Libby Lover Lands New Gig To Protest His Innocence

What is CNN doing, recomposing The Bush Grindhouse, or, a Reader's Digest-version of the White House Iraq Group (you remember, Andy Card's in-house ad agency charged with selling the lies to invade and occupy Iraq).

And, HER, of all people.



Among other atrocities, the chief fundraiser/letter-writer for the Scooter Libby Defense Fund.

Mary Matalin signs on as CNN contributor

Republican strategist Mary Matalin has signed on to serve as a CNN political contributor, the network announced Thursday.

[snip]

"As one of the best-known and best-connected strategists in the country, Mary will join our line up of top Republican analysts including Bill Bennett, Alex Castellanos, and Ed Rollins," said Sam Feist, CNN political director and vice president of Washington programming. "We are thrilled that CNN viewers will be able to tap into Mary's vast political experience advising candidates and presidents from both inside and outside of the White House."

Matalin, a veteran political commentator, served as a senior White House advisor to both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. She was a key strategist in President George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign, and was appointed chief of staff for the Republican National Committee after his successful bid. She was also a key strategist in the 1992, 2000 and 2004 Republican presidential campaigns.

Nearly a year ago, John Mashek, in U.S. News and World Report, called Matalin "worst of the new breed of political consultants";

Matalin learned her politics from the late Lee Atwater, a gunslinger from South Carolina. In this cycle, Matalin signed on first with the presidential quest of then Sen. George Allen of Virginia before Allen imploded in his 2006 Senate race. She then moved over to former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who was an early dropout.

This is the same Matalin who was a close adviser to Vice President Cheney in the controversial run-up to the war in Iraq and its disastrous aftermath.

I mean, Jesus, they almost have enough PartyofNoicans to filibuster Obama.

Something Steve Benen also bemoans;

Matalin not only joins the growing list of Republican analysts on CNN's political team (joining Bill Bennett, Alex Castellanos, and Ed Rollins), she's also the latest former staffer in the Bush White House to make the transition to jobs with major media outlets.

It's hard to keep up with them all. Michael Gerson (Washington Post), Sara Taylor (MSNBC), Tony Snow (CNN), Frances Fragos Townsend (CNN), Nicole Wallace (CBS News), Dan Bartlett (CBS News), Jeff Ballabon (CBS News), Tony Fratto (CNBC) and, of course, Karl Rove (Fox News, Newsweek, and Wall Street Journal) have all gone from working for Bush/Cheney to working for the mainstream media.

It was just last Fall, just before the election, that CNN added the #1 Cheney Fluffer to their ranks, Stephen Hayes.

I wonder, if she helps John King with his questions, will he let her play with his Magic Board.

The thing to watch is how often she brings up how completely innocent Scooter Libby was, working him into storylines, and her convoluted answers, of ignoring reality and pumping up the Bush Grindhouse.

One thing, for "the best political team on television" to make this a bit more easier to swallow, if that is, at all, possible.

Use their arsenal of High Tech Hijinks to do something with THAT VOICE of hers.

At least coach her to speak using her mouth, instead of her nose.

Or hire Fran Drescher, to balance it out.

The Question John King Didn't Ask

The blogosphere is all aflame today, with the big interview by CNN's John King, with former Shadow President, the VP Dick Cheney (go to Memeoradum, now, or earlier today).



Cheney dissed President Obama, stuck to the script on his disastrous record, and pissed-and-moaned how Scooter Libby is innocent, and a really great guy.

Most of the posts (we'll have a cavalcade of them below) were, of course, slapping Cheney upside-the-head, as he included, in defending the financial meltdown of the country, stating with a "So" attitude, the Rumsfeldian gem of "Stuff Happens".

There was one exception, naturally, by The Politico's Mike Allen, who achieved the remarkable feat of licking Cheney's boots from miles away, The with not one, but two posts on it.

But, since CNN reminds us, about every five-seconds, that they have "the best political team on television", how is that King, without his customary magic board, blow it, miss the BIG GET, and not ask the former Shadow President about the Death Squads he was (maybe still is) running?

I mean, that dropped on us in the past week (mixed in with other Torture News of The Bush Grindhouse) with, despite the evil we already know about, like the mushroom clouds The Commander Guy's keeper used to gush about all the time.

Storied journalist says Cheney oversaw "executive assassination ring"

Cheney’s Assassination Squads

Hersh: 'Executive assassination ring' reported directly to Cheney

Robert Stein, on Connecting The Dots, posited;

Until now, President Obama has been discouraging retrospective investigations of Bush lawbreaking by Sen. Patrick Leahy, but Hersh has opened an ugly can of worms that can't be resealed.

Stopping the operation of American death squads, as the Commander-in-Chief has just apparently done, is one thing. But now that news about them has been made public by the most respected investigative reporter of our time, it's unthinkable that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will not be called to answer for possible war crimes.

It very likely, has King asked the question, Cheney would have huffed it off as "garbage", but if King didn't cower (I suppose, he did have to think about, like, if his car brakes would work on the way home, or would his house have an "accidental" gas leak and blow up), it would have been fascinating to hear what Cheney would say.

Would he go off on a tangent, how he, and the other cronies, had the task to keep us safe, and you don't do that by playing tiddlywinks.

King could have gotten, for the record, the first public response on, answering the question if a then-sitting Vice President was running a Death Squads.

How could he let that one go by?

There he was, the glob of molten evil, sitting right in front of him, and he babbles on about Cheney having a Blackberry, and Cheney now driving himself around now, bemoaning how he doesn't get his cooked intelligence reports anymore (over-easy, sunny-lies up).

I am fairly certain, the "best political team on television" would have asked the question.

I guess, we'll have to wait for the War Crimes Trial, to get the dirt.


Bonus Darth Vader Speaks! Riffs

CNN Video: Cheney says Obama's policies 'raise the risk' of U.S. terror attack

Faiz Shakir: Cheney’s Excuse For Economic Failures Under His Watch: ‘Stuff Happens’

Jon Perr: Cheney's "Stuff Happens" Defense of Republican Failure

DownWithTyranny: The Cheney Quartet For The Future Of The GOP: Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, Rob Portman & Mark Sanford

Ron Chusid: Dick Cheney Still Does Not Understand How To Prevent Terrorist Attacks

Matthew Yglesias: The Cheney Factor

Taylor Marsh: Dick Cheney Ignores that 9/11 Happened on Their Watch

MediaMatters: John King cites Human Events headline, asks Cheney, "Is the president of the United States trying to brazenly deceive the American people?"