(h/t Heather)

There is an old saying that it is better to stay silent and thought the fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. I suspect that there are many on TV who would be wise to take that advice.

Take for example, Meghan McCain. I actually kind of like her, because she's shown a rare independence, refusing to simply spew the same talking points of other Republicans and some sass when dealing with the hackiest of the right wing hacks who take cheap pot shots at her. But there's no doubt that she is very young and perhaps needs a little more historical perspective before opining on national television.

It all got started during a discussion of George Bush, who McCain acknowledged was a less than perfect president. But McCain also pointed a finger at the Obama administration in Bush's defense, saying she felt that the Obama administration "has to stop completely blaming everything on its predecessor." When Maher asked McCain if she really thought this is what Obama is doing, McCain said "I do to a degree." A clearly annoyed Begala immediately shook his head and said "not to enough of a degree, I'm sorry not nearly enough." He then began to explain how President Reagan blamed Jimmy Carter for years, to which McCain responded blithely "you know I wasn't born yet so I wouldn't know." Going in for the kill, Begala fired back "I wasn't born during the French Revolution but I know about it."

McCain then reverts to the tried and true Republican tactic of playing the victim:

You clearly know everything and I'm just the blond sitting here.

Meghan, Meghan, Meghan...you can stand up to Laura Ingraham and yet you just wilt in front of Paul Begala and play victim? Is it having facts and an actual historical perspective instead of just making crap up to play to the lowest common denominator that intimidates you?

Laura Ingraham filled in for Bill O'Reilly last night, and demonstrated that she might actually have some of O'Reilly's chops. For instance, just like O'Reilly, she was able to look in the camera and flat-out lie with a straight face. That's quite a gift.

Indeed, she delivered her a defense of her recent unkind remarks about Meghan McCain with a certain frozen-mask bravado -- by nakedly claiming she didn't actually say what everyone can hear her saying:

Ingraham: Let the record show: I never called Meghan McCain fat! She isn't! And as I have repeatedly said on my radio show and on Fox, she is an attractive young woman. If that throwaway comic line highlighted anything, it was Hollywood's obsession with stick-figure women!

Hmmm. Well, here's the transcript from her radio show:

MCCAIN (on MSNBC): And I think there's an extreme on both parties and I hate extreme. I don't understand. I have friends that are the most radically conservative and radically liberal people possibly ever and we all get along. We can find a middle ground.

INGRAHAM (mocking): OK, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in the Real World, but then I realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models. They only like the women who look a certain way. And on this 50th anniversary of Barbie, I really have something to say.

It's all part of a left-wing conspiracy to silence Ingraham, you see. That's what it's about:

Ingraham: The Obama attack dogs can twist my words, engage in emotional exploitation, and distort my intentions. But they will never, ever, silence me.

Later on the program, she had on John Gibson, who plumped up her vast-liberal-media-conspiracy by assuring her that the "attacks" on her were a result of Obamabots looking for something to distract from the boss's failures. Snigger.

Along with Gibson was poor Julie Menin, the day's designated liberal pinata. (Why anyone agrees to go on these shows and face these kinds of setups is beyond me.) Ingraham goes off on her:

Menin: Listen, I think she got this spot because you targeted her weight. And you can say that it was --

Ingraham: No no no no no no no. Out of order. Out of order. You've gotta get the facts right. A lot's been distorted in the last week and I'm not gonna let it happen on this show. She wrote a column criticizing Ann Coulter, saying the Republican Party needed to go moderate to attract women. OK, that's what she did. She got invited on the Rachel Maddow Show. I then did a riff on how cable bookers are desperate for guests and just keep recycling the same guests -- taking her on Rachel Maddow. Then I did a satirical bit -- which I do a lot on talk radio. And that is what happened. This diversion about -- 'Oh, it's about her weight' -- My point was that she has no real world political experience to make the case for moderation.

Ai yi yi. That is one lame rationalization. I bet she tried the same thing with her professors when she turned in her papers late: Those damned evil liberals made her do it.

And Laura? Really, no one's trying to silence you. Honest. Please, keep talking.

You would think that John McCain would stick up for his own daughter against the right-wing kook fringe like Coulter and Ingraham after she was attacked not over her ideas, but her body composition, right? I mean any father would say to knock that off. It's out of line. The Limbaugh National Committee already hates him. And he still couldn't do the fatherly thing. What a guy. What a dad.
Digby explains.

Today, in his “Twitterview” with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) shied away from condemning Ingraham’s gratuitous attacks on his daughter. Stephanopoulos asked McCain, “What do you think of Meghan’s feud with Coulter and Ingraham?” McCain first said, “I’m proud of my daughter and she has a right to her opinions.” When asked if he agrees with his daughter, McCain did not say, simply stating, “like any family we agree on some things and disagree on others.”

What kind of a man is this that he can't even defend his daughter against personal insults from the likes of Laura Ingraham? He doesn't even have a political motivation, as low and cynical as that might be. He won't be running for president again. He's never been a favorite of the right wing and has no reason to curry favor with them now. Everything we know about him would suggest that he thinks right-wingers like Coulter are political poison. They sure aren't friends of his.

I think he believes that Megan deserves to be spoken to like that because he probably speaks to her that way himself. Although she's quite lovely, she's not physically a perfect Barbie like her mother or Sarah Palin -- or Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham -- which is what he thinks is important in a woman. So he can't bring himself to defend her. She asked for it.

Whenever I find myself getting down about something the Obama administration is doing, all I have to do is picture that man occupying the White House in my head and I immediately bring myself back from the brink. Imagine...read on

I know families can be complicated, I have to deal with my 82 year old father who just pulled a not-so-smart move that I'm not happy about, but who doesn't have a "family issue?" I wouldn't stand for a character attack on him, though. So I'm kinda shocked that John McCain used Twitter to comment about his daughter, and it's kinda disturbed that he hung her out to dry.

The Hot Line's Jennifer Skalka is even shocked by this exchange between Republicans, although she thinks it's more about the hatred konservatives have for John McCain which I disagree with. It's about Meghan calling out the nuts. I do agree with her that the GOP is losing the youth of America.

Skalka: I think it's all a little bit ugly and when it devolves into the talk of women's bodies. Women talking about other women's bodies, that's never a good thing.

I guess the term "compassionate conservative" is lost on Laura Ingraham. In a nasty rant against John McCain's daughter over Meghan's feelings about Ann Coulter and the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, Ingraham attacked Meghan's weight.

MCCAIN (on MSNBC): And I think there's an extreme on both parties and I hate extreme. I don't understand. I have friends that are the most radically conservative and radically liberal people possibly ever and we all get along. We can find a middle ground.

INGRAHAM (mocking): Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in the Real World, but then I realized that, well, they don't like plus-sized models. They only like the women who look a certain way. And on this 50th anniversary of Barbie, I really have something to say

On ABC's The View, McCain struck back.

“It infuriates me,” she said. “I’m a political writer on a blog, and all of a sudden I’m too fat to write?” The View’s conservative co-host, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, called Ingraham’s remarks “a low blow.”

McCain said she felt like Tyra Banks when the model “went on her show in her bathing suit and said, ‘Kiss my fat ass.’” “That’s what I feel right now,” McCain said. “I’m like, ‘Kiss my fat ass!’”

Ingraham quickly responded to McCain once again on her show, telling McCain that she needs to learn to deal with satire and “teasing.”

I'm loving this I have to tell you. The kooky right wingers which have overtaken the GOP are really turning ugly.

I wonder how many "plus-sized models" call themselves members of the Republican Party? I think Laura lost a few fans.

UPDATE: Jon reminded me of this. Meghan should also ask her father about what it's like---being a sensitive republican. John McCain's crude Chelsea Clinton joke

John McCain made this odious joke about Chelsea Clinton back in '98.

Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

-- Sen. John McCain, speaking to a Republican dinner, June 1998.

Jon Perr has the history behind it.

Fox News' Sean Hannity doesn't let his religion get in the way for his support of a controversial anti-terror tactic.

Hannity invited Meghan McCain on his show to talk about a court filing by 9/11 defendants detained at Guantanamo Bay. The group of detainees had admitted that they were "terrorists to the bone."

"They declared war on us and we're fighting a war and we know there is about 60-some odd detainees that have gone back to the battlefield. Why for the first time ever would we give rights to enemy combatants?" asked Hannity.

Meghan McCain seemed to agree. "What competent person thinks this is a good idea? Literally when I think of my brother and his people and his platoon, the people I know over there fighting for this so we can let them go so they can attack us again? It's insane," she said.

Hannity then moved to the subject of torture. "Do you disagree with your dad at all about enhanced interrogations?" asked Hannity. John McCain has been vocal about his opposition to torture.

"My attitude is that if we capture an enemy combatant in the battlefield -- or we can use Osama bin Laden -- who may have information about a pending attack. You know what, I don't have any problem taking his head sticking it underwater and scaring the living daylights out of him and making him think we're drowning him and I'm a Christian," declared Hannity.

McCain disagreed. "I think it's what separates us from the terrorists . My father could never lift me up as a child because he can't move his arm. He can't ride a bike because he can't bend his knee because he was tortured. I think he knows better," she said.

Meghan McCain has been a busy girl lately. I read her piece about having problems dating because all the Republican guys want her to be their Cindy was interesting.

Somewhere in between college and the election, I started allowing politics to dictate the kind of men I date. And the worst part is, it’s not just Obama supporters who turn me off—it’s often my father’s.

One extreme fan of my mother’s recently told me I could be “his Cindy.” And then asked me if I ever wore pearls because they probably would look as good on me as they do on my mother.

Hey, what about dating a good liberal guy who couldn't care less about your politics? Anyway, here's what she has to say about Ann Coulter:

Coulter could be the poster woman for the most extreme side of the Republican Party. And in some ways I could be the poster woman for the opposite. I consider myself a progressive Republican, but here is what I don’t get about Coulter: Is she for real or not? Are some of her statements just gimmicks to gain publicity for her books or does she actually believe the things she says? Does she really believe all Jewish people should be “perfected” and become Christians? And what was she thinking when she said Hillary Clinton was more conservative than my father during the last election? If you truly have the GOP’s best interests at heart, how can you possibly justify telling an audience of millions that a Democrat would be a better leader than the Republican presidential candidate? (I asked Ann for comment on this column, including many of the above questions, but she did not answer my request.)

I am not suggesting that extreme conservatism wasn’t once popular, nor am I suggesting I should in any way be any kind of voice for the party. I have been a Republican for less than a year. Still, even after losing the election, I find myself more drawn to GOP ideals and wanting to fight for the party’s resurgence. And if figureheads like Ann Coulter are turning me off, then they are definitely turning off other members of my generation as well. She does appeal to the most extreme members of the Republican Party—but they are dying off, becoming less and less relevant to the party structure as a whole. I think most people my age are like me in that we all don’t believe in every single ideal of each party specifically.

It's very interesting watching the GOP try to regroup as a party. There is a real disconnect between the Limbaugh National Committee and other republicans who feel these freak shows do not speak for them. Meagan puts Coulter into that same boat while Michael Steele has been a real embarrassment for the RNC as a whole. But many of them can only blame themselves for what the GOP has become. There are no moderates in their party and if "you" don't conform to the Coulter/Limbaugh/Dobson party them "you" are left in the dust. Good times, good times.