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The Rant: CNBC's Lawrence Kudlow -- A New Low in Right-Wing Trash Talk and Hypocrisy

By Mark Ames, eXiled Online. Posted April 23, 2009.


Why does Larry Kudlow still have a job? He's gotten everything wrong, and his irrational anti-Obama rants are truly borderline.

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Why does CNBC host Lawrence Kudlow still have a job? Not only is Kudlow a corrupt goon who has called everything 180 degrees wrong over and over, but he pretty much set the standard for Wall Street’s “most humiliating failure” back in the mid-1990s when he was fired from Bear Stears -- the last smart move Bear Stearns ever made. Why was Kudlow fired, you axe? Well, it wasn’t because he called the economy wrong at every turn -- hell no! Being wrong is a basic requirement for pundits and Wall Street analysts, you just have to be aggressively wrong and not worry about it, something Kudlow excels at. No, Lawrence Kudlow’s career problems in the 1990s stemmed from the fact that he couldn’t handle his drugs. Cocaine, to be exact.

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: what sort of man -- a rightwing free-market mensch to boot -- can’t handle his coke? I mean, cocaine is a sorority girl’s drug. It lasts like 15 minutes, turns you into a babbling idiot who loves everything -- the perfect drug for a pro-Reaganomics stock market cheerleader like Kudlow.

I’ll get back to the cocaine-bitch part of this story, but first, the reason I’m bothering about Lawrence Kudlow is because there’s a clip of him blasting Obama for what Kudlow called the President’s “BOYZ IN THE HOOD handshake” with Hugo Chavez, a clip that went viral all over the blogosphere this week. Just look at Kudlow’s spastic face contortions as he rants: you don’t see that sort of scowling psychosis except on a guy whose just blown through his last eight ball at the end of a six-day binge, his dealer’s cellphone is switched off, and Kudlow’s spent the last four hours picking through the carpet threads in a frantic search for that one last uninhaled granule of llello. That’s what’s written all over Kudlow’s face as he shouts, “Mr Obama didn’t say a darn thing in favor of our ally Colombian president Uribe!…”  Colombia -- get it? And then, as if crashing hard on live television, Kudlow goes into a bizarre fit over human rights, screeching, “Why didn’t Obama make a clear statement on human rights which Chavez violates daily.”

Er, human rights? Lawrence Kudlow? Ex-squeeze me? This is the same clown who wrote a few years ago in the National Review an impassioned defense of China, and I quote, “Yes, the communist government in Beijing prevents free elections and free speech, continues to persecute religious groups, and has a record of pirating music and software as well as other intellectual property. But according to a recent study by the Council on Foreign Relations, China has also changed 2,600 legal statutes to comply with World Trade Organization rules.”


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View:
What dictator?
Posted by: Spellsinger on Apr 23, 2009 1:40 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hugo Chavez might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer and he may be woefully ignorant about Jews and such, but he's not exactly a dictator. He was elected. Repeatedly. We even went in to try to screw it up for him and failed. See, this crap all started when he refused to let the friends of King George and Darth Cheney steal his country's oil at a ridiculously low price and make tons of money off it while screwing over a bunch of "brown people who don't matter". And he CALLED Emperor George and Darth Cheney on it and called them out for it. And then, to make matters worse for these Rethugnican bigots, when Georgie Boy wanted to CUT energy assistance for the poor at a time of rising prices and falling aid, Chavez partnered with folks like Joe Kennedy to get heating assistance to the poor here in America. That REALLY pissed off Darth Cheney and Ken Lay. So, they proclaimed him a dictator. He publically pants'd them, so they lie about him. And their flunkies lie. He's a commie dictator for wanting to use the money from his country's oil to help his people, but Mrs. Mooseburger up there in Alaska is some sort of hero for giving away Alaska's oil revenue in "rebate checks" to the citizens instead of using some of it for the betterment off everyone's life by, *gasp*, building better INFRASTRUCTURE??? Them Tighty Righties gotta get their wedgies fixed. Might help get oxygen to their tiny brains.

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» Careful Singer Posted by: marid
Ripe for a mash-up - Cliff says, "do it to me"
Posted by: Sister_Lauren on Apr 23, 2009 2:26 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It ain't about being right!
Posted by: Dboy on Apr 23, 2009 2:57 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
You can learn it from Cramer, you can learn it from Kudlow, or you could even learn it from Glen Beck or O'Really...you don't have to be right, you just have to be LOUD.

dboy

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Michael Fiorillo
Posted by: MFiorillo on Apr 23, 2009 3:05 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Thanks for these observations.

As a lifelong New Yorker who grew up back in the day, it is axiomatic among me and my peers that you NEVER trust a junkie about ANYTHING. Of course, that includes you, too, Rush.

It's just some more proof, as if it were needed, that dishonesty, denial and delusion rule the day. The irony is that Kudlow and his ilk should be kissing Obama's feet, since his economic team is transferring the nation's wealth to the banksters and privateers. There's just no sense of gratitude these days.

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E-mail him
Posted by: rjs0 on Apr 23, 2009 3:38 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
kudlow@cnbc.com

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Don't be fooled,
Posted by: weathered on Apr 23, 2009 4:41 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
at the end of Kudlow's selfish, insincere little day of distraction, he's played his part very well.

Obama's handlers are executing the redistribution of wealth w/near precision. Little Larry's role of 'ranter' is an illusion that it displeases Wall Street, when in fact satan's investment banker GS couldn't be happier

Pull the plug on all MSM/PBS/NPR and flourish

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» What is your problem.......... Posted by: Diecash1
A photo DOES tell 1,000 words
Posted by: johnhyman on Apr 23, 2009 4:45 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Larry Kudlow has more than a few issues but let's be fair. The photo op of Obama and Chavez plays right into that despots agenda of looking credible to the few remaining people unaware of his facist record.

When I first saw the picture I cringed. Obama does not look presedential, and the warm and fuzzy demeanor simply isn't appropriate given whom he is shaking hands with.

And while I am always open to establishing a dialogue with others who do not think as I do (as I am doing right now) the diplomatic process has to begin with mutual respect not a position of blind admiration.

Yes, Kudlow can be a villian and has many personal demons. Perhaps he did lead a charmed life, as the author suggests. But he certainly won't go down in history as the last social elitist who blew it (literally in this instance).

And in this instance he may have had a valid point.

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» Chavez contributed heating oil Posted by: weathered
The moneyed class forgives all their criminals
Posted by: NYmediator on Apr 23, 2009 5:30 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's not hypocrisy. It's business.

Same on the so-called left.

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Keith Olberman and Perez Hilton
Posted by: Romans1 on Apr 23, 2009 5:56 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Separated at birth.

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» Wrong drug, Romans1 Posted by: Quicksilver
Since when should we expect non-elites to dominate the media?
Posted by: LaughingModerateIndependent on Apr 23, 2009 6:50 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As long as we the people are gonna keep slobbering like dumb dogs at the bells on Wall Street and keep daytrading our way to utter bankruptcy, people like Kudlow and Cramer will continue to stay. Besides. Kudlow supported Obama before election day and still silently does only because he knows that Obama, like most Democrats, will continue to spoonfeed Wall Street no matter how many times the public says NO. It's like an abuser continuing to abuse his/her partner even when the partner says NO.

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flush and flourish
Posted by: cannibalgod70 on Apr 23, 2009 7:10 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
PBS and NPR quietly sniff the butt of mainstream news. The same stories/distractions, the same spin/PR shills. Rarely do they attempt to expose the man behind the curtin. More often their journalists go on inane human interest junkets. Diane Rehm and the like - they're just gentrified leeches.

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Drug Testing the Entire Repug party
Posted by: Purple Girl on Apr 23, 2009 7:30 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hell it appears we need a breathalizer and specimen cups at every office Door and Floor on Capitoal Hill.
Boehners undoubtedly Drunk off his ass all day long. someone give him a sobriety test. You can smell the Aged Scotch on him through the TV.Open your Eyes and try to stop slurring your words. You're a damn embarassment! You make Teddy's heyday look like a social Drinkers mixer.
And of course the right LOVES Columbia, their shits the tops ah? How about a lil' peruvian flake, or are you all stocked up from your Afghani suppliers.
Of course Right Wingers don't want Drugs legalized- it would have an adverse effect on their profit margins, both from the Illegal products and the legal products. God Forbid what would happen to the bank their making off psychotropic meds if Pot was legalized!
Sure fire way to tell when someones under the influence- they have difficulty with linear thought and consistency.

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mrned
Posted by: mrnedb on Apr 23, 2009 8:22 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I have a simple question. If Kudlow's wiki bio is correct, he never finished an economics degree. If true, how in the world did he get top economist jobs at the Fed and Bear Stearns AND OMB??

This is all about political connections to powerful people.

Sometimes I think Kudlow is a programmed robot of the right wing free market school that still cannot admit its failures. Is he paranoid and delusional as well?

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Kudlow, Kudlow
Posted by: aahpat on Apr 23, 2009 9:43 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It even sounds like a shoe lifting from the ground after stepping in something warm, brown and gooey.

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CNBC voice for corporate America
Posted by: johanB on Apr 23, 2009 10:42 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It doesn't make much sense to discuss any of the extremist commentators on CNBC on an individual basis. The real evil minds you find in the corporate world of GE and CNBC and family companies. They are the ones who not only hired these distorted minds, but have a clear goal in mind to torpedo Democrats and therefor President Obama. Too many gifts of the Republican White House toward the Corporate world and too many tax loopholes are threatened to be closed. Even off shore bank accounts in tax safe heavens are not secret anymore. Their world (CNBC) is a world of vile right wing propaganda, with only one goal in mind, get the extreme right wing back in power. A few hours of Liberal counter programming which makes them a lot of money is not going to hide their unpatriotic behavior.

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I get it (I think)
Posted by: willymack on Apr 23, 2009 11:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Kudlow is angling for a job on the Fox business channel. How else can he establish his bona fides as a jackoff, worthy of that fine channel?

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Bush, Kudlow, Rush
Posted by: bettyn on Apr 23, 2009 11:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Boy, are these clowns three peas in a pod or WHAT?!!!!!

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The truth was that CNBC had a choice
Posted by: ReallyBearish on Apr 23, 2009 12:56 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The two talking butting heads used to be Jim Rogers and Larry Kudlow. They got rid of Rogers. Why? He's a right wing economic libertarian just as Kudlow is supposed to be. Problem is, he often told the truth, and you can't have that on CNBC.

Jim Rogers is a commodities expert. He's a bit rash, and sometimes talks before he engages his brain. But that often results in telling it like it is. For example, he told Kudlow that the inflation numbers coming out of the BLS are pure fiction, or that bailing out poorly managed banks aren't really good for the financial system, or that the stock market might not be a good place to put your money, or that a zero interest rate policy may be a really a bad idea, etc. etc. etc.

No, Rodgers had to go, but Wall Street stooge Kudlow stayed.

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Seems right
Posted by: be marc on Apr 23, 2009 2:07 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cocaine is so passe. Everyone I know in Kudlow's generation was off it by the mid-eighties. This guy was still packing his nose in the nineties? Whew.

It all makes some kind of twisted sense when you consider that guys like this don't have a lick of sense to begin with.

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RE: I love it
Posted by: theblackgeorgecarlin on Apr 24, 2009 11:31 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
During my first year of college, I remember this kid that was high most of the time and nearly got busted for having weed, and was a hard-core republican type, it was weird,but not surprising. It seems that the people that are most likely to be for the War on Drugs, are always the biggest cokeheads and stoners and methheads and ravers. I guess "you want all that good s**t for yourself, but those poor minorities can go to prison" must be their mentality.

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excuse me!
Posted by: 4changenow on Apr 23, 2009 7:37 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I could not figure out whether I was reading something on alternet or something from Glenn Beck. Cocaine is a terrible addiction and has both ruined and pleasured many lives.
Using cocaine tells me nothing about how he treats others or how he handles large and important responsibility. I mean what is in your closet? Pretend journalism is a waste of time.
And no I don't like the SOB either

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So?
Posted by: peterjkraus on Apr 23, 2009 7:37 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cokeheads lie and are generally assholes. What else is new? I got more of a kick out of W in some of his better photo ops: talk about buzzed! And all the while swearing he was off the juice, thanks to Jeezus.

Kudlow is just a loser. Fuck him and the likes of him.

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go check out the picture on this site.
Posted by: weslen1 on Apr 23, 2009 8:12 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Then tell me who looks MORE "presidential"!

www.hermes-press.com/BushSaud.htm

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"Goldilocks Economy"
Posted by: hughesrg on Apr 23, 2009 10:28 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In my younger, poor judgement days I used to listen to this asshole on WABC radio, a "conservative" station here in NY. Even as Rome started burning around him all this boob could spout was "why isn't the main-stream-media talking about the Goldilocks story that is our economy..." all this guy ever did was suck the d@&k's of Wall Street and W for all the "growth" in our economy that apparently everyone else was too stupid or too biased to report. What an ass!

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Hiiiilarious
Posted by: theblackgeorgecarlin on Apr 24, 2009 11:38 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Just grand, I loved this article, not just because its funny, but because it is so true to life. Seriously, how many of us ran into people that were the staunchest pro-Drug prohibition advocates, who want to capture drug dealers and chop their balls off and invade Peru or Columbia or some other crazy s**t, but were smoking the ganja or snorting coke behind close doors? It happens so many times that I came up with a theory: Most of them are not for the War on Drugs because they actually believe, they are for the War on Drugs out of guilt at their drug addiction, and want to punish poor people as a way to pay for their secret shame.

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Faux News
Posted by: theblackgeorgecarlin on Apr 24, 2009 11:42 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Only the biggest d!ckheads need apply.

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a little consideration....would be considerate....
Posted by: ebombe on Apr 26, 2009 8:02 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the insensitive way of describing your victim here totally turned me off the whole article. Your premise was good and you had a point but, using

"cocaine is a sorority girl’s drug. It lasts like 15 minutes, turns you into a babbling idiot who loves everything -- the perfect drug for a pro-Reaganomics stock market cheerleader like Kudlow.

I’ll get back to the cocaine-bitch part of this story"

....sorry, females are commonly known as women and the comparison sucked. You were also pretty harsh on the drug addiction which you know....nobody wants to be a drug addict and ruin their life...have a heart...or is that just the thing that pumps blood to your brain?.....

Please remember that some of your audience might be WOMEN who could be offended by the comparison or recovering or current DRUG ADDICTS that really suffer...

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oldboy
Posted by: oldboy on Apr 28, 2009 10:17 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had always suspected that Kudlow was a real jerk. What he needs on his watch is about four or five more "experts" or commentators than he normally has, all talking at the same time and yelling at each other. That way we couldn't hear anything Larry says which would be a big improvement for his show. What a bunch of dork producers CNBC has running their shows. They don't even know where the mike switches are located. Kudlow's should be the biggest and most easily accessed.

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Maybe Kudlow just wants his cheap, high purity coke back
Posted by: babette on May 10, 2009 4:52 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In the clip that was provided in the article, Kudlow spent the majority of the time raving about how Obama slighted our dear, thoroughly uncorupted, ally Columbia. Personally, I would suggest a more calming drug for him. However, once a tweaker, always a tweaker.

Why does he still have a job after all of his horrific, public screw-ups? Well, most of it is undoubtedly due to MSM money, nutbag viewer ratings and/or family connections, since no sane person would even consider taking his ill- fated advice. However, maybe some of us watch him for comic relief. You have to admit that his screeching, imitations, of someone for whom we care nothing, on the verge of a psychotic break, can be pretty funny.

I also enjoy, occasionally, watching Larry King attempt to interview 20 y.o. rappers and other musicians, so maybe I'm the perv. Ha,ha. I'll own it.

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