| At the height of the Monica Lewinski affair, I saw career dirt-monger Geraldo Rivera make a televised prediction that no other "respectable" news personality dared to make at the time: that revelations about sexual indiscretions of Clinton's Republican foes were breaking up support for the impeachment, and that there would be no conviction in the Senate and Clinton would not be removed from office.
So he's irresponsible and a circus master, but he's not stupid. This interview represented a chance for a clever, attention-seeking broadcaster to lacerate Bachmann with good research and a few good follow-up questions, a la Chris Matthews/Bachmann or Katie Couric/Palin.
For example, he might have let her ramble on with her pat explanation for her charge of "gangster government"--and then asked her to define the word "gangster." (I haven't seen any definition that doesn't reference criminals and criminality. Asking Bachmann to paraphrase her use of the word would have forced her to either back off or double down.)
But we were denied that. In fact, Geraldo gets it wrong from the get-go. He introduces Bachmann as "a fierce proponent of free markets and small government."
Absolutely wrong. Like most elected conservative heirs of Reagan, Michele merely mouths the conservative rhetoric of free markets and smaller government. In practice she was a vociferous supporter of the Bush/Cheney government and Hastert Republican Congress.
She slavishly supported the GOP White House and Congress as they impacted and intervened in "the free market" by borrowing billion after billion of future taxpayer revenues to keep the national and local economies going--Bachmann never uttered a word against them. She made a promise not to seek or accept earmarks for her district, and broke it (she's currently seeking federal taxpayer dollars for a 400 million dollar bridge project.)
As to the size of the government: see again her slavish support for Bush/Cheney and its rubber-stamp GOP Congress. Throughout the Bush administration, she remained an adoring fan of a President who expanded the size, reach, and power of the federal government (including its surveillance powers; a development that still panics Bachmann's most paranoid fans.) She didn't speak out against any of this, her most famous interaction with President Bush is in fact a very public kiss on the lips.
So it is astonishing that she is introduced as a passionate conservative despite her record--as if a politician's claims counted for more than the actual on-the-record policies they supported.
Thus Geraldo's introduction should have been "my next guest claims to be a fierce proponent of free markets and small government, but has in fact supported government intervention in free markets and a bigger and the growth of a more powerful federal government."
And then right to the interview. Good first question, straight to the point:
GERALDO: Do you wish you used different characterization, is "gangster government" really appropriate?
BACHMANN: Well, what I wish is that the federal government would not have created the Automobile Task Force--
--and I'll stop it right there, because she launches into a rehash of the rationale she gave the Hill during the earlier interview. Leading Geraldo away from the charge "gangster," as she led the Hill interviewers away from the same charge. You can watch it if you want to.
I warn you that there's is an unexpected terrifying edit at about 4:40 where Geraldo jump cuts to Bachmann calmly spouting evasive BS to Bachmann screaming at a public event: "WE'RE ON TO THEM! WE'RE ON TO THEIR GANGSTER GOVERNMENT!
It's very likely to make you "start" in your seat if you're not expecting it--kind of like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" staging where the quiet suspense is suddenly shattered by a loud noise, a cheap scare. Watch out for that.
(The video won't embed, and it's one in the morning. So here is a link directly to the video:)
http://videos.mediaite.com/vid...
And so the fact of the calumny is the news story here, not Bachmann's take on administration policies. Either those policies are criminal and amount to gangsterism--or they're not, and Bachmann's charge that gangsters are running the government of the United States is totally--"inappropriate" to use Geraldo's mild term.
I would use the term "trying to sow hatred directed the elected government of the United States." Because the "gangster government" soundbyte is not "stand-alone." It's a single piece in a larger, dangerous strategy, and Bachmann and her mentors know that it is. The charge that the US and its citizens are now in the hands of "gangsters" should be placed in the context of Bachmann's other broadcast lies about the government--that President Barack Obama is "practicing tyranny" and leading the country into "economic Marxism," that Americorps programs are actually "re-education camps..."
What an interview this could have been if the gangster government charge were put in context with the rest of those crazy conspiracy theories and well-documented insanities! What a legendary eight minutes of television that would have been, if Geraldo had gone down the litany, allow viewers to hear the context for the "gangster government" charge. They would seen her avoid, deny, lie, play the victim--as she has in the past, on camera. That's real news; the exposure of a hater live on television. That kind of footage lives forever.
As it stands, the best part of the interview is "the crawl" at the bottom of the video screen which tells viewers throughout the interview that Bachmann "gangster government" charges have alienated fellow Republicans.
Other than that: I score it as win for Michele, because she was able to evade every question Geraldo asked her, avoid any qualification of her charge that the Dems are a criminal conspiracy, and re-hash her anti-administration points of view.
What else can I say about an interview that diminishes the level of respect that we have for Geraldo Rivera? |
