For The Love of Lou, Part 2

Come on, Lou and your suddenly centrist gaggle of CNN goose steppers.. One minute you're making sense and I'm listening, but then you roll out the same habitual verbiage that doesn't seem connected to reality. It's time to put your knee jerk recycled criticisms of the Democrats to rest. It seems that no matter what goes down, you insist on claiming that the Democrats have "no plan, no message, no solution" on damn near everything. Granted these plans are not always heard and in the case of some lawmakers the ideas don't even make it to the table much less to debate. But why the relentless insistence on this point? And when there ARE plans, they aren't even mentioned? What about plans that actually speak to some of Lou's pet rants-like freight inspection? Why did he not even acknowledge their attempts to include this crucial security issue neglected by the infallible Republicrats???What gives? The media just keep repeating the same lines over and over and it doesn't seem to matter what the party does, and we've seen this play out on many issues from immigration, to social security, to security..."no plan" like a mantra..(cont.)...

Many of your Dem neighbors will spout the same thing: "What's up with the Democrats? Why can't they get it together?" "Well, its a lack of message, and lack of plan. They criticize but never offer up their own plan. There's no direction."

Open up box of Instapunditry and add water. Mix, bake. "What do you think of the plans they have formulated, such as on Security?"

"There was a plan?"

See this is the danger of spoon fed opinions. now I am not saying the Dems are stellar exhibits of clarity and strategy. But it doesn't seem to matter what they do as their baggage seems to end up on the wrong plane...

Now you gotta love Media Matters on these types of concerns-here's a story from back in March concerning the coverage of the Dems and National Security Strategy. Notice that they don't just make the charges, they cite examples- something those that criticize the allegedly liberal media often fail to do in their assertions:


"Over the past year, CNN hosts, anchors, and reporters have repeatedly commented on the Democratic Party's purported lack of a clear plan or concrete set of alternatives on issues ranging from Social Security to the war in Iraq. But on the day that Democratic leaders announced a broad national security strategy, CNN barely covered this development, instead devoting an hour and a half of uninterrupted coverage to a speech by President Bush on Iraq, his third in two weeks. Moreover, when CNN finally reported on the Democrats' national security plan, it omitted any details about the proposals put forth by the congressional leaders.

The following are examples from the past year of CNN personalities addressing the Democrats' purported lack of ideas on a variety of issues, national security chief among them:
CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux asked Democratic political consultant Donna Brazile , "Why aren't the Democrats coming up with concrete ideas here ... when it comes to the Social Security plan or energy?" [ Inside Politics , 6/15/05]
In an interview with Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), CNN congressional correspondent Ed Henry said, "There's been a lot of talk about how there's not a Democratic plan on the table." [ Inside Politics , 6/29/05]
In a discussion with CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider and Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund , CNN host Lou Dobbs commented, "Democrats haven't come up with a single message, a straightforward proposal or plan." [ Lou Dobbs Tonight , 10/13/05]
CNN host Wolf Blitzer has repeatedly referenced a recent Washington Post /ABC News poll which found that 70 percent of Americans believe Democrats have no clear plan for Iraq. "The Democrats seem to be all over the place," he said on one occasion after reading the poll numbers. [ Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer , 3/12/06]
CNN host Anderson Cooper asserted that Democrats "really are not unified. They don't really have a plan for Iraq." [ Anderson Cooper 360 , 3/20/06]

But despite repeatedly highlighting the Democrats' purported lack of such plans, when a large coalition of Democrats stood together on March 29 to unveil a unified national security platform, CNN largely ignored the news.

In the early afternoon on March 29, the Democrats held a 40-minute press conference announcing the release of their new national security agenda, " Real Security: Protecting America and Restoring Our Leadership in the World ." The proposals in this set of policy papers include screening 100 percent of containers and cargo entering the United States, boosting the size of the U.S. Special Forces and National Guard, ensuring that troops have better body armor, providing more resources to first-responders, and allotting greater funding for veterans benefits.

A Media Matters for America survey of CNN's programming on March 29 between 6 a.m. ET and 4 p.m. ET found only one mention of the Democratic plan. It came at 2:23 p.m. when CNN's Live From ... aired a brief clip of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid [NV] speaking at the Democrats' press conference. The two-minute clip came directly after CNN had provided uninterrupted coverage of Bush's speech at the Hyatt Regency in Washington, D.C., an event that spanned an hour and a half and largely mirrored the multiple foreign policy addresses Bush has given in recent weeks....."