Ed Schultz Defends Obama Against Entire Cast Of Morning Joe (VIDEO)

Media Monitor Brian Cohoon sends us this clip of MSNBC's Ed Schultz appearing on Morning Joe and running a four on one gauntlet over the transfer of detainees from GITMO.

A basic recap: Joe Scarborough doesn't want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed moved to Pensacola, Florida, because it would make the city a "terrorist target," I guess the argument being that whatever cities are currently on al Qaeda's to-attack list should bear the weight for the rest of the country and Floridians in general, who I guess aren't made of particularly stern stuff. At least Joe understands that we are very good at locking people up in jails.

Ed Schultz points out that Obama would be a hypocrite to "quote Martin Luther King" on the campaign trail and not attempt to "take the moral high ground" by dispensing proper justice to the detainees. Somehow, the conversation immediately veers to the general subject of policy rollbacks of Obama's that may or may not anger "the left." (Constantly included in these litanies are the pace of the Iraq withdrawal, and the re-focused mission in Afghanistan. Both may draw criticism from "the left," but neither are policy rollbacks -- in the former case, the administration has hewed tightly to the Status of Forces Agreement on withdrawal and shows no sign of breaking from that plan, and in the latter case -- well, moving new troops into Afghanistan was constantly promised on the campaign trail.)

Schultz, preaching patience, brings the matter back to GITMO, and very gamely goes back to the successful arrest of terrorists last night, which as Schultz points out, involved no waterboarding. Brzezinski, insipidly counters by saying, "Well, there was an informant," which she apparently doesn't understand does not refute the fact that there was no torture.

Mark Halperin, who is a famous blow-up doll from TIME Magazine who obsesses on political minutiae, thinks that a "good President acknowledges the shifts in policy." Schultz suggests that a good President just adapts to changing circumstances in pursuit of the larger mission of national security.

Then a long, long conversation about Nancy Pelosi -- her accusations, her stories, the political ramifications -- as usual, everything but the issue that underpins the Pelosi subplot, which is that the United States tortured people. Scarborough attempts to cast the whole matter as a general issue of the CIA's truthfulness, asking Schultz if he agrees with the contention of Democrats that the CIA has misled in the past. As I have pointed out before, accusing the CIA of misleading is not a new or shocking occurrence. What's more, Republicans have done it as well:

Jesus, then Scarborough intimates that the Obama administration is "cherrypicking intelligence," which makes me wonder what he was doing in the run-up to the Iraq War. He then goes on to...uhm, what's the word I'm looking for? OH YEAH, CHERRYPICK! He goes on to cherrypick statements by Dennis Blair, in the hopes that it can back up the premise that torture is effective policy. Let's go back to Greg Sargent on this matter, one more time, with feeling:

In his private memo, Blair said that in some cases, torture yielded "high value information" that has "provided a deeper understanding" of Al Qaeda. He said he couldn't promise he wouldn't have approved such tactics in the wake of 9/11.

In his public statement, he said that despite those facts, torture still does more harm than good and is not essential to our national security.

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Sorry -- these two statements are not mutually exclusive. Many will disagree with Blair's initial statement. Many will believe that his real views skew in the direction of the private memo. All fine. But the simple fact is that his public statement deserves to be part of this discussion, and it isn't contradicted by what's in the private memo.

Blair can believe that torture has worked in isolated cases and believe that overall, torture is bad policy. Period.

Anyway, everyone ends up coming down in favor of a Truth Commission, some of them not disingenuously.

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Comments

[brklynivn]

I can't understand why no one calls out Doucheboro on his stupidity. The same rhetoric about the deficit he's throwing to Obama is no different to the rhetoric he was throwing at the Clinton's back in the '90s. He was railing about deficits, hyperinflation, and collapse of the dollar back then - almost word for word. He was very wrong back then and even admitted that on air recently, but not without wasting a lot of the dem's energy and momentum. Why is everyone letting him get away with this same sh** again?

[EDGAR45]

Joe thinks he knows a lot, now someone wrote for him a book OUR LAST HOPE he is arguing with economists, politicians, those who are trying to guide him through. Who are you JOE? you are just a pawn on NBC. We know the real GUYS. and STOP compairing yourself to Obama you will never reach him

[Wiseup2Day]

Ed schultz? What are his ratings? Are you one of the 10,000 viewers..that wouldn't fill up my local theatre. Too funny.

[salzy1]

Ed Schultz is the best voice on MSNBC, next to Olbermann and Maddow. He didn't let Scarborough shout him down and stuck to his guns. Mika is meek beyond words: the Alan Coombs of MSNBC. Stopped watching this show months ago. Can't stand the anchors.

[Wiseup2Day]

You mean as long as they never criticize this President their ok with you..and they never do..is that the kind of world you want to live in?

[placeyourvote]

Ed is the man. He's not carrying water for no body. He loves this country. He loves people. And he loves the truth,regardless who it may shame.

keith and Rachel is also like Ed. I believe they love America, and they love jouralism and what it really stand for.

[TOOO]

Even though I support the President, I get a little tired of constantly hearing, "Well, he WILL do this," and "he WILL do that." What is this, Tea Leaf Readers Anonymous?

Shouldn't we instead be looking at what he HAS done so far, the progress he's made, and find out what exactly are the President's plans? I think President Obama means well, but he - surprise! - doesn't walk on water. Furthermore, the only way we can be sure he WILL do things is to keep the pressure on.

[veracity]

< A basic recap: Joe Scarborough doesn't want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed moved to Pensacola, Florida, because it would make the city a "terrorist target."
I guess the argument being that whatever cities are currently on al Qaeda's to-attack list SHOULD BEAR THE WEIGHT For the REST of the country & Floridians in general, who I guess ARE NOT made of particularly stern stuff. At least Joe understands that we're very good at locking people up in jails. >

Very well said. And points out that the vast majority of the "major" or "MAINSTREAM MEDIA" has ONE & ONLY ONE agenda: Say or do (or show) ANYTHING that makes the democratic agenda; and "Democratic Leaders" (such as they exist) LOOK BAD, in order to make the awful, atrocious, regressive, reactionary Right-Wing agenda look good.


In her book, "WEB of DEBT" Ellen Hodges Brown
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/1551
explains how the very largest bankers (both America & overseas) have made a concerted effort, & spent good money, over past 10 decades attempting to BUY OUT _THE MOST INFLUENTIAL_ US media/press outlets.

The fact that media MORONS like those on MSNBC's Scarborough Show can EVEN ATTEMPT to make an "EQUIVALENCE" argument: "Speaker Pelosi ACCUSING THE CIA OF LYING!" is MORE of a "scandal" than.... CIA & Cheney administration LYING America into Iraq war !!! -
- proof that the bankers have succeded, in turning America's press-media into a wholly-owned PROPAGANDA arm or right-wing extortion, political conformity, & for imperial exploitation policies.

[veracity]

note too, how MIKA BREZINSKI is a perfect (or 'textbook') example of the Democrats' NEO-CON TENDENCIES being far stronger than their __democratic__ tendencies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mika_Brzezinski

Mika's father was Zbigniew Brezinkski, was the Polish born & raised NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR for President Jimmy Carter. Like the Jewish Neo-Cons, Zbig's (Polish) perceptions are completely clouded by the ANCIENT HATREDS which make America's White-Anglo-Sacon-Scots-Irish legacy of race-based CHATTEL SLAVERY in America look like the fresh new kid on the block. (namely, that the Russians are sheer evil. HELLO? STALIN was A GEORGIAN, and like Poles, Germans, Greeks, Serbs, and everyone else, the Evul Rooskies been SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES for centuries upon centuries.... and overrun by Mongols, Tartars, Vikings, Germans, & everyone else to boot.)
Zbig Brezinski is an UBER- NEO-CON: his 1997 book "The Grand Chessboard" considered by many to be an "Intellectual Godfather" of the PNAC NewAmericanCentury.orgg manifesto, which in turn is widely regarded as Cheney's "BLUEPRINT for the Iraq War" (both published 1997).
The Wiki bio of Brezinski is MUST Reading: according to Wiki, many of his once-controversial theories are now regarded as the foundations of the Reagan/Bush era dissolution of the Soviet Union (ie. REPUBLICANS Reagan & Bush FOLLOWED many Brezinski policies, including support for Polish Catholic Church and arming Mujahadeen)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zbigniew_Brzezinski

[Wiseup2Day]

Morning Joe is the only show on MSNBC that actually has intelligent discourse..all the others just have one side and if they do bring someone on that carry's an opposing view..it's like the weakest one they can find.

[Wiseup2Day]

Obama could urinate on Ed's face and he'd say it was golden.

[Brightlight]

Someone, please remind me, WHY is the Morning Joe crew on MSNBC again?

[EDGAR45]

I have asked myself the same for months now. thanks

[Dustee]

mornin joke should be on in the afternoon. Scarborough and his band of hecks turn my stomach and that makes for a bad start to the day. That's why I hardly ever watch them.

Mika has gone from bad to worse. The best thing about her is her father. It's amazing that they are related.

[ChelseaC]

I love Ed Schultz!

[livegreenordie]

Ed Shultz is doing a great job. I love the psycho-talk bit. I emailed him about Monsanto, and their attempts to take over our seed supply in the new "Food Modernization Act of 2009", due to hit the senate some time this year. I hope someone is listening. Ed mentioned it last week. Read up on this as we could soon be controlled by Monsanto if they start suing farmers over seed use & genetically modified seeds and how they plan on taking over farms one by one. Find out if your state has laws in place that protect Monsanto, and contact your senators people!
Ed ROX!

[therriman]

Big Eddie, My Hero!!!

Now you can see why Sean Insanity refused to debate him.

Big Eddie would "take him to the woodshed" too.

[vicco]

We need to encourage these right wing Fox people to opinionate and blather on as much as possible. Once it gets on YouTube it goes everywhere,I'm startingto put a "link of Stupidity" on my Facebook a few times a week, that gets to people who would otherwise never see these things, we just have to spread THEIR own word over and over. Eventually they will all just sputter out and collapse from lack of any real purpose in life. I mean who actually believes anything that any of these dopes say? I must say it is entertaining .

[grasyknol]

Wow, Mika, Mika, Mika. She's the liberal voice?

[whatnowgop]

She's like the phony liberals FAUX tries to shove on the people as guests. I don't know how these stations think they fool the general public except for the FAUX lemmings. Those people are hopelessly lost and out to sea.

[upbeatdem]

Mika appears to be terrified of losing her job . . . again. If you have listened to her talk, she was fired by CBS in the past and she clearly has not recovered from it. In these times, who hasn't lost a job? She needs to get over it! Anyway, this is the only explanation I can find for her unseemly "kissing up" to Joe and the weird, right-wing things she says. When she first started, she seemed to be "the voice of reason" at least some of the time. Joe shouted her down so many times that she is now useless and very annoying.

[pauldeman]

It is not fair to speculate about her motivation. What I would say is that based on her stated positions relative to the administration, she is likely left of Joe but perhaps right of someone like Huntsman. After all, she was against the recovery act, of which Huntsman accepted. In this sense, she may even be right of Arlen who voted for the act. On other major issues, she is pretty much aligned with Joe.

One of the thing that gets me is that she is gaga over Palin for being a mother and a strong woman. Yet, she says nothing about the Ledbetter bill, which was necessary b/c of the 5-4 SC vote, led by Roberts. She decries the Time cover of Michelle O as if Michelle is on the cover every month. She repudiates the "sexism" against Palin and yet has no problem with ganging up on Pelosi and the well documented sexist attacks (see latest Politico article on GOP's new ad) on the first female speaker of the house as if the verdict is in on this subject.

And what's up with all the mommy talk? Is there a twisted fetish on the set of MJ? Could u imagine if regular female guests like Tina Brown, Erin Burnettt, Maria or Freeland goes on the set calling Joe, Mike, Pat or Willie Daddy?

[Wiseup2Day]

Some people can actually form their own opinions, change their minds..etc. There are people who actually can think for themselves, believe or not..and guess what..they may not agree with you.