Here are some recent howlers:
Obama Is President, But Blame Bush
Arianna Huffington: “George, the truth is that right now we have precisely the regulatory system that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted. Full of loopholes, full of cronies and lobbyists filling the very agencies they’re supposed to be overseeing the industry.”
Huffington: “It is absolutely a thousand percent Bush-Cheney’s fault.”
“This is more Bush’s second Katrina than Obama’s first . Because it was the Bush regulations, it was Dick Cheney’s deregulation, and lording over the Minerals Management [Service].”
“The oil spill is the perfect metaphor for Obama’s presidency so far. It’s been cleaning up a lot of the messes left to him by his predecessors, whether it was bank bailouts, auto bailouts, Afghanistan – which turned out to be a much bigger mess than anybody anticipated – preventing a depression that, you know, began to happen on George Bush’s watch. So this is more of the same.”
– Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter on MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown,” June 10.
Cutting Helen A Little Slack
“[Helen Thomas] is a bona fide icon and she is also nearly 90-years-old…. Some have argued that Thomas deserves a break, given her status as a journalistic giant and a trailblazer for women, and given her age. After all, many of us have elderly relatives who have lost their verbal filter.”
“I have known her for a long time, and she held many presidents’ feet to the fire. At a time when nobody in the Bush press room would say ‘boo’ about George W. Bush after 9/11, she was already asking the tough questions. And I just, you know, I like to see people be judged in the largest context of their career, not in their senility.”
One Last Rant Against Israel
Thomas: “Regret won’t bring them back!”
Tea Partiers Are Terrorists
Smiley: “Yes. Oh, Christians, every day, people walk into post offices, they walk into schools, that’s what Columbine is – I could do this all day long…. There are folk in the Tea Party, for example, every day who are being recently arrested for making threats against elected officials, for calling people ‘nigger’ as they walk into Capitol Hill, for spitting on people. That’s within the political – that’s within the body politic of this country.”
Reagan An Actor – Obama Real
“Can you understand why the president, though, is frustrated when people say, ‘Be madder’? If I could channel Obama for one moment, I think he would say that he’s surprised that this is even an issue…. You know, ‘You want me to act madder?’ You know, ‘I’m not acting. I’m actually the president, you retards’ – ooh I’m sorry – ‘you people who are not that bright in America. You have been used to people like Bush and Reagan who acts like the president. I’m not acting. I’m actually the president.’ “
– Bill Maher talking about the oil spill with Democratic operative Paul Begala on HBO’s “Real Time,” June 4.
Jason Maoz can be reached at [email protected]