John & Cisco

Aaron Schock (R-Hannity)

Angela Caputo — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:41:36 -0800

If you’ve been watching Fox News’ Sean Hannity recently, GOP Rep. Aaron Schock's comments on WIND yesterday may sound all too familiar. Listen:

Internal mp3

SCHOCK: [L]et’s not forget the stimulus package had quote-unquote no earmarks in it either. And I don’t think anyone would argue that the trillion dollars spent in that bill was any more responsible or less politicized. I mean you had $9 billion in there for Harry Reid’s train in his district, you had the money for the mouse in Nancy Pelosi’s district. I mean, you had a lot of pet projects in there. But when you control the White House and Congress you don’t have to write it in in the form of an earmark because you control the whole process.

Hannity -- along with numerous other media figures -- has incessantly repeated this claim that the stimulus bill includes multi-million-dollar earmarks to save the “salt harvest mouse” in Pelosi’s district and build a high-speed rail line in Reid’s. Now Schock is giving him an assist in keeping the talking point alive. Nevermind that Michael Steel, the spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) who first circulated the mouse claim, has admitted that “[t]here is not specific language in the legislation for this project.”

Media Matters, which has been tracking this falsehood for weeks now, has more:

After writing that "there isn't any such money in the bill" for the mouse, The Plum Line blogger Greg Sargent reported on February 12 that the "marsh harvest mouse" claim originated in an email from a "House Republican leadership staffer" who, when contacted by Sargent, "conceded that the claim by conservative media that the mouse money is currently in the bill is a misstatement." San Jose Mercury News staff writer Paul Rogers subsequently reported on February 13 that Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), originated the claim and said that "[t]here is no language in the bill that says this money will go to this project."

Moreover, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace has said that the claim that the bill had funding to protect the mouse has been "supposedly ... debunked."

The debunking of the mouse claim has been backed up by the nonpartisan website Politifact.com, an arm of the St. Petersburg Times.

Meanwhile, Schock's claim about the high-speed rail line in Reid's district is also bunk. Once again, Media Matters explains:

[T]he bill does not direct high-speed rail funds to any specific high-speed rail project. Furthermore, any funding would be allocated by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former Republican congressman.

The bill states that $8 billion shall remain available for the "Secretary of Transportation" for "projects that support the development of intercity high speed rail service" and that the secretary shall "submit to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations a strategic plan that describes how the Secretary will use the funding provided under this heading to improve and deploy high speed passenger rail systems." The Joint Explanatory Statement of the Conference Report on H.R. 1 further states of the high-speed rail program: "The conferees have provided the Secretary flexibility in allocating resources between the programs to advance the goal of deploying intercity high speed rail systems in the United States."

As noted above, Chris Wallace -- host of Fox News Sunday -- has pushed back against such claims. Which leads us to wonder: Will Schock repeat them when he appears on Wallace's program this weekend? Or does he just reserve these types of falsehoods for local conservative radio?

Rep. Kirk: "I Don't Know" If Palin Is Qualified To Be Prez

Adam Doster — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:05:04 -0700

As we noted in the Early Bird, Rep. Mark Kirk is now expressing skepticism about John McCain's running mate. When asked if Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had the qualifications to become president, the North Shore Republican told the Tribune editorial board yesterday: "Quite frankly, I don't know." When pressed further, he told the assembled reporters "I would have picked someone different."

But one month ago, Kirk was signing a different tune.

Talking to the Tribune on September 1, he described himself as "encouraged" by the pick. In an September 2 interview on WLS' Don Wade And Roma In The Morning, Kirk praised the governor for her ethics crusading nature. Listen below:

Internal mp3

It seems to be a very much an ego-free zone for her … [T]he governor also took on the old corrupt Republican bulls in Alaska. Fired a bunch of them, some of them are now going to jail, including possibly Sen. Stevens. She seems pretty fearless on taking out the old guard. [...]

There's a lot of guts on both sides for McCain and Palin. So they've got their share of enemies. But sometimes you're marked in public life by who you've taken out. And certainly in the Oval Office and generally in an administration you want a fearless team.

One day before, on September 1, WIND's Big John Howell and Cisco Cotto asked Kirk about Palin's experience directly. Here's what the 10th District incumbent had to say:

Internal mp3

HOWELL: How can you convince me -- a guy who is not a far-right social conservative Republican -- to really consider her one heart beat away from the Presidency?

KIRK: She’s obviously an unknown figure, but she has had a rocket sled of a career already in Alaska. I think as governor, obviously she does have more executive experience -- ironically -- than the three other guys on the ticket. Her big asset, though, will be on the campaign. We have seen Sen. Obama now standing forth as a recognized national figure, but his greatest achievement has been his own campaign, and being able to command and defeat the electorate and push Hillary Clinton to the side. We now will look at Sarah Palin. She did very well in her first time out when she was nominated by Sen. McCain. It was a risky strategy.

Palin is no doubt drawing big crowds on the trail and volunteers to local McCain offices, but it's tough to say whether, on balance, she's been "a big asset" on the campaign. Her constant fumbling in recent interviews and broader reluctance to speak to reporters has turned off a lot of voters:

One of Palin's problems has been perceptions of her experience. In an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted during the first half of September, 61 percent said they did not think Palin — governor for less than two years and former small-town mayor — has the right experience to be president. That view has changed little in more recent surveys.

Polls also show Palin's image, while positive overall, has begun to erode. While an NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey in early September showed more people viewing her favorably than unfavorably by 20 percentage points, that gap faded to 6 points by last week. Similarly, her net positive rating in a Fox News-Opinion Dynamics poll shrunk from 27 points in early September to 11 points a week ago.

Dick Morris Back To His Old Tricks On WIND

Mose Buchele — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:09:51 -0700

Conservative author and political commentator Dick Morris was dropping more idiot bombs on WIND's John and Cisco in the Morning yesterday. In the course of telling co-host Cisco Cotto why an Obama presidency would mean an end to life as we know it, Morris offered up some egregious distortions of the Democrat's tax plan -- distortions that he earlier peddled on Fox News, as Media Matters for America noted.

Here's what Morris had to say about Social Security:

Internal mp3

MORRIS: Obama says he' s not going to raise taxes on the average American -- that he's just going to raise them on the wealthy. But that's just not true. If you take a Chicago police officer whose married to a Chicago teacher, their income is about $120,000 a year together. Right now they pay Social Security taxes on the first hundred. Under Obama's plan they'd pay it on all $120,000. So the next $20,000 would suddenly be subject to tax for them, and that would be taxed at six-and-a-half percent or 6.2 percent for a total of $1,300 a year -- over $100 a month for extra taxes.

Media Matters easily debunked Morris' claims that Obama's plan would raise Social Security taxes on folks in that income bracket:

Obama's plan to raise the cap on income that is subject to Social Security taxes would include a "doughnut hole" that exempts income that is over the current cap of $102,000 but less than $250,000; Obama stated in a June 13 speech of his proposal that "[a]nybody under $250,000 would not be affected whatsoever. Ninety-seven percent of Americans will see absolutely no change in their taxes under my plan."

Then came Morris' second lie -- this time about the capital gains tax:

Internal mp3

MORRIS: Old people who rely on corporate dividends and utility bond interest would have their dividend tax doubled [by Obama]. And anyone who owns stock -- and 52 percent of Americans do -- would have to pay double the capital gains tax.

Here's Media Matters on the claim that Obama's capital gains proposal would affect all stockowners:

Obama has said he would not raise the capital gains tax rate on individuals with income of less than $250,000. Moreover, an increase in capital gains taxes would not in any event affect most distributions from 401(k) and IRA accounts, which are taxed as ordinary income

But Morris' distortions weren't limited to the arena of tax policy. He also repeated the claim that illegal immigrants make up about a quarter of the uninsured in America:

Internal mp3

MORRIS: What I talk about in this book at some length is that Obama's plan for health insurance involves covering all illegal immigrants with federally subsidized health insurance. And part of the reason I'm worried about that is partly the huge cost it would entail. When he says there are 47 million uninsured Americans -- 10 to 15 million of those are illegal immigrants.

If this claim rings a bell, it's because Rep. Mark Kirk similarly exaggerated the number of illegal immigrants without health insurance back in May. But as we noted, a recent study (PDF) by the National Institute for Health Care Management put the number of uninsured illegal immigrants at approximately 5.6 million. Indeed, contrary to Morris and Kirk's assumption that all undocumented workers lack coverage, many receive health insurance through employer-sponsored programs or purchase it themselves.

On WIND, Dick Morris Suggests Bill Clinton May Have Brain Damage

Mose Buchele — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:27:32 -0700

Dick Morris isn't a doctor. He just plays one on morning talk radio.

A former Clinton operative, Morris broke ties with the president in 1996 and went on to make a career of bashing the Clintons as a conservative pundit. Earlier today on WIND's John & Cisco In The Morning, he stopped by to spread the love. Near the end of the interview, the issue of Bill Clinton's campaign behavior came up and Morris made some irresponsible claims that shouldn't go unchallenged.

Citing the former president's recent colorful criticism of Vanity Fair reporter Todd Purdum, co-host "Big John" Howell asked Morris whether Clinton was starting to "go around the bend." Morris responded by suggesting that Clinton's behavior may be the result of brain damage incurred during his quadruple bypass surgery in 2004. Specifically, he remarked that doctors "always say you come out of that [operation] with less IQ than you went into it."

Take a listen:

Internal mp3

Presumably Morris is picking up on Purdum's recent profile of Clinton in which Dr. Thomas Traill of John's Hopkins University is quoted saying that patients' moods can be altered by open heart surgery. (He compared it to postpartum depression.) But it's quite a far leap from Traill's comments about depression to Morris' completely unfounded suggestion of possible brain damage.

If you want a more nuanced, convincing, and even poignant analysis of Clinton's sometimes emotional outbursts on the campaign trail, check out this recent post by Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall. In a nutshell, Marshall paints Clinton as a once agile campaign operator who is way behind the times and unable to adapt to new media technology and our rapid-response political culture. It's a much better starting place to understanding the former president than Dick Morris' snake-tongued insinuations.

Here's the transcript of Morris' comments:

HOWELL: Is BIll Clinton starting to go around the bend as far as kind of loosely using some crude language. He's always had a temper. I know that. He's always said things behind closed doors. But he's been caught more often than not lately.

MORRIS: Exactly, and I'm wondering why. The Bill Clinton that I see on YouTube now is very similar to the one that I knew for 25 years, but not in public. And I’m really wondering why he, at the end of this campaign, allowed himself to do that in public. It could be that he’s tired. It could be that he’s frustrated. It could also be that maybe the heart operation had some impact on his ability to hold himself back.

HOWELL: I'm sure he knew the word "scumbag" before, but I'm surprised hearing him use it now that he's in public.

MORRIS: That's right. When I used to sit with him and we would watch somebody else on TV screwing up in politics, he would turn to me and say: “Ooh, I don’t think I would have done that.” And now he’s doing that.

HOWELL: Well maybe it is something to do with his health issues too. I mean, just the fatigue factor gets there.

MORRIS: Well there’s that and there's also a lot of doctors who have spoken about the impact of the heart-lung machine not delivering all the oxygen it needs to during open heart surgery. And that’s something that the doctors, I guess, don’t talk about much. But they always say you come out of that with less IQ than you went into it.

HOWELL: Dick Morris, thanks a lot for your insight.