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Howard Kurtz points out the hypocrisy by those on the right and at Fox News who had a hissy fit over Alan Grayson calling a lobbyist a whore, but ignoring Glenn Beck calling Mary Landrieu a prostitute. The guy from The National Review's answer killed me.

GERAGHTY: I think I expect more out of a member of Congress than the 5:00 p.m. hour of FOX News.

Well, so do I but that doesn't excuse Glenn Beck for that pile of dung he calls a television show. I also don't think it's is a fair comparison. Grayson didn't call the lobbyist a street walker like Beck did Landrieu. He used the term whore which can also mean "a venal or unscrupulous person".

KURTZ: You know, a few weeks ago on this program, I talked about why I thought that CNN and MSNBC and other news outlets should have devoted more attention to something that Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson said. He called a lobbyist a "K Street whore."

FOX News went wild on this story. I thought it was underplayed elsewhere.

Now we have Glenn Beck using a similar term on FOX News. Let me play that for you and we'll come back on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN BECK: Well, I'm sorry. So we know you're hooking, but you're just not cheap. It's $300 million...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KURTZ: OK. He's talking there about Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, who did get a provision in order to get her support for breaking the filibuster on the health care bill, $300 million for Louisiana.

He said she was hooking. He basically called her a prostitute.

Let's go back a couple of weeks to what Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin were saying on FOX News when the Alan Grayson "whore" comment was made.

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From Morning Meeting Nov. 25, 2009, Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi and the Financial Times' Chrystia Freeland discuss Matt's recent article at Rolling Stone and the divide between the recoveries on Wall Street and Main Street. Their analysis about what's wrong with the economic team Obama has surrounded himself with is spot on and until he starts listening to some different voices on how to fix our economy, Matt Taibbi is correct, the cycles of bailouts are going to continue to repeat themselves.

Ratigan: But Matt’s ultimate point is that we have all these people that are still perpetuating a policy that is supportive of the banking system for sure, regardless of who’s in there and an economy that is, has small business lending off a cliff, profits back at a record on Wall Street, one in four, one in seven mortgages delinquent; you know I could go on and on with these statistics but basically the economy was torpedoed and the financial markets were supported and the reality Matt is that it’s far more profitable not to lend money In this country. The fact of the matter is we’re giving banks money at a time when the government has rules that say you can make more money if we give you money if you don’t lend it.

Taibbi: Right…right…

Ratigan: And that is the inherent insanity of the entire situation. It’s like giving the banks money, legalizing the banks to make money without having to lend it is like letting the cops create a military state. They’re the custodians of wealth, the custodians of security have been completely compromised—you think it’s the people around the President that are largely responsible for that, correct?

Taibbi: I think so. I mean you have to remember that probably, if you were going to have a Nuremberg for the financial crisis, Bob Rubin would be one of the first people on the dock.

Ratigan: Yeah.

Taibbi: I mean he has a unique responsibility for what went wrong because he was not only responsible for the bad policy, the deregulatory policy under Clinton but he also helped destroy one of the biggest companies in the world in CitiGroup. And yet he was the guy who was put in charge and his people of being the architect of Clinton’s economic policies.

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While I definitely do not agree with Dylan Ratigan on a host of issues, the one thing I've found refreshing about his show is that the guests had better not come on there and start spouting mindless talking points without expecting to be challenged on them--because they will be if they do, and forcefully as Betsy McCaughey found out the hard way about a month ago. Rep. Pete King was no exception today. With some help from Chrystia Freeland, Ratigan calls out Rep. Pete King for distorting what's in the House health care bill.

King asked for everyone to come join the Tea Baggers "press conference" on Capitol hill today and trotted out the tired old line about being able to buy insurance across state lines as a cost saving measure and allowing people "the freedom to choose" their health insurance provider. He also said that 85% of people are happy with their insurance companies and that Pelosi's plan would "cancel every policy".

Ratigan pointed out that it is not true that people are happy with their insurance companies and that the GOP bill would not assure more choices. Freeland noted that allowing people to cross state lines to buy insurance would just mean a race to the bottom and companies going to the states with the least regulations and make it even harder with people with pre-existing conditions to get coverage.

King and the rest of the GOP have nothing but the same tired rhetoric to offer on what their idea of “reform” is. They’re more worried about getting the Tea Baggers whipped into a frenzy than anything that resembles legislating.