Blowhard News for Wednesday.

Hannity: No One At Fox News Has Ever Accused Obama Of Being A Muslim
Last night on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, right-wing host Sean Hannity angrily insisted no one at Fox News had ever insinuated that Obama was a Muslim. When his guest said that McCain did not “accuse [Obama] of being a Muslim,” Hannity jumped in: “Neither has anyone on Fox.”

In fact, it was Fox News who originally gave a national voice to the whisper campaign about Obama’s religion. Last January, Fox’s Steve Doocy triumphantly declared that Obama “was a Muslim…raised as a Muslim, went to a madrassa.” He described the madrassa as “financed by Saudis, they teach this Wahhabiism, which pretty much hates us.” “The big question,” Doocy wondered, “is was that on the curriculum back then?”


Santorum Chastises ‘Feminist Community’ For Not Embracing Palin
Yesterday, former right-wing senator Rick Santorum heaped lavish praise on Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) on Laura Ingraham’s radio show. To explain why “feminists” haven’t jumped on the Palin bandwagon, Santorum declared that she is “the Clarence Thomas for feminists,” whom Santorum said African-Americans and civil rights groups “obviously” should have supported:

SANTORUM: Sarah Palin is the Clarence Thomas for feminists. The civil rights community, the African-American community obviously should have rallied behind Clarence Thomas an his achievement, but they hammered him because he was a conservative. And the civil rights establishment was first and foremost liberal and then for the liberal rights of — as liberals saw it, what blacks should have in this country. And the same thing with the feminist community.


McCain likens himself to Jack Bauer.
During a recent interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Marie Claire magazine noted that McCain has run ads comparing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and asked, “Which celebrity would like to be compared to?” McCain’s answer — Jack Bauer. When the magazine noted that Bauer “is a torturer,” McCain backed off: “That’s where Jack and I disagree.”
MC: You liken Obama to Britney in your famous ad, while portraying yourself as the more serious candidate. Which celebrity would you like to be compared to? Bob Dylan? Jack Nicholson?McCAIN: Kiefer Sutherland. [laughs, imitates a voice from the show 24] “It’s Jack Bauer.” We have a lot in common because he escapes all the time.

MC: Um, he’s also a torturer.

McCAIN: Yeah, that’s right. That’s where Jack and I disagree. He believes in torture, but I don’t. He says, “Tell me where the weapons are.” The person says, “I won’t.” Bam! “OK, I’ll tell.”


Boehner forgets his golfing vacation, says he was at GOP drilling protest ‘each and every day.’
Last month, House conservatives engaged in a political stunt in the Capitol, demanding a vote on oil drilling while Congress was adjourned for recess. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), however, was absent for part of the protest, squeezing in a couple of rounds of golf in Ohio while his colleagues were in Washington. Speaking today on the floor, Boehner claimed he was there “each and every day”:

Well, Mr. Speaker, let me say welcome to my Democratic colleagues. Welcome to the House. … While you all were out, I and my Republican colleagues were here each and every day with the lights dimmed, the microphones off, no one in the chair, the cameras off, talking to visitors who were coming through the Capitol about our plan to produce all of the above.


FOX “News Analyst” attacks MSNBC for bias, especially the “lesbian Air America host”
Brent Budosky at The Hill:

Even by the low standards of the Republican News Network, this morning’s attack on Rachel Maddow, on the Fox News network, as a “lesbian Air America host” was a despicable new low. Those words, an open appeal to bigotry and hate, [were] said by an alleged media analyst named Tim Graham… This is sick and despicable stuff, even for Fox News.

Here is a message to Barack Obama: You need to spend more time fighting back against the lies and smears of a Swift Boat campaign more ugly than the campaign against John Kerry, and less time having sweet-talk meetings with Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes followed by professorial discourse with Bill O’Reilly. This is war, Barack, and you had better fight back.

McLaughlin Group: Monica Crowley is One Excited Palin Groupie
MS. CROWLEY: She is Ann-Margret in “Kitten with a Whip.” (Laughter.) She is fabulous, okay? And it raises the question, where has she been? The Republican Party has been craving somebody new and fresh and dynamic.

MS. CROWLEY: …[McCain] pulled off the nearly impossible here with the selection of Sarah Palin and in his speech, which is that he has rebranded the Republican Party as populist, as reformist, anti-establishment, anti- corruption, and — dare I say it — hip and cool…