Posts by Matt Corley

Matt Corley is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.

G. Gordon Liddy "Convinced" Obama is a Muslim
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on November 15, 2009 at 7:51 AM.

On his radio show today, G. Gordon Liddy hosted former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer to discuss his Human Events column on the Fort Hood massacre, in which Bauer — echoing his close personal friend Bill Kristol — declared that “[p]olitical correctness has been radical Islam’s greatest asset in its war against America. Let’s execute it.” “Accommodation of Islam pervades our schools,” added Bauer in his column.

In the beginning of their discussion, Liddy said that political correctness towards Islam “precedes the Obama administration” because President Bush proclaimed that “Islam is a religion of peace.” “You know that’s just not true,” said Liddy. Later in the conversation, after Bauer complained that Obama’s Homeland Security adviser John Brennan would lead the investigation into what the U.S. intelligence community knew about Nidal Malik Hasan before his attack, Liddy announced his belief that President Obama “is a Muslim”:

LIDDY: I’m convinced that despite his protestations to the contrary, that Barack Obama is a Muslim. I don’t believe that he’s a Christian at all. I believe he’s a Muslim.

BAUER: Well, you know the church that he famously or infamously attended was, was odd in many ways. Not only the rantings of its pastor, the clear racist rantings of its pastor, which the President chose to listen to year after year with his family and his children. You know something that still in my view has never been adequately explained. But it was also a church that had some real strange ideas about Islam and Christianity. I’ve seen a number of suggestions that there were many people in the congregation that considered themselves both Christian and Muslim. Something that I’m sure both real Christians and real Muslims would deny is possible.

Not only did Bauer not disagree with Liddy’s claim that Obama is lying about his Christianity, he went on to praise Liddy’s contribution to America’s political debate. “You do an outstanding job on your show bringing people the information they need,” said Bauer. “I commend you for the good work you do every day.” Listen to it here:

It’s not surprising that Liddy would hold such a fringe view. After all, he is a prominent birther who thinks that Obama is an “illegal alien.” Bauer, on the other hand, has previously written that he doesn’t want to “question the sincerity of Obama’s faith.” But in playing along with Liddy, that’s exactly what he has done.

Conservatives Register Tea Party as Official Third Party In Florida
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on November 9, 2009 at 2:00 PM.

After hard-line conservatives and tea party activists forced moderate Republican Dede Scozzafava to drop out of the race in New York's 23rd congressional district, they announced that Florida Gov. Charlie Crist would likely be their next target in the GOP civil war. Politico's Ben Smith reports that some Florida Republicans recently registered an official "Tea Party" to challenge both Republicans and Democrats:

"The current system has become mired in the sludge of special interest money that seeks to control the leadership of both parties. It's time for real change," says Orlando lawyer Frederic O'Neal, the new party’s chairman, who couldn't be reached immediately by phone, in a press release.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Secretary of State, Jennifer Davis, said the party had registered in August.

O'Neal compared his party's role to that of the Conservative Party in New York's 23rd District. Florida, however, lacks the "fusion" rules that has allowed third parties in New York to amass influence by offering their ballot line to acceptable major-party candidates.

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Palin to Promote Her Book With Multiple Fox News Interviews: 'Variety Is the Spice of Life.'
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on November 4, 2009 at 9:18 AM.

On her Facebook page yesterday, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin announced that she was "very excited about the upcoming road trip" to promote her book, which will be released later this month. As CNN's Alexander Mooney notes, Palin “hinted she'd likely sit down with a string of friendly faces during the tour that begins in two weeks." Indeed, Palin is hoping to do interviews mainly with Fox News hosts and contributors:

We're in the process of arranging interviews with local and national media. An interview with Oprah Winfrey is already scheduled, and I'm also hoping to have the opportunity to talk with Bill O'Reilly, Barbara Walters, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, Tammy Bruce, and others, including local Alaska personalities Bob & Mark and Eddie Burke. (Variety is the spice of life!)

As Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) vice presidential running mate in the 2008 election, Palin gave Fox multiple interviews while avoiding other news efforts. Apparently, she plans to follow the same strategy as she promotes her book.

Inhofe's Copenhagen 'Truth Squad' Expands to a 'Truth Squad of Three.'
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on October 22, 2009 at 3:41 PM.

Last month, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) announced that he would travel to Copenhagen in December to act as a climate skeptic “truth squad” during international climate change treaty negotiations. “I think somebody has to be there — a one-man truth squad,” Inhofe said on CSPAN. Today, on Bill Bennett’s radio show, Inhofe revealed that his delegation has expanded to “a truth squad of three”:

BENNETT: And John Barrasso’s going with you, right? John Barrasso?

INHOFE: Yeah, Barrasso and there’s another secret person going with me. We’re going to have a team of three, a truth squad of three.

Listen here:

When Inhofe first announced his plans for a “truth squad,” TPM’s Eric Kleefeld remarked, “It’s nice to see how seriously foreign policy is taken these days — when a member of the political minority will send his own delegation to an international conference, in order to undermine the government and tell other countries that they can’t work with the United States.” Now it’s at least two members of the political minority.

Bill Kristol Thanks God "Most of the Workforce Isn't Unionized"
Posted by Matt Corley on October 18, 2009 at 4:32 PM.

Earlier this week, hate radio host Rush Limbaugh was dropped from an investor group that was trying to purchase NFL’s St. Louis Rams franchise. Limbaugh’s involvement with the group sparked a week of controversy due to his history of racially divisive commentary. African-American NFL players said they “wouldn’t play” for Limbaugh’s team while the head of the NFL’s players union said he opposed Limbaugh’s bid because sports are meant to reject “discrimination and hatred.”

On Fox News Sunday today, the “All-Stars” jumped to Limbaugh’s defense. NPR’s Juan Williams set up a false comparison, claiming that people don’t complain about MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann announcing football games even though he makes “divisive” statements about conservatives. The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol used the NFL player’s union’s opposition to Limbaugh to attack unions in general, saying “thank God most of the workforce isn’t unionized”:

KRISTOL: Thank God most of business isn’t a monopoly. Thank God most of the workforce isn’t unionized. Why could this happen? This could happen because all the NFL players are in one union. Because all the NFL owners are in one club and pressure can be put on them. Thank God there’s more diversity in this country in terms of different industries and different businesses. And people can be controversial and can still find places that are willing to have them.

Watch it:


 

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Sexist Jackass Scorns Rachel Maddow at Values Voters Summit: "I Prefer That My Women Not Look Like Dudes"
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on September 22, 2009 at 4:30 AM.

At the Values Voter Summit on Friday, former Miss California Carrie Prejean said that conservatives needed to be "an example" of "tolerance, respect and just how to be civil." But her advice was ignored the next day when Young America's Foundation spokesman Jason Mattera addressed a breakout session called "Turning The Tide In Your Generation." In his comments, Mattera evoked the battle of David against Goliath as a metaphor for conservative college students who are 'persecuted' by the big bad liberals who control academia. While discussing that theme, Mattera took the opportunity to argue for the supremacy of conservatism by saying, "our women are hot":

During the panel, Mattera took the David and Goliath metaphor another perverse step: If conservatives (David) smite liberals (Goliath), they will be rewarded with the hot conservative women, just like King Saul promised his daughter to the warrior who slew the evil giant. "You know his daughter must have been beautiful because there's no guy whose gonna die for an ugly girl," Mattera chortled. "Our women are hot. We have Michelle Malkin. Who does the left have, Rachel Maddow? Sorry, I prefer that my women not look like dudes."

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Audio: Limbaugh Fill-In Advocates Secession: 'I'd Like To See' Whether 'We Could Have A Sovereign Nation'
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on September 5, 2009 at 3:36 PM.

In April, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) drew headlines when he warned that his state might secede from the United States "if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people." Perry's invocation of secession has since been endorsed by Fox News' Glenn Beck and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX).

More recently, radical "tenthers" in Texas, who were heartened by Perry's comments, held a rally in the state capitol advocating for Texas to secede. On Rush Limbaugh's radio show today, his fill-in host, Walter E. Williams, pushed the idea to Limbaugh's millions of listeners:

WILLIAMS: Look, Mark, I don't know what we're going to do. That is, one of the questions, one of the issues is that we may be like other great nations of the past. Other great nations like Rome and Great Britain and go down the tube. Now, there's a group of people. There's kind of a wild hope or a remote possibility. There's a group of young people. They call themselves freestateproject.org. And these young people are trying to get 20,000 Americans to move to the state of New Hampshire and peacefully take over the political system, you know, through voting and things like that and elect their own congressmen and senators. And then having done so, they wish, they want to negotiate with the United States Congress to obey the United States Constitution. Now, some members of the group, not all of them, some members of the group say that if they can't get Congress to obey the United States Constitution, they're going to issue a unilateral declaration of independence, become a separate nation. Now, I don't know whether that's going to work. The last time it didn't work, but the first time in 1776, it did work. And so, I think we're batting 500 and I'd like to see whether we could break the tie. Whether we could have a sovereign nation.

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Enzi: 'I'm Pretty Sure' That Health Care Reform Is 'Going to Fail'
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on September 3, 2009 at 10:27 AM.

Following Sen. Mike Enzi’s (R-WY) attack on health care reform in the weekly GOP radio address last week, the White House criticized him for turning over “his cards on bipartisanship.” Though Enzi’s office insists that he’s still trying to seek a bipartisan compromise, he indicated again at an Americans for Prosperity rally on Tuesday that he has given up striking a deal, saying that he was “sure” that reform was “going to fail“:

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GOP Congresswoman Tells Uninsured Woman at Town Hall to "Be a Grown-Up"
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on September 1, 2009 at 4:43 PM.

 At a recent town hall meeting, a 27-year old uninsured waitress named Elizabeth Smith asked Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) why as a working mother she can’t “get an affordable option” for health care. According to the AP, Smith’s 2-1/2-year-old son “hasn’t been to a doctor in 21 months, except for emergency room visits for ear infections, because she can’t afford either insurance or a doctor’s visit.” When Smith asked her question, Jenkins criticized creating “a government-run program” and said that she advocated tax credits so people like Smith could “go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance“:

SMITH: I want an option that I can pay for. I work. I pay my bills. I’m not a burden on the state. I pay my taxes. So why can’t I get an affordable option. Why are you against that?

JENKINS: A government-run program (laugh) is going to subsidize not only yours (laugh) but everybody in this room. So I’m not sure what we’re talking about here. Well, I think it comes down to the whole discussion of…OK folks. Let’s be respectful. UH-OH (talking over crowd). We’re gonna make time for everybody. We’re gonna all listen to each other respectfully, even if we disagree. I think we can agree we need reforms, again it’s just how we gonna do it. I believe people should be given the opportunity to take care of themselves with an advanceable tax credit to go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance.

Video here.

More Texas Crazy: Speaker at Pro-Secession Rally Declares "We Hate the United States!"
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on August 31, 2009 at 10:25 AM.

On Friday, ThinkProgress reported that "tenthers" in Texas were set to hold a pro-secession rally in Austin this weekend. According to the Texas Observer, upwards of 200 people attended the rally, where one speaker declared, "We hate the United States!"

The organizer of the event, Daniel Miller, a leader of the Texas Nationalist Movement who has appeared on Glenn Beck's Fox News show, said that he and his fellow secessionists were disappointed that Texas Gov. Rick Perry didn't attend the rally because they were heartened by his pro-secession comments earlier this year:

Daniel Miller, the leader of the Texas Nationalist Movement and the only speaker who had the slightest ability to make secession sound like anything other than just complete lunacy, recounted the April 15 tea party rally in Austin and what it meant to the secessionist movement.

"When [Perry] was giving a speech and the crowd began to shout what? -- Secede! Secede! Secede! -- that’s what they chanted. So they asked him afterward, What do you think? He said, Well we reserve that right; if things get so bad we reserve the right to leave. And I gotta tell you it's the first solid thing he's done in his administration that I can agree with in many, many years."

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Mike Huckabee to Headline Bizarre Conference on Electromagnetic Pulse Attacks
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on August 25, 2009 at 8:00 AM.

 In May, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss noted that, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — citing a fictional novel — told the 2009 American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference that the threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse attack against the United States was why he was in “favor” of “taking out Iranian and North Korean missiles on their sites.” The next month, the New Republic’s Michael Crowley reported that the “scientifically valid,” but “not strategically realistic” scenario was being used by “a cadre of conservative hawks” to argue for “familiar hobbyhorses” like missile defense and preemptive military strikes. Now, Dave Weigel reports that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is set to headline an upcoming conference on the threat of an Electromagnetic Pulse attack against the United States, titled “EMPACT America”:

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(Video) At Netroots Nation, Blogger Challenges Bill Clinton on Don't Ask Don't Tell
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on August 14, 2009 at 4:14 PM.

At the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh yesterday, former President Bill Clinton delivered the opening day’s keynote address. In his speech, Clinton declared that it is “imperative for the Democrats to pass a health care bill now,” telling the bloggers and activists that “the president needs your help and the cause needs your help.”

About 20 minutes into his speech, however, Clinton was interrupted by blogger Lane Hudson, who asked about the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that Clinton implemented. “Hey, you ought to go to one of those congressional health care meetings,” Clinton joked before defending his actions as president and claiming that “nobody regrets how this was implemented anymore than I do”:

CLINTON: I hated what happened. I regret it but I didn’t have, I didn’t think at the time, any choice if I wanted any progress to be made at all. Look, I think it’s ridiculous. Can you believe they spent, whatever they spent, $150,000 to get rid of a valued Arabic speaker recently? You know, the thing that changed me forever on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was when I learned that 130 gay service people were allowed to serve and risk their lives in the first Gulf War and all their commanders knew they were gay, but they let them go out there and risk their lives because they needed them. Then as soon as the first Gulf War was over, they kicked them out. That’s all I needed to know. That’s all anybody needs to know that this policy should be changed.

Watch it:

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Sarah Palin's Crazy 'Death Panels' Claim Gets a Thumbs Up from Giuliani
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on August 13, 2009 at 4:55 PM.

Yet another prominent Republican has endorsed former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s astonishingly false claim, which she doubled down on today, that health care reform will lead to “death panels.” At the “GOPAC” political action committee convention in Illinois today, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said that though there are no “death panels” in any legislation, they would probably happen any way:

 While the health care reform bill passed by the U.S. House may not spell out “death panels,” Giuliani said simple economics hint to him that the panels would happen under the plan.

“President Obama says he will cover 30 to 40 to 50 million people who are not covered now — without it costing any money,” Giuliani said. “This is absurd. Health care — in case the Obama Administration hasn’t noticed, is very expensive. They will have to cut other services, cut programs. They will have to be making decisions about people who are elderly.”

Pressed on whether he himself believed the legislation calls for “death panels” to recommend hospice instead of treatment for the elderly, Giuliani said, “The only way in which you can save money the way the president and the House claims is by reducing care. So it is natural that some people would believe, particularly since they have these provisions for end-of-life decision-making councils, that it is natural that people would suggest that one of the ways you would do that is to cut off care for the elderly. Whether they will do that or not I don’t know. … People assume these Death Panels will be created. They [Democratic legislators] have created that suggestion in the ambiguity of the legislation.”

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GOP Rep Fans Birther Flames
Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress on August 13, 2009 at 8:52 AM.

At a town hall in North Carolina yesterday, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) told a constituent that he did not know if President Obama was a United States citizen. “I haven’t seen evidence one way or the other,” said McHenry, adding that the issue is being addressed “in the courts.” In a statement today, McHenry walked back from the “birther” ledge:

Said McHenry in a statement this morning: “As I stated last night, I have not carefully reviewed the evidence as a jurist would. However, from what I have read, I have absolutely no reason to question President Obama’s citizenship. I anticipate that as a legal matter the courts will continue to come to the same conclusion.”

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Second Lawmaker Receives Threatening 'Death to All Marxists' Fax with Obama's Picture on It
Posted by Matt Corley on August 12, 2009 at 10:18 AM.

Last week, The Hill reported that Rep. Brian Baird’s (D-WA) office had received a fax that depicted President Barack Obama as the Joker and warned of “Death to All Marxists! Foreign and Domestic!” The Secret Service has said that the fax was “potentially an investigative intelligence matter.” Now, a second member of Congress is reporting that he received the same fax. On CNN this morning, Rep. David Scott (D-GA) — whose office was recently vandalized with a swastika — held up a printout of the fax, adding that the picture of Obama he received had “the swastika on his forehead.” Watch it:

Scott said that the fax also included racial slurs aimed at him and the statement “the Ethiopian cannot make himself white.”