06151003 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 3 – Hugh gives live, play by play analysis of what may go down in history as the worst presidential address in the modern era. He’s joined in disbelief by humorist, columnist, blogger and author, James Lileks.
06151002 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 2 – Hugh talks national security with Frank Gaffney, then gets a preview of the Obama speech from Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review.
The WaPo can dig, and dig hard. In the “Reliable Sources” column they cover the affair of the swingin’ pol what ain’t like to be asked tough questions, and they find the perfect angle:
Rep. Bob Etheridge gets vicious in viral video — but who filmed it and why?
Gosh, that was Etheridge’s question, too, although he didn’t get around to the “why.” The WaPo charitably calls them “students,” with scare quotes, and that seems wise; lacking independent confirmation of their student status, that seems wise. You just can’t let anyone call himself a “student.” You could say they were “students of the human condition,” but that might make everyone a student, and suggest that education is an on-going, life-long process that does not require huge amounts of debt and dozing off in stuffy rooms while a teacher’s assistance drones on about the difference between schist and mica.
But let’s say they were Republican plants, chosen for their ability to enrage anyone with a simple word – a word so powerful it would make Gandhi cold-cock a nun. Obamagenda. Do you support the Obamagenda? It is a potent word that makes some people turn into Tea Party lunatics who will set fire to the White House any day now, and makes Democratic congresspeople up for reelection snap as though they’d just heard the code word that reawakened their “Manchurian Candidate”-style programming. That would explain a lot, and would certainly make the WaPo writers nod: they saw that movie, the one with Denzel Washington? He’s so cool. And it would let Etheridge off the hook, too. This assumes that if the students had asked if he supported “The general tenor and objectives of the administration of the 44th president of the United States,” Etheridge would have stopped, chatted, and perhaps offered a pull from his flask.
But no: we got WHO ARE YOU? WHO ARE YOU? WHO ARE YOU? and some lunging and some grabbing, and the aggravated servant of the public stalked off. The subsequent and inevitable apology was sullen and churlish in substance, with remarks about the “intrusive” nature of modern politics – it’s apparently okay to grab a kid and give him a headlock, but intrusive to ask a question on a public street – and the “partisan” mess the poor widdle dears must experience when they roll up their pant-legs and step into the sewers where the Moorlocks, aka the common people, dwell in filth and shadows. This would be apt if the kids had shouted “hey, Lurch – any new plans to cripple the economy with taxes or debt, or are you just going with the old ones? Because we called Lenin and the copyright’s lapsed, if you’re worried about that.” But even that wouldn’t merit the WHO ARE YOU treatment; these people are paid to pretend to listen to the voters, not act like a hungover actor who goes nuts on the paparazzi.
More:
He declined to say if parts of the exchange were edited out or speculate if conservatives had staged the clash for … well, a viral video. “I’m not going there,” he said.
Translation: I just went there, and would like everyone to now assume the event was staged. Class act all the way.
Everyone wants to know if he’ll be charged with assault and battery: no. He’s a Congressman. These guys can be caught in the cloakroom sawing kittens in half and it won’t draw a censure.
Oh: the WaPo piece said “Anything happen that’s not on the tape? Unclear, since no other version of the encounter has emerged.” Wrong. Breitbart has it. Perhaps it was unavailable when the original piece was written, but c’mon: webpages can be updated, you know. Unless you’re really not interested in the story, and have moved on to something else, like whether the President’s dog gets organic kibble. America wants to know!
06151001 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 1 – Hugh talks politics with South Dakota Senator John Thune, and then later in the hour with National Review Campaign Spot blogger, Jim Geraghty.