Tucker calls bush* Left Wing

[me b zola]

Nope, I'm not joking. I'm not sure if Tucker did this because he is critical of the bush* administration and is afraid to do so outright, or if it is simply another ploy to distatnce the gop from the WH.

Tucker's discussion on his show yesterday is with BRAD BLAKEMAN, former deputy assistant to bush*. They are discussing bush*s ME policies, and Tucker almost sounds intelligent throughout the conversation...until they are wrapping things up. This is when it gets stupid & weird:

BLAKEMAN: And our policies in the Middle East, first and foremost, is the protection of Israel, the right and respect of each other and their sovereignties. And not all governments are going to be as good as we would like them to be.

But it‘s going to be a long time in the Middle East before the Middle East reflects anything of a democracy like we would like to see nation by nation. And we‘re realists, we understand that.

CARLSON: All right. I mean—we‘re not realists. We ought to be. We‘re in fact a left-wing government posing as a conservative government.

That‘s my view.

Brad Blakeman, you are an articulate defender of this left-wing government, though, and I appreciate it.

BLAKEMAN: Thank you, Tucker.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14622668/

When I heard this last night, I thought that Tucker had said that bush* was Liberal or Left Wing. Did anyone else hear this? Did they clean up the language, or am I remembering wrong? In either case, Tucker is clearly suggesting that the reason that we are in the mess we are in is because the bush* administration/neocons are Liberals. :eyes:

Just when you think that the rw can't be any more intellectually dishonest....

[William769]

1. Tuckers been in denial now for sometime.

He has nowhere to turn.

[wordpix2]

47. Tucker is a little slow at processing...

[ComerPerro]

2. This is what giving credibility to fucks like Lou Dobbs and John Dean gets

You end up with a bunch of people, even liberals, pining for "old-school Republicans" and "true conservatives", talking about how conservatism has been hijacked.

And liberals, so ready to attack Bush and ally with anyone who does, readily agree.


But, as John Dean and Lou Dobbs and now Tucker and scores of others all end up saying, the logical next step is to say "Bush is a liberal".

This way, they can treat conservatism like a sacred, noble cause, and at the same time demonize liberalism and paint it as a philosphy of large oppressive and fascist governments and massive deficits.

[Ksec]

11. exactly

Ive said this same thing . They figure if they can make the distinction between them they get a break from responsibility of what theyve done to this country.

[ComerPerro]

14. Its amazing how many DUers have fallen for this BS

"oh, well, Bush isn't conservative. Not a true conservative. We need more of them"


Bullshit.


No conservative, as president, would be truly conservative, because conservatism is a complete lie.

[mitchum]

52. The only good conservative is a dead conservative

You'll never find me pining for "the return of the good true conservative"
I am also amazed at the number of DU-ers who fall for that canard. I can't believe the number of times I've read people on this site waxing nostalgic for Barry Goldwater. Barry Fucking Goldwater. Amazing.

[question everything]

55. We do want to be the responsible party, right?

the party that can be trusted to govern.

In the "old days" when Republicans were the upper educated class, when they understood the need to join forces to allow for a functioning government, there were bi-partisan agreements. In those days, Republicans did not care about ideology, about "baby killing" and about "perverts." They supported small government which meant also "live and let live."

But now, with the top of the party being ruled by southerns who used to be bigoted Democrats, instead of the country club North easterners, they are not interested in any bi-partisan agreements. They do not care about a functioning government. If they will appear rational they will lose any edge by getting the votes of the WWJD crowd. They will not agree with anything that the Democrats propose, will not talk about the economy, about schools, health care, decent jobs and dignified retirement. If they will talk about these issues, that are important to most Americans, they will lose. So they talk about abortion and homosexuals and "defense" of marriage and flag and the Ten Commandments and they win the votes of those backward ignorant people in the red states whose sole source of information are the Sunday sermons.

The hallmark of a liberal is to think beyond one's immediate surroundings. This is why we are talking about a responsible party, not about hot buttons. And the old Republicans, like Goldwater and Javitz and Rockefeller and even papa Bush - before he became a President - were of that school.

[truebrit71]

17. Not sure I'd lump John Dean in with Dobb-o.....

If you've read any of his recent stuff I don't think you'd hear him saying anything remotely like Dobb-o..

[wordpix2]

48. wtf? I've heard John Dean dozens of times & never have I heard him say *

Bush is a liberal. So you are either completely misled or you're a freeper, IMO

:wtf:

[Straight Shooter]

3. If true, look for that meme to be repeated elsewhere in the so-called MSM.

Then watch for the persistent conflation of "left wing" and Democrats, as if there are no moderates or centrists in the party.

There was a survey taken recently which revealed that a large percentage of Americans don't know their left from their right. Sorry. No pun intended. I don't have a link, but it was discussed on DU when the results were published.

[wordpix2]

49. absolutely true that large percentage of Americans aren't aware of what's

happening politically or right in their neighborhood. We need to get a grip on public education.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. I've heard this before on another issue.

When I told a diehard Republican that I couldn't tell the difference between the racist Klan members and the policies of the GOP, he said that it was Left-leaning Republicans that had those views. I think he may have been referring to the old Southern Democrats who have joined the Republican party in the last forty years. (Like forty years doesn't make a difference.)

[Ksec]

5. They say the last Liberal President was Nixon

so I guess up is down with these jokers.

[wordpix2]

50. the asses also say Bill Clinton was responsible for 9-11. This is

Bushco's latest media spin in a new book that's out. Or maybe it's a movie.

Sounds more like fiction than reality.

[marmar]

6. Fucker is desperate for any kind of attention...

His ratings suck.

[me b zola]

7. Yeah, a part of me thinks this is so that he'll appeal to both r's & D's

...and then another part of me thinks that this is an attempt for the gop to distance themselves with selective voters from the bush* administration.

Maybe it's both.

[wordpix2]

51. Fucker is slow to comprehend but he "gets" certain things & he's not a

big fan of how the war is going, although he used to be.

He is rw trending middle of the road as the reality of Katrina, the wars, the national debt and Bushco incompetence drag on.

[blogslut]

8. Did you see him try to defend

that Polygamist dude? The UTAH AG smacked him silly:

Wonkette has the goods;

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/tucker-carlson/arrest-of-pervert-not-done-for-tucker-carlson-197929.php

[me b zola]

9. DH said something about that, but I thought that he had lost his mind

DH said that Tucker was calling it an interference with freedom of religion. If true, then it is Tucker who has lost his mind.

[blogslut]

13. After a point

...it's difficult to tell where Carlson is going with his argument. Seriously, if you get chance, watch the YouTube that's posted on Wonkette. The man is unhinged.

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Some people just don't know left from right, or what's up or down . .

.
.
.

if the foo shits . . .

WEAR IT, 'lil tucker . .

[Marr]

12. HAHA- right- the Bush Administration is left wing. That's why they've

serviced big business every moment they've been office. That's why the Christian right is their most reliable base. That must be why Israel's right wing party counts them as allies, while South America's left wing governments count them as enemies.

I guess their left wing nature explains the new overtime rules. And the bankruptcy bill. And the energy commission meetings.

The Bush Administration is not liberal- and it isn't a fringe group that's "hijacked conservatism" either. They are the very definition of the conservative movement- they've just ignored the "small government" smoke and mirrors that the previous conservatives pushed.

[gratuitous]

15. Conservatism is the God that cannot, must not fail

So if George W. Bush's policies are in the crapper, True Believers must say that Bush is not a conservative or a right winger. Because if he was, you see, then he would have succeeded. Indeed, in the first few weeks of shock and awe, conservatives were ascendant, triumphant and elephant! George W. Bush would bring America into a new century of glory and power, spurred on by our firm re-establishment of our military might backed by our indisputable moral authority on behalf of Western values.

Then, as shock and awe faded into aw shucks, Tucker and the rest of the erstwhile cheerleaders, unable to face the failure of their policies, decided instead that George W. Bush was never a conservative, not a true conservative, and therefore, he must be a liberal. And once again, conservatism is saved from the nefarious schemes that would destroy it -- even one so heinously awful as to install a Republican president who was in reality a goddam god-forsaking librul.

Conservatism can never fail. Never ever.

[Lisa]

18. perfect example of "if you're not with us, you're with the terrorists" ...

That kind of "logic", based on a false choice.

Bush isn't a true conservative, so he must be one of those brie-and-cheese-eating librul elitist intellectuals! (Ooh, he's even been reading books this summer, so it must be true!)

[maxsolomon]

24. um, brie IS a cheese

i would know - i just had some in a marin county hot tub.

guess what i drank? no, i had Verdelho.

[Lisa]

25. that's what they probably told Georgie!

I know it's bad of me (spreading around the Bushisms only seems to encourage him), but I couldn't resist. This is an actual exchange between Bush and someone in the press corps, back in 2001.


DUBYA: Is everybody enjoying themselves here?
REPORTER: I only just got here, so...
DUBYA: Yes, I know. Where have you been?
REPORTER: Sucking up the salt air on the West Coast.
DUBYA: Brie and cheese?
REPORTER: No, tennis.
-- Backfiring putdown of the West Coast, Waco, Texas, Aug. 23, 2001

http://www.dubyaspeak.com/puredubya.phtml?year=2001

[maxsolomon]

28. jesus h christ on a cracker

you know, brie isn't even that exotic (or good). give me the organic camembert i bought in a farmer's market in gualala, ca last saturday. so creamy.

[Lisa]

29. brie on a cracker! Bush certainly has a fixed notion about ...

... what "them libruls" eat. Personally I like the more-solid cheeses, but that's just me. I know that people's tastes here on DU range from salads, sushi, and pasta, through to meat loaf, cabbage rolls, enchiladas, gumbo, curry, various forms of BBQ -- and as for the drinks, if anything those insisting on the stereotypical white wine or fancy mineral water would probably be in the minority.


"The president told Associated Press reporter Scott Lindlaw, who was permitted to follow him on his ranch rounds, that he knew not everybody appreciated the local charm but that more did than you might think -- "Most Americans don't sit in Martha's Vineyard, swilling white wine."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55509-2002Aug23?language=printer

[maxsolomon]

37. lisa i'm trying to be in a good mood today

so stop reminding me of those quotes!

my reaction to that one was "they would if they could, dumbass". except, of course, that 'swilling' wine is a waste. one SIPS wine. 'swilling' is "a deep draft", or "pig slop". what Paul Giamatti did in Sideways.

he has a real inferiority complex with cultured people.

[Lisa]

41. "cultured folk" = anybody who isn't proud about farting in public!

The only consolation is -- his definition sets the bar so low that even I would be considered gracious and refined.

But you're right ... we must try to think positive thoughts, since it's a long holiday weekend coming up, and we want to be able to enjoy it fully.

Think about that wine you had ... I am planning to meet some friends at the market tomorrow (nothing "effete", just a place where the locals sell their fruit and veg, cheese, honey, etc.). I might see if they have any of that mock-Parmesan (price is very reasonable and it tastes great).

[NewJeffCT]

16. Just about 2 years ago, I was in Freeperville, NC

I was on a business trip and got stuck surrounded by Freeper types discussing politics. This was right around labor day 2004, if I recall. Either the week before or the week after. These guys were so Freeperish that they planned their afternoon around Bush's appearance on the Rush Limbaugh show.

But, they were all in agreement that Bush's big problem was that he was NOT conservative enough!

(they also agreed that Clinton deserved to be impeached... the Democratic Party of 2004 was WAY WAY WAY to the left of the Democratic Party of the 1960s... we HAD to invade Iraq (no reason, just "had to")... the Swift Boat book "Unfit for Command" was the most factually correct book in recent memory... and, a few other things that I can't recall right now, but caused me to raise my eyebrow a few times)

[Neecy]

33. that's exactly right

A freeper lives next door to me, and he loves to torment me with his wingnut politics whenever I'm out gardening.

He's never liked Bush (but voted for him twice) because he's "too liberal". He loooooves Dick Cheney, though....almost drools like a Golden Retriever just talking about him.

Whenever he blabbers about Bush being "too liberal" I really wonder if these people don't really want, deep in their hearts, some kind of Franco-like dictatorship here.

[NewJeffCT]

45. I think so

I think John Dean said that 22% of them are "authoritarian" conservatives, those that would accept a dictatorship.

[theanarch]

19. i'll give the former bow-tie boy credit...

...for getting the "...posing as a conservative government" part right; it's what he said before and after that's just loony. Neo-con's are not traditional Republicans of any sort: they do not reflect the isolationist/libertarianism of Goldwater; they do not represent the internationalist/social moderation of Nixon (and yes, relative to today, Tricky was the last New Deal liberal to be president--not that it was apparent at the time); they certainly do not represent the corporate/elitist liberalism of Rockefeller. To Tucker's disconbobulated way of thinking, NOT being any these kinds of traditional Republicans makes Junior's junta "left wing"...instead of the more obviously radical, right wing ("fascistic" cult) government it really is. But then, with the GOP pinning their hopes on the meme of Islam-o-Fascism to win the election, and confusing voters with who is and isn't a fascist won't help Republicans, he reverts to his (and the M$M's) automatic default setting of labeling everything they don't like in politics as "left wing"...which, in this case, seems predicated on not having a "realistic" ME policy. As for how low they can go in terms of intellectual dishonesty, pop a Prozac and relax...it's not even Labor Day, and you ain't seen or heard nothin' yet...

[ComerPerro]

20. see, this is exactly what's wrong, liberals are falling for this BS

this is EXACTLY what a conservative government would do.

Try to regress us to the point of having a theocracy based on their version of Christianity (traditional values), going against socially progressive ideas like tolerance of minorities and homosexuals, a stress on authoritarianism, and, most importantly, deficit spending.

They spend and spend, but probably not as much as a liberal government would, and most certainly not on the same things.

The only reason it seems like they would spend more than a liberal government is because they cut back revenues so much that they plunged us deep into deficit.

Conservative economic policy isn't necessicarily keeping a blanaced budget. They don't give a fuck about that.

They just want a economic policy that does away with domestic spending and social services, gives tax breaks only to the richest citizens, and gives corporate welfare and props up big business with taxpayer money.


That's conservatism.

Nothing pure and noble about it.


And, BTW, Bush's administration is very much conservative.



After all, if the government were truly conservative, there would be no central government at all.

[theanarch]

21. you rather confirm my post with your...

...last statement: "After all, if the government were truly conservative, there would be no central government at all." Exactly: if the neo-con cabal pulling Junior's strings were "truly conservative" they would NOT be spending more money than liberals, unbalancing the budget and piling on the debt. They would NOT be shoving religion down our throats, recinding our civil liberties or pursuing an ideologically-driven, war-o-choice foreign policy, and they certainly would NOT be subscribing to the "unitary executive" theory of presidential dictatorship. Balanced budgets, no debt, literal interpretation of the Bill of Rights, isolationism, and paranoid suspicion of executive power used to be the sin non qua's of "true" conservativism...fact is, neo-con's (in alliance with the Xtian Right, oil companies and war profiteers, and the M$M outlets they own) hijacked the GOP from "true conservatives" in much the same way as the DLC hijacked the DP from "real liberals".

[ComerPerro]

26. did you even read a word I said?

In affirming this myth that somehow this administration (which is backed both financially and morally entirely by "true conservatives") have hijacked the Republican party and conservatism, you are just feeding the lie.

And you're just helping people like John Dean and Lou Dobbs and Tucker Carlson align BushCo's actions (which supposedly aren't conservative, but especially aren't liberal) with liberalism.

The message they are trying to spread, and you and other liberals, like it or not, are helping to spread, is that liberalism is all about large, fascist, oppressive, authoritarian central governments and wasteful spending that sends us into deficits.


It needs to stop.


Granted, their actions aren't "conservative", by definition, but just because right-wing people use the word "conservative" to define themselves doesn't mean they are or aspire to be conservative.

[theanarch]

32. yes, i have read your posts...

...and if you bothered to read mine (instead of reading-into-them), you might have noticed that i explicitely reject the notion that Junior's junta is "liberal"...i'm just trying to explain WHY the M$M, in distancing the GOP from Bush (e.g., congressional candidates from their president), would use this false construction instead of the true construction: that the neo-con cabal is a radical, right-wing cult, based on radical, right-wing ideas that are openly antagonistic to most of what "conservativism" used to stand for (and many still do). In this election season, calling Junior's junta by its proper name (a crypto-fascist menagerie of Revelations-obsessed End-Timers; Third Reich wannabes; predatory capitalists) runs up against the GOP's official campaign theme (scaring the shit out of US with Islam-o-Fascism (TM)). Having the M$M use the same language to describe Bush as the GOP uses to describe Arabs/Muslims (aka, third world resistance to American economic imperialism) will only confuse voters...so the M$M falls back on the one trope they conditioned (like Pavlov's dogs) most Americans to negatively respond to ("liberalism")--it's as if they are trying to be overly counter-intuitive, in suggesting that a vote for a Democrat is a vote for Bush, while a vote for Republicans is a vote for America (as defined by all the policies BushCo. is pursuing; not that they're about to say so in such explicit terms).

Beyond that, you merely presume that i'm a "liberal"; actually, i'm a fairly generic small-s socialist, and a registered Green (rather left of liberalism, i assure you). As a matter of fact, liberalism IS about large, central governments and deficit spending (it's called Keynesian economics); it's when you add such descriptives as "fascist, oppressive, authoritarian and wasteful" that it ceases to be liberal government, and becomes proto-fascist dictatorship. I'd like to think we agree on this much; again, i'm only trying to explain why the M$M isn't portraying it this way.

[ComerPerro]

35. see, this is where I differ. I don't think conservatives stand for

anything, and I think their whole ideology is just ego-stroking mental masturbation, so they can congratulate themselves on how logical and realistic and free and independent they are.

But their policies can never be put into practice, and I think they know that.


What I am advocating is less "our conservative view got hijacked", because it removes conservatism of responsibility.

I would prefer a more honsest assessment from pudits, such as "Conservatism has been tried, and it has failed"

[KamaAina]

22. He must have spun around too many times on that dancing show

all the blood rushed away from his head. :eyes:

[me b zola]

23. Or...

When his dance partner "dipped" Tucker, he was dropped on his head ;)

[Lisa]

31. my co-workers are wondering why I'm laughing so helplessly!

KamaAina and me b zola -- you're cracking me up!

[onenote]

27. that would be Tucker "two left feet" Carlson, right?

actually, I guess he's "Two Right Feet" Carlson...

[me b zola]

40. Close.....

His right foot is attached to his left leg, left foot is attached to his right leg. This explains why he can't distinguish between left and right.

[rock]

30. What we have here is in fact an

extreme right-wing government posing as a conservative government

[me b zola]

42. or...

a corporatacracy posing as a democratic government

[The Wielding Truth]

34. Major Double Talk. Just look at what is really happening.

[Idioteque]

36. Tucker is correct...neoconservative = trotskyist. n/t

[LittleClarkie]

38. How far to the right would you have to be to be farther right

than this administration.

[ItNerd4life]

39. Well, Bush isn't a fiscal conservative.

We all know he has no fiscal responsibility. But everyone knows only Liberals spend money, conservatives never do. That's why the federal defecits grow twice as fast with a Republican president. Oh wait, that's backwards from what wingnuts say. So, does that mean Conservatives are Liberal and Democratic presidents are actually Conservative. Never mind, I'm confusing myself. :crazy:

[Tactical Progressive]

43. BushCo is most assuredly "Conservative"

These modern hard-line Republicans are all "Conservatives", and the Republican electorate absolutely loved them from the start, often opining on how George Bush was a better conservative than Reagan.

These people aren't "neo-cons" or anything else. They are right-wing conservative Republicans through and through. It's only when the results of their conservative civic corruption destroys the world around us, as it has always done, that they start running away and calling everyone else bad, no matter how insane and intentionally self-delusional they have to be, from calling Nazi's 'liberals' to lately calling themselves 'anti-fascist'. They are the fascists; they are the modern-day Nazis, and if they could they'd revoke everything they don't like about society and the Constitution and head straight down the path of all fascists, which is the unquestionable right to exercise as much power as horridly as they choose to inflict on whoever they don't like.

[Beelzebud]

44. This IS a right-wing meme making the rounds. I've heard from ppl I know.

Calling Bush a liberal...

The right wingers have no fucking shame. They know bush is shit, so instead of taking responsibility for who they vote for, they just say he's a liberal...

[Cha]

46. No punditheadfucker is going

to say that "this government is the Insane wing of the government."

[nomaco-10]

53. I was bored and channel surfing....

the other night when tucker was on a tirade about jeff's arrest not being important enough to be in the top ten of the FBI. Freedom of religion and being an Amurikan and all that. No stem cell research, but you can ravage and defile any girl under the age of nine. He now fancies himself an independent, libertarian or some such bullshit to escape the label "republican" to advance his media whore efforts to stay on tv.

[nomaco-10]

54. edit dbl post . new computer, sorry.

[davekriss]

56. The good news is that...

...the Republican party, after 6 years of dismal failure, have been reduced to hysterical finger pointing ("it wasn't me! it was them other 'false' Republicans, those secret agents of Bill Clinton, that got us into this mess!").