JIMMY WILLIAMS: One person is controlling the agenda of the United States of America right now and his name is Grover Norquist.
Grover Norquist was Newt Gingrich's butt buddy. He was Jack Abramoff's close friend and laundered money from Native Americans. He charged people $25,000 a pop to go to a Bush White House signing ceremony. He is a petty criminal. And he's made just about every single member of the House of Representatives on the Republican, not the Tea Party, the Republican side, and almost all Republican senators sign a pledge saying that they will never ever for the rest of their lives raise taxes.
I need to know, first of all, do we have on the Left a Grover Norquist? And if we don't, why not?
I don't think it's appropriate for a panelist on a televised news program to use such a crass term as butt buddy.
MSNBC is really a mess.
There is a lack of decency. It's vulgar stuff. This level of discourse at the cable network reflects horribly on NBC News. This gathering place for Leftists is a disgrace.
I know they're desperate for ratings and they're trying to appeal to the fringe Left, but how low are they willing to go?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with the Joker. Remember him? He was played by Jack Nicholson in that great “Batman” movie by Tim Burton. He was the key to the movie. Why? Because his dark world of malevolence and revenge set in contrast the goodwill, generosity and glamour of our hero. He was to the movie on the bad side what Batman was on the good. Batman stands on tall buildings looking for evil to be perpetrated, people to be saved. The Joker looks for ways to manipulate public opinion, interrupt the TV news, and bring his evil intentions and motives and instincts into reality.
Maybe the President today is our Batman, trying to do good, a bit mysterious, a bit cool and technocratic, a bit removed from the world of emotions, but right, right there on the side of good, always using his brains and wit to look out for the people in trouble. Well, maybe he's not that good.
No, Newt Gingrich is a far better Joker than Barack Obama is our Batman, that wide demonic smile of his, too much smile, not even a twitch of heart behind it, all guile, all dark delight in the menace he can dredge from the afternoon newspaper, the fears of people on the street, the midnight dread of what might be coming in an uncertain world and time.
Newt Gingrich, like all the bad guys of the Batman world, has now gotten caught up in his own nasty ploys. He’s just so instinctively looking for the next chance to attack he loses control even on his own bad attitude. “Life’s been good to me,” the Joker tells us on his comeback from the past, his face repainted to cover the horror, his smile deluding none of us instead being an unintended warning.
The joker is out there again, and no one's safe from his menace, least of all himself.
Matthews has really gone off the deep end. It's almost scary. He's so over the top.
The funny thing is Gingrich isn't the comic book villain Matthews makes him out to be.
Nick Espinosa, a "gay rights" protester, dumped a box of glittery confetti on presidential candidate Newt Gingrich while he was holding a book signing with his wife, Callista.
The Gingriches were participating in a book signing before the Minnesota Family Council’s annual dinner in Minneapolis when a protestor by the name of Nick Espinosa opened a box containing glitter and dumped it over the two of them.
“Feel the rainbow, Newt,” Espinosa said as he poured the box of glitter over Gingrich’s head. “Stop the hate. Stop anti-gay politics. It’s dividing our country and it’s not fixing our economy."
ABC News rewarded Espinosa's childish assault on Gingrich by giving the guy a forum.
The glitter culprit is Nick Espinosa, a 24 year old unemployed non profit worker turned social activist from Minneapolis, Minn. Espinosa worked with a non-profit helping unemployed people for two years before being laid off due to budget cuts. His encounter with Newt on Tuesday was in protest to Gingrich’s stance on gay marriage.
“Today, I invited Newt to feel the rainbow because he decided to bring his anti-gay politics to my state,” Espinosa told ABC News Tuesday night. “Newt has a long history of anti-gay politics and has chosen to focus on divisive social issues instead of working to fix our economy. I don’t think a free will adulterer like Newt has any ground to stand up while telling others who they can and can’t love.”
Gingrich isn’t the only Republican candidate with whom Espinosa has a problem. He also has some beef with potential candidate and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
“His playbook is one that we see across the board with Republicans, focusing on divisive social issues like gay marriage that don’t do anything to fix our economy and then proposing as a solution to our budget crisis, cuts in social spending for the working families in Minnesota and across the country, and I don’t think that’s the way to solve our budget crisis either.”
This wasn’t the first prank styled protest Espinosa conducted. His first protest came in 2009 when he infiltrated a Tea Party rally against immigration, in which he developed a fake name, Robert Erickson, to obtain a spot on the speaker’s list. Espinosa delivered a speech focused on anti-European immigration in which he talked about Christopher Columbus and chanted “Columbus Go Home!” In July 2009, he dumped 2,000 pennies on Tom Emmer, a Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota, as a “tip” in protest against a proposal to cut wages for servers and bartenders. See the video here.
“It’s one of many tactics that can be used to create social change. You’ve seen examples of pranks having a lot of success recently,” Espinosa said. “Adding this bit of humor into the political debate and I think it’s a really good way to get people’s attention when they might not otherwise pay attention.”
So why did he pick glitter for Newt?
“I think glitter’s fun. I think it was a nice makeover for his campaign. And in fact if he needs anymore glitter, I have some left over.”
I get the feeling that ABC News thinks the glitter dump was fun, too.
Contrary to what Espinosa believes, dumping a box of glitter on a public figure is NOT "one of many tactics that can be used to create social change."
It's an entirely inappropriate and completely ineffective tactic.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. employed effective tactics. He wasn't disrespectful. He made appeals that influenced the consciences of people. He appealed to their goodness. He didn't do something lame like toss glitter on someone to bring about social change.
Appearing on The O'Reilly Factor, Jon Stewart admits that Obama hasn't lived up to his expectations. But, he thinks that maybe he expected too much from Obama.
Poor disillusioned Jon Stewart.
Here's video:
Stewart also discusses the Republican 2012 presidential field.
NEWT GINGRICH: I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering. I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate.
Gingrich had to back off his remarks. He claimed he was taken out of context by "gotcha media."
It's not good that Gingrich started off his campaign with this firestorm.
"With allies like that, who needs the left?" Ryan quipped, during an interview on Laura Ingraham's radio show.
Conservatives in the media weren't the only ones shaking their heads over Gingrich's comments. At least one voter in Iowa was very angry about the way Gingrich attacked Paul Ryan. That voter had the opportunity to tell Gingrich exactly how he felt.
