Florida Rep. Putnam, who has no credibility, sicced on Pelosi again
Reported by Chrish - March 29, 2007 -
Apparently Big Story host John Gibson was so pleased with the performance delivered by Adam Putnam back in February that he was invited back to take some more shots at Speaker Pelosi today 3/29/07. Unfortunately for Putnam, his accusations of Pelosi's "arrogance of extravagance" were immediately exposed as baseless when the House Sergeant-at-Arms, Bill Livingood, explained that he had recommended the larger plane for security reasons.
Putnam even admitted. after Livingood's press release, that he didn't really know what he was talking about, yet had jumped on it aggressively for political purposes:
"(Putnam) acknowledge(d) he had no personal knowledge of any Pelosi request. He said he was commenting on an anonymously-sourced story in The Washington Times and additional coverage from CNN."This was a classic case where the media got out in front of us," Putnam said. "Did we jump on it? Yes."
And he is unapologetic about that. He calls the Pelosi plane story, whatever its legitimacy, "the first break [Republicans] have had from the media in driving our message since before the Mark Foley story broke
So this guy has no legitimacy, no credibility, to be commenting on Nancy Pelosi again, as he has already proven he will fling whatever he can at her and hope something sticks. No matter, FOX invites him back.
Today Putnam wasted no time in laying on the rhetoric. He accused Democrats of
"unveiling a new version of their slow bleed strategy, where they hamstring our commanders on the ground. They try to dictate the decisions that are being made thousands of miles from Washington D.C. in an effort to keep their own fragile caucus taped together, using baling wire and basically the pork that they loaded onto this bill in order to have some charade of unity."(It appears he's a student at the Michelle Malkin School of Ridiculous Hyperbole.)
In answer to Gibson's question about Democratic unity, Putnam said it was very fragile. He alluded to the "pork" added to the bill, noting it was for non-defense spending, inferring that this was solely a defense spending bill. It is actually an emergency supplemental spending bill, and the "pork" was mostly spending that's mandated by law, some of which was not taken care of by the previous Congress. Working on a compromise bill will further weaken their "parchwork".
Gibson smoothly steered him back to Pelosi ("Nancy Pelosi is who we're talking about, Congressman.") Gibson asked if she's got the votes to override Bush's veto, and Putnam said he doesn't believe she does, by any stretch. Putnam said he was with Bush this morning ( he and the rest of the Republicans in the House), and Bush didn't use any overheated rhetoric. He just reiterated his concerns about second-guessing the commanders and tying their hands, and sending a telegraph straight to our enemies about what day and time the US will be leaving - not any rhetoric at all. Putnam doesn't understand where Pelosi is coming from, telling Bush to "calm down."
Again one has to ask, after he got things so terribly wrong just last month, why would FOX have him on again to attack the same person? The Tampa Tribune said it best: Putnam Emerges As GOP's Top Aggressor. He's a natural for FOX.
