Ignoring Republican Scandals, Hannity & Colmes Focuses On Baseless Accusations Against Pelosi
Reported by Ellen - May 9, 2007 -
There has been plenty of substantive bad news for Republicans this week but last night (5/8/07), Hannity & Colmes ignored it all in favor of discussing a baseless accusation against Nancy Pelosi. When challenged by Alan Colmes to provide any facts to back up the claim, a ridiculously overdressed Ann Coulter tried to change the subject, then stumbled, giggled and whined as Colmes refused to let her off the hook. With video
As Media Matters documented, Republicans have falsely accused Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi of including in a water redevelopment bill a provision that could benefit property owned by her husband. But that didn’t stop the “real journalism, fair and balanced” network from accusing her anyway. In a promo for the upcoming segment, a banner on the screen read, “$an Fran Treat” below a photo of Pelosi.
Voting fraud suspect Ann Coulter would not seem to be the best choice for discussing anyone else’s ethics but FOX News typically ignores her transgressions while allowing her to point a finger at others. Last night, Coulter was decked out in a revealing cocktail dress – not exactly the usual pundit apparel. Apparently, the middle-aged Coulter thinks that what she has lost in prestige since her career took a dive after offending conservatives at last March’s CPAC she can make up with prurience. Interestingly, while Coulter giggled, pouted coyly at Colmes and flung her hair around as usual, her schtick was remarkably free of the kind of lowbrow insults that have become her trademark.
The other guest was Democrat Dan Gerstein who did a fabulous job of refuting the charges and putting the “scandal” into context. “People who live in glass houses built by Jack Abramoff should not be throwing stones.”
Sean Hannity looked like he might melt at the words “Jack Abramoff.” With a very pained expression, he hypocritically told Gerstein, “Stop with the talking points.” Of course, that was exactly what Hannity was putting forward about Pelosi, except that his were false.
Colmes began his turn with a great opening. “If they had planned this war properly in the first place, you wouldn’t need all these supplemental emergency spending bills and provide for body armor and training for troops after they’d already been there four years.”
Coulter started right in with the nauseating, cutesy-argument game she always plays with Colmes. “Alan, what are you talking about? What’s the question here?” Then she giggled.
Thank goodness Colmes was not in the mood to play her childish games last night. “Do you have any evidence whatsoever – talk about talking points – the talking points that everything Nancy Pelosi does is somehow corrupt, according to Republicans. Do you have any evidence that her husband benefits in any way?”
Short answer: No. But that didn’t stop Coulter from squeaking out what she obviously thought was an adorable, if irrelevant, argument. Colmes hammered away at her and while Coulter obviously ate up the attention, she could never provide a coherent line of reasoning.
Colmes did a great job throughout the show last night so I hate to quibble here but I just wished he had ditched Coulter, gone back to Gerstein and let him talk about some of the Republican scandals that Hannity & Colmes has studiously avoided discussing: the newly widened Senate Judiciary Committee investigation into Alberto Gonzales and the questions of whether and how the Justice Department was used for partisan purposes by the Bush administration; Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott’s and House Minority Leader John Boehner’s recent statements that GOP patience for the war in Iraq is limited (H/T Buzzflash); President Bush’s lowest ever approval rating of 28%; Bush crony and World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz found guilty of a conflict of interest when he arranged a pay raise and promotion for his girlfriend; and presidential candidate Rudy Guiliani, who now professes that he abhors abortion, has been discovered to have donated money at least six times in the 90’s to Planned Parenthood, one of the country's leading abortion rights groups and its top provider of abortions.
Instead, in the next segment, there was a discussion about whether Mitt Romney had been treated unfairly (Note: on Hannity & Colmes, the issue with Republicans is almost always “have they been treated unfairly” while with Democrats, it’s almost always “Do they deserve the censure?”) which just happened to offer an opportunity to give free airtime to a Romney commercial.
