Sean Hannity’s “Great American” pal, Bill “How Many Times Can I Mention Barack Obama’s Middle Name” Cunningham, visited the Hannity show last night for what may be now a regular shoutfest with Joe Trippi as little more than Democratic window dressing. Last night’s harangue, featuring the IRS scandal, was, as Stephen C. Webster said on Raw Story, “a conspiracy monologue to rival even Alex Jones, somehow even managing to mash-in talk of the attack on State Department personnel in Benghazi, Libya.” And Obamaphones, too.
Cunningham shrieked said:
They said, "Let’s use Chicago-style politics and destroy the Tea Party." It was done with the media and it was done by individuals like the IRS. There was offices in Ohio — they were scared to death about losing Ohio — there’s dozens and dozens of tea party groups in Ohio. So what they said is, "We’re going to destroy the Tea Party by keeping them tamped down with their political activities.’”
So instead of going out to register new voters, the Tea Party, what were they doing? Responding to the IRS with page after page. And so the four million fewer voters who (didn't vote for Mitt Romney but) voted for McCain, four million less - it’s because they attacked the Tea Party and took away their ability to organize. Just like Benghazi. Committee To Re-Elect The President was all about not national security, but about Obama’s re-election security, the IRS was all about electing Obama.
Then, addressing “my friend, Joe Trippi,” Cunningham continued:
I’m watchin’ your buddy today, Bob Beckel, on The Five. Even Bob Beckel said, "Guess what? He lied. It wasn’t about national security, it was about his re-election security." And Beckel said it was a cover-up. Trippi, do you join Beckel in calling this a damnedable cover-up? Yes or no?
“No, Bill, I don’t,” Trippi said. But instead of any serious smack down of Cunningham's outrageous, if not unethical, accusations, Trippi “countered” by saying that Obama wasn’t worried about Ohio. He also “defended” Democrats by saying that they are crossing party lines to side with the GOP against President Obama on the IRS. Oh, and he disagreed with Beckel that Benghazi is a major cover-up.
Hannity asked, “Joe Trippi, when you look at Benghazi, IRS and the AP reporter scandal, there is one common thread. Do you know what it is?”
No, Trippi didn't. So Cunningham shouted, “Re-elect the president, that’s number one! …Abuse the power to get re-elected.” Later, he threw Obamaphones into the conspiracy: “They had two purposes: one, is to maximize the Obama turnout with Obamaphones; secondly, suppress the Tea Party vote. And guess what? He wins the election!”
So how did Trippi respond to that? By further slamming what was supposed to be his own side and giving Cunningham a pass on his Glenn Beckian conspiracy talk:
That is why this one (scandal) is so important, is such a disaster. Because there are people who believe that Ohio was stolen. There are people who believe that the government wants to come and take their guns. And this scandal, with the IRS doing this…
But he wasn’t even allowed to finish that thought before Hannity interrupted him.
As Webster in Raw Story noted:
So far, there’s no evidence that the White House or President Barack Obama were involved in the IRS scrutinizing overtly political groups applying for tax-exempt status. Since the IRS voluntarily disclosed this information, progressive groups have come forward as well saying they received questionnaires from the nation’s taxing authority after filing for 501(c)(4) status, which enables groups to completely conceal the sources of their funding under the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United.
But that was never mentioned in this “fair and balanced” debate.
Video below via Mediaite.
Bill Cunningham And Hannity Get In Shouting Match With Dem Guest: IRS Was Actively Working To Re-Elect Obama!
Sean Hannity and conservative panelist Bill Cunningham got into a shouting match tonight with Democrat Joe Trippi over just how incentivized the Obama administration was to crush Republicans in 2012. Cunningham claimed that the IRS targeting Tea Party groups halted their get out the vote efforts and giving Obama the advantage in states like Ohio, effectively making them working on behalf of Obama's reelection campaign.
You’re welcome. I had to wait until today to post this because I knew it would take more attention than I had to spare last night.
As for Colmes, he is actually one of the best Dems on Fox. I think he may have evolved while he was suffering under Hannity’s thumb but I think he did the best job he could under the circumstances. Now, he’s almost always top notch whenever I see him.
For Benghazi, the reality is that these guys are trying to argue about the Talking Points Susan Rice had when she went on news shows. I mean, for crying out loud, Talking Points. Meaning they’re arguing about how the Obama people were spinning the attack. If what she did is somehow wrong, then how do they explain about a thousand appearances on news shows as well as speeches where the Bush people flat-out lied? How do they explain not a spin but an outright lie about warfare that hadn’t happened yet? It’s the height of hypocrisy for them to be dwelling on this – or maybe I should say, the depth of hypocrisy. If this situation had happened under Bush, the response by his team would have been to play up the terrorism angle even if it hadn’t been proven, just to use it as a campaign wedge.
For the IRS, the situation was that the 501 c4 classification has resulted in a pile of new applicants, many of whom don’t qualify because what they’re doing is really just rah-rah for one party or the other. What the Ohio employees were trying to do was separate out the ones that were clearly political from the ones who were focused on various social issues. Note that nothing in this stopped those groups from getting their message out – it just delayed when or whether they got their tax exemption. Had this happened under Bush, the Fox News guys would be saying that the IRS was just doing its job under the law.
For the AP Story, this one is the absolute ultimate in hypocrisy. The right wing is actually taking a principled position here, but it’s for the wrong reason. They see this idea as another way to attack Obama. But the thing is – what DOJ did was legal under the Patriot Act. And the right wing totally supported that Act – when it was being handled under Bush. Now they want to oppose it because it’s being used by Obama. Personally, I find the tracking of the phone records distasteful, but then I opposed the Patriot Act from the beginning. People on the left are appropriately outraged about this for that reason. Fox News pundits don’t get to adopt that outrage when they supported the Act that makes the situation possible and legal.
The Tea Nuts will not like the outcome of this investigation, and bet your bottom dollar, this illiterate Oyster Bay gom will bury it quickly.
Half the nation never heard of this gom, Cunningham. How he got into radio is a mystery. He’s not that good in the first place. Programming from a college radio station is better than his little show.
Hannocchio is wetting his brand underwear trying to nail these scandals to President Obama. Little does he know that it will come back to haunt him. If anyone knows about the IRS’s tactics, it’s Hannocchio, and he speaks from experience.
If Benghazi, IRS and AP scandals happened under Bush, Hannocchio would defend his honor, and place the blame on those individuals.
What would this gom say under the Bush Administration?
Ambassador Stevens and those men? “They knew it was dangerous over there, so they took the risks. It’s not the fault of this administration that they were killed by terrorists.”
IRS? “You have certain groups who take advantage of nonprofit status to line their own pockets. The IRS has the right to scrutinize these groups.”
AP? “We can’t have news organizations putting our national security at risks. They are emboldening our enemies.”
We expect this from Ailes’ thin-skin lapdog.
The Stop Hannity Express encourages all the masses to continue to call radio stations across the nation. Expose his hypocrisy.
I feel sympathy for Joe Trippi, but he really is the current day equivalent of Alan Colmes ten years ago on “Hannity & Colmes”. He’s a friendly, deferential guy who is willing to discuss a ridiculous statement by Hannity or Cunningham without first noting that it’s a ridiculous statement. Give him credit for understanding where his paycheck is coming from. Like Kirsten Powers and Juan Williams, he usually joins with the right wing critique – only occasionally does he stick up for himself or for anything left of a moderate Republican position. Meaning that the usual “Democrat Left” position is anything but that. And the way it’s presented is usually pretty mealy-mouthed, where Hannity and someone like Cunningham are aggressively shouting and pointing while the Joe Trippis are retreating and sometimes even cowering. If that’s “Fair and Balanced” debate, I’d really like to know who is governing the definition.
Right wing radio has become easily predictable and so dull it could put a pot of coffee to sleep. I honestly don’t understand how anyone can listen to that crap everyday without feeling depressed or suicidal.
It’s no wonder the right is so miserable and angry, and incapable of showing any concern towards anyone but themselves.