common problems, she opted to smear and divide. “Nancy Pelosi and the liberals in Congress are planning on spending more money on porkbarrel projects and cut and run policies and will leave us all with a wide-eyed stare that’s permanently affixed to Nancy Pelosi’s face… I want to make this very clear. I am going to spend the next 700 days making sure that the cut and run policies and the tax and spend policies are not enacted by this very liberal congress.” In other words, Morgan doesn’t give a hoot about what the country has voted for, she only cares about getting what she wants.
Like Joseph McCarthy with his list of communists, Morgan held up a notebook she claimed held research about Pelosi. One of Morgan's "findings" was about an appropriation of $5.6 million for the Gallo Center Department of Neurology. Morgan tried to make it sound as though the money was going right into the pockets of Pelosi’s friends and supporters, the Gallo family. Williams, ordinarily a mild-mannered guy, started shouting that Pelosi’s projects were for the public good, not for any private gain. “You are so bitter and so angry, you’re undermining your own argument,” Williams said. “I wish you would go after the culture of corruption on the Republican side.”
“Patriotic” Sean Hannity was also eager to make his own interests top priority. “Melanie, I’m going to fight with you for the 700 days. You have my pledge on that.” However, in a rare moment of candor, Hannity later admitted that the Republicans brought about their own downfall. “Republicans did this to themselves… There is no excuse.”
Despite that admission, there has never been an investigation on Hannity & Colmes into any of the corrupt cronyism in the Bush administration – the appointments of people who were not qualified (I don’t remember a single discussion about that in the aftermath of Katrina), the no-bid contracts, the refusal of the Republican Congress to vote on oversight of private military contractors, as was so well-documented in Iraq For Sale (Disclosure: I worked as a researcher on that film). Nancy Pelosi has not yet become Speaker yet "fair and balanced" FOX News has already begun with the accusations, the insinuations and “investigations” into her record.
A few months ago, Hannity mocked John Kerry for not “getting over” the 2004 election. “He’s a big sore loser,” Hannity said about Kerry. “Let’s move on.” Hannity should take his own advice, but I doubt he will.
Crooks and Liars has the video.
