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(Sen. Claude Pepper - withstood many attempts at mud-slinging)

It's always interesting (and sometimes gratifying) to hear Sunday Morning talk shows from the past, just as a way of reminding yourself things were never as bad as they are now with mainstream media.

Case in point is certainly Meet The Press. Originally begun in 1946 as a feature on the Mutual Broadcast System Radio Network before switching to NBC in 1947, it was the brainchild of Martha Rountree and Lawrence Spivak and produced in association with American Mercury Magazine (of which Spivak was Publisher), Meet The Press pulled no punches and offered some serious grilling to whatever guest happened to be invited on. It prided itself in not asking canned questions and sometimes the results were newsworthy in themselves.

This episode, from November 27, 1947 features Senator Claude Pepper (D-Florida), himself an outspoken FDR Democrat, talking about our Post-war foreign aid policy and what needed to be done about it in view of the increasing presence of Communism in Eastern Europe.

Sen. Claude Pepper: “I’m in favor of spreading democracy in every part of the world. But there are many ways to spread democracy. You can’t cram democracy down the throats of people. And you can’t buy them off from Communism. We haven’t got enough money to buy the people of the world off from Communism. The best way, in my opinion, to spread democracy is to establish democracy so firmly here, that we’ll be able to propagate it to all nations and peoples of the world, we’ll be able to help them, we’ll set them a good example and the like . . not to buy them or cram it down their throats. . .

Lawrence Spivak: “ . . but certainly Senator we oughtn’t help those who are spreading totalitarianism . . or should we?

Pepper: Mister Spivak, we and the Communists have been living in this world a good many years together. Karl Marx started talking about Communism as you know in the last century. And it seems to me that unless we are willing to be blown to some other world to get away from a world where communism exists, we’ve got to live in a world with Communism. And they’ve got to live in a world with Capitalism. And the sensible thing to do is to learn to live together. We’ve got to live together whether we like it or not.”

Needless to say, Pepper didn't endear himself to the right wing fear mongers in the Senate, who nicknamed him "Red Pepper" and repeatedly attempted to smear him during the 1950's.

Times have changed - so have the people and so have the politicians.

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(Senator Kenneth Keating, 1962 - Politics with a civil tongue)

I don't think it's any surprise that Sunday Morning talk shows have changed dramatically over the years. Formats are no longer the same. Programs like Meet The Press and Face The Nation were only two of the almost dozen programs on most weekends. Usually a panel of three interviewers fielding questions to a single guest. The questions ran the gamut but they were always on point and they always dealt with real issues and real concerns to most people.

The days of news as info-tainment were a long ways off.

One of the more popular shows was a radio-only series run on CBS called "Capitol Cloakroom". This show, typical of their format, featuring George Herman, Wells Church and Nancy Dickerson was from May 6, 1962 featuring newly elected Senator Kenneth Keating (R-New York). The questions were regarding legislation introduced by the Kennedy Administration, including the Medicare Bill (which died the first time in 1962).

Keating gives his assessment of the first year of the JFK administration.

Wells Church(CBS News):

“It would appear to the casual viewer that things are in trouble. What’s the situation, really?”

Senator Keating:

“Well, not only a casual observer but I would think anyone intimately associated with the entire program would realize that the Administration program is in trouble. You could go right down through the list. The Medical Care for the Aged is opposed by the Democratic Chairman, both in the house and in the Senate of the committees that deal with that matter. The tax bill passed the House, but as Senator Byrd, the Chairman of the Finance committee in the Senate has said it doesn’t seem to have the support of anyone – I don’t know of anybody that’s for the tax bill, if the House bill were before the Senate today I’d vote against it."

No drama. No screaming. Nothing shrill. Just solid information about the goings on in Capitol Hill.

Kind of refreshing. Makes you wonder when did it all go wrong.

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The Villagers were up in arms Sunday morning over on the set of ABC's This Week about the possibility that Eric Holder might appoint a special someone to look into the Bush/Cheney torture practices. Watch in awe and see how the Villagers feel about trying to get accountability from the Bush years.

Why, an investigation would just trash the place. Oh, the bitterness in D.C. would be too much to handle, all because those other people (that is, non-Villagers) would like to get to the truth.

Bob Woodward, who's trying to be the next David Broder by living off his long-degraded rep as the man who uncovered Watergate, wonders how we will ever be able to keep secrets again if there is some inspection. Um, isn't that what the Bob Woodwardses are supposed to do? Uncover stuff? Nope, not anymore. He's appalled that there might be a frakking investigation.

And he was all a-giggle with the thought that the CIA could actually lie. What a joke. I didn't hear him open his mouth when Newt Gingrich went all whiggy on Nancy Pelosi.

Cokie goes "Cokie" on us for a while and then after much trepidation comes down on the rule of law. Good for her, but she better take some R&R if it happens.

ROBERTS: I must say, I have very mixed minds about this. Because on the one hand, the whole idea of a prosecution gets Washington into that kind of horrible slog where everybody hates each other and the poison just gets very thick.

DONALDSON: Unlike at the moment, right?

ROBERTS: Well, no, it hasn’t been as bad lately as it was in the last 16 years.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And it seems like they’re trying to avoid at least in the design of this, criminalizing of policy.

ROBERTS: And just the whole atmosphere of getting that way again. On the other hand, the rule of law is terribly important. And we have to have it -- you know, we cannot operate in this country without the rule of law.

DONALDSON: So which hand do you come down on?

ROBERTS: I’d probably come down on the rule of law.

Digby writes much more:

Stephanopoulos reported on This Week that the possible Holder investigation is going to be very narrow and will not pursue policy makers or anyone who took orders directly from the policymakers. He's going after "rogue interrogators" who inflicted more torture than was strictly allowed.

The Village roundtable all gasped in horror anyway because who knows where such an investigation might lead and as Cokie complained, it would mean that the whole town would be mad at each other again and nobody wants that! "Everybody hates each other and the poison gets very thick." She did finally come down on the side of following the rule of law even though it would make her uncomfortable at cocktail parties, but it was a close thing.

Bob Woodward was very upset at the idea that the government can't keep secrets because "we need them!" Besides, Holder shouldn't be like Janet Reno and just initiate investigations willy nilly. (He seems to think that Reno authorizing independent counsels to investigate her own president for trivial political reasons is the same thing as investigating whether the previous administration tortured prisoners.) They all chuckled at the notion that Holder was really independent and if he is, that means he's a rogue interrogator himself.

George Will thought it was all just a bunch of balderdash because nothing bad ever happened during the Bush administration. Sam Donaldson said that reporters should probably pursue stories and Donna Brazile added that these things were coming out anyway so they might as well be investigated.

They all snorted and giggled and laughed throughout the whole segment about how silly it was to be upset that the CIA lied because well, that's what it does. And they all thought it was a ripping good joke that Cheney kept everything secret because well, everyone knows that's what he does. Hahahahaha.

Full transcript below the fold.

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I really can't take watching the Sunday morning shows anymore. It's infuriating to watch hosts like Bob Schieffer (not to single him out) just ask basic questions about the issues, have no facts on hand and rarely ask a follow up. It's a talking points wonder. What's so frustrating is that the networks have the resources to really fact check and dig deep into policy like on the health care debate, but instead the McConnell's are just asked to comment on proposals or rumors.

Appearing on CBS' Face The Nation Sunday, McConnell told host Bob Schieffer that Mr. Obama's plan for a government health insurance plan would essentially crowd out other insurers from the private market, eliminating competition.

"We can make incredible improvements in American health care, but I don't think having more government — in effect putting Washington between you and your doctor — is the way to go."

Schieffer countered McConnell's contention that the Obama plan would choose (or deny) which treatments a covered individual may get; the White House is not proposing any kind of rationing board, he said. He also repeated the administration's assertion that a public insurance plan would give people another option. "If they want to keep their private insurance, that's OK," Schieffer said.

"I know they say that, Bob," McConnell countered, "but if the government is in the insurance business there won't be any other insurers, it's inevitable."

"All of that really ought to be put aside if we want to get a truly bi-partisan proposal," he said bluntly.

The Republicans and bought off Democrats don't want real competition in the Health Industrial Complex, period. If they love the free market so much then make the health insurance have to compete against something other than their brethren. Do you trust the HIC to actually come through on any of their promises?

How about if CBS puts a few of their crack reporters to work to explain why so many Americans go bankrupt because of health care issues with a large number of them already being covered? The American Journal of Medicine:

Results:

Using a conservative definition, 62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical; 92% of these medical debtors had medical debts over $5000, or 10% of pretax family income. The rest met criteria for medical bankruptcy because they had lost significant income due to illness or mortgaged a home to pay medical bills. Most medical debtors were well educated, owned homes, and had middle-class occupations. Three quarters had health insurance. Using identical definitions in 2001 and 2007, the share of bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 49.6%. In logistic regression analysis controlling for demographic factors, the odds that a bankruptcy had a medical cause was 2.38-fold higher in 2007 than in 2001.

Conclusions:

Illness and medical bills contribute to a large and increasing share of US bankruptcies.

Is that so hard? Health care is driving the country into ruin and all we get is a "no" to the public option while the "single payer" plan isn't even mentioned anymore. When conservatives like Mitch mention the word Bi-partisan, what he means is that they can only come together if Democrats do what they say. Has a major network taken the time to actually explain what the "public option" would mean at all? Instead we got the Grassley's and McConnell's saying that the public option will drive Insurance companies out of business. Why is that exactly? Viewers wouldn't know because they get no information. Here's The Mad Twitterer on the public option:
If 100 million people want to join the Public Option, what's the problem?

Chris Wallace asked the penetrating question to Sen Grassley:

Is it Senatorial to twitter like that?

Yes, Grassley twitters like a bozo and his attacks of Obama on twitter showed you the child-like mind of conservatives. When Bush asked Congress to start working on something, you didn't hear people complain that he actually asked them to do their damn jobs. But Grassley was offended.

And CNN's John King just blathered HIC (Health Industrial Complex) talking points repeatedly about health care.

John King fed them the conservative straight lines and they delivered the propaganda punch lines, one right after the other. If anyone stepped in with something provocative, like the guy who said that his doctor was making him pay $1500.00 per family member, on top of his insurance premiums, just to stay with him. King just blathered on about taxes as if that's this fellows biggest financial problem rather than the fact that he's getting it coming and going from the health care industry.

I'm so sick of the lot of them.