There are some moments on TV that should just be sent to the cutting room floor before they ever hit the screen. This is one of them.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck proves that she doesn't listen, she doesn't think, and she's as much of a troll as Breitbart when she wants to be.

This is a classic example of what I keep ranting about. There's no issue here, and anyone with half a brain knows it. But Hasselbeck concern trolls over the Hatch Act (inapplicable to the speech and group Sherrod was speaking to) as if it is the NEXT HORRIBLE RACIST THING.

Transcript:

HASSELBECK: There's another bit from your speech that's actually raising a second wave of controversy.

[from clip, SHERROD:]I haven't seen such a mean-spirited people as i've seen lately over this issue of health care. now we endured 8 years of the Bushes and we didn't do the stuff these Republicans are doing because you have a black President.

HASSELBECK: So what about that epiphany, where is that epiphany where it's not about color and it's not about race. What do you then say?

SHERROD: You know, why is it that there's such opposition to something that's so important to poor people. Again, I'm coming at it from the angle of poor people. Poor people need health care!

[applause]

HASSELBECK: And i hear you because I listened to your entire speech and I read the entire transcript but when someone listens to that they're thinking 'yeah, well all of a sudden it's back to black and white, why did we have to get there' .

And then is it also because being a civil servant are you not allowed to have such a partisan opinion? I thought --

[crosstalk]

-- I thought that was not okay.

SHERROD: Poor white people need health care too. You know, so I wasn't talking about health care for just black people. I'm talking about health care for poor people. I know what happens to folks who don't get a chance to go to doctors. I know what's happening to hospitals and their emergency rooms with all of the load of dealing with the person after it's too late.

WENTWORTH: It's too bad, and I know we're going to come back and talk with you again, but it's too bad everything has to immediately take the road of racism. It's poverty. Poverty.

GOLDBERG: Hang on a second -- this is going to be great. you won't forget it.

[break]

After the break and re-intro, Hasselbeck gets another chance at the well of the Concern Trolls:

HASSELBECK: You know, we had just shown a clip where the tail end of it you say "we endured 8 years of the Bushes and we didn't do the stuff the Republicans are doing because we have a black President." Second part of my question: Doesn't the Hatch Act prohibit civil servants from making partisan and political statements? SO isn't that reason enough to look into okay, is this something even legal going on?

Wow, isn't it really nice of Elisabeth Hasselbeck to be concerned that Shirley Sherrod might have violated the Hatch Act? And it certainly plays well to the Fox/Breitbart crowd out there who loves the "scary black person doing illegal and racist things" trope. Only, Elisabeth really didn't know what she was talking about, because the Hatch Act does not rob government employees of their First Amendment rights. It simply limits political activity while they are ON DUTY. Here's all you ever wanted to know about the Hatch Act from the Office of Special Counsel.

And once again, Shirley Sherrod puts Hasselbeck right back in her place:

SHERROD: You know, maybe the Hatch Act would have been meant only for me, because I don't know any government official who was gagged, especially during the Bush administration.

[applause]

BEHAR: You know, I want to support what Shirley said before, which is that during the Bush administration you had tax cuts for the wealthiest and he did not -- that whole adminiistration did not give a damn about poor people and everybody knows it. That's why Obama was elected in the first place.

[crosstalk]

-- and even now, Republicans are blocking an extension of unemployment insurance but they're okay with tax cuts to the wealthy --

[crosstalk]]

Let me finish. So now you have Obama in office, and he does give a damn about black people

HASSELBECK: Black/white or rich/poor? Which is it?

BEHAR: A lot of people are poor because they were black --

[crosstalk]]

HASSELBECK We're supposed to be postracial here --

[crosstalk]

GOLDBERG: There is no postracial yet. this was a media idea that sounded great, that sounded wonderful, but the truth is that these issues, these questions of race have never come up this way before because there has never been a black president before, so people are now trying to figure out how they feel, how they deal how they talk. this is a new world for us.

WENTWORTH: Obama has a very fine line to walk. I mean, can you imagine being the first black president having to deal with all these issues?

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In a week filled with supremely wingnutty moments, this little exchange between Sean Hannity and Dick Morris -- the toesucking little troll for whom no unconfirmable anecdote smearing the Clintons is too low relate -- was perhaps the sleaziest.

That's right, here's Morris telling Hannity that Oklahoma City was actually Bill Clinton's fault, because he had botched things so badly at Waco that Janet Reno was able to blackmail him four years later after Clinton won a new term.

Of course, somewhat undermining this anecdote is that fact that Reno did not need to be reappointed attorney general after Clinton's re-election.

But hey, no lie is too sleazy for Dick Morris to tell. Schmuck.

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Seems that Sarah Palin isn't the only right-winger out there trying to convince the world that the "death panels" actually exist. Indeed, as Media Matters notes, there's a whole bandwidth of wingnuts out there trying to revive the notion.

One of these is the Troll Who Lives Under the Bridge And Sucks Your Toes, aka Dick Morris, who was on The O'Reilly Factor earlier this week with fill-in host Monica Crowley:

Morris: Look, Monica, it's one thing to load a big bill with pork. That's what the stimulus package was. But to load a health-care bill, where Americans are seriously worried that this is gonna destroy the health care their parents get, that this is gonna lead to government-imposed euthanasia, where they'll say, 'No, you can't have this annual mammogram, because I know it might save your life, but it costs too much.' 'No, you can't have this drug for colon cancer, because the drug we're going to let you take isn't as good as this one, but we can't afford it.' When we come to those kind of euthanasia-like decisions, to learn that the reason the Senate approved this was some little bitty payoff that went on to some insurance company that gave you a campaign contribution -- that kind of tawdry stuff for this kind of magnitude of deformity on the system is enough to drive people crazy -- me included.

I've always said that anyone who takes Dick Morris's advice deserves everything they get, because the man is such a font of misinformation. That includes a lot of intentional disinformation, promoting provably false "facts" that unhinge the people who absorb this crap. As we can see.

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Tucker Carlson, appearing on Fox News today, drooled all over Newt Gingrich as the guy who's grabbed the Golden Ring of the leaderless Republican Party:

Carlson: Yeah, this is about who's going to lead the Republican Party, not simply who's going to be the chosen presidential candidate in '12. But who's gonna be the soul of the party?

And there are a bunch of different elements here. I think Sarah Palin's presence, as always, brings a lot of excitement, also a lot of drama. And so a lot of stories going into this were about whether she will arrive in the first place, or whether she'll show up, whether she'll talk. Probably not a good storyline for the GOP.

Newt Gingrich, looks to me, is emerging as, certainly the intellectual center of the Republican Party -- the smartest, most energetic guy, and I think last night, kind of, is -- part of the process is solidifying that. Newt Gingrich is, I believe, running for president, and he's certainly the guy people are looking to for ideas in the Republican Party.

The deisgnated Fox liberal, Peter Mirijanian, manages to sound a note of skepticism:

I have some issues with Gingrich. It's kind of like 'Back to the Future' with him. I don't know if he necessarily is the face they want to put forward.

Yeah, you could say that, since a large chunk of the country sees him as a lying, bomb-chucking little troll.

But the best part of the whole exchange comes when Martha MacCallum, the Fox host, compares Gingrich to Ronald Reagan:

MacCallum: You know, Tucker, you think back to Ronald Reagan, who sort of, you know, entertained the idea of running for president for some time, and then kind of, you know, made a comeback later on. Do you see Newt Gingrich having sort of a similar path? Do you think he wants to run?

Carlson: I think Gingrich does want to run. I think Reagan was a little bit differently positioned, perhaps, coming from having served as governor of California than Newt is.

Well, Reagan, never exactly made a "comeback" -- he just was forced to hold off on his presidential aspirations during Nixon's presidency, and immediately continued his ascension up GOP ranks thereafter.

But if you're talking about Republican political comebacks, why not mention the most famous of these: The Tricky One himself? After all, Gingrich's planned comeback from defeat and disgrace is much more reminiscent of that than anything Reagan achieved.

Hmmmm, maybe that isn't the image wants to be projecting.

With the primaries upon us---there is no shortage of trolls.

Atrios:

I cannot make anyone stop responding to pointless or nuisance comments. You have to want to restrain yourself, because you understand that the only way to get rid of them is to fail to give them the attention they want. A "troll" is not just someone whose comments you disagree with, or even just a nasty or badly-worded comment. A troll is someone who does not, under any possible set of circumstances, care what you think about him or his comments.

He merely wants attention. Negative attention will do. The more you disagree with him, the more he is able to tell himself that he is persecuted and victimized or the only voice of reason or one of the elite few who has the God's-eye view of the world or whatever his current delusion is...and there's more.

I was just closing my eyes for a power nap, preparatory to writing a brilliant and challenging Roundup, when suddenly a folded note fluttered over the transom. I opened it, and read these lyrics:

I is for Iraq, the dead and dying

M is for the " Mass" in "WMD"

P is for the Presidential lying

E... Ex-ec-u-tive, u-ni-ta-ry--

A is for Attorneys who were let go

C is for the Constitution -- maimed

H is for Hell we've made at Gitmo

M is for the Mandate that Bush claimed--

E is for the Eight-inch, cut "reporter"

N is for uNserious blogs' snark

T is for those winger Troll supporters

... And now, the final exclamation mark!

Put them all together, they spell I-M-P-E-A-C-H-M-E-N-T-!

A word that means the world to me...

Notes on the original: Based on the über-schmaltzy M-O-T-H-E-R (A Word That Means the World to Me) , lyrics by Howard Johnson. This, alas, is the best I can do for you on the tune: Skip the intro and listen to 1:06 through 2:07. Those of you who remember the fabulous Sixties may have encountered another parody version of the same song in Richard Farina's Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me.

Guest Bloggerage: Be sure to visit the Antonin Artuad Memorial Theatre of Crudités in The Mighty Corrente Building; tickets are free (except to The Cornerites; they need to settle up for the damage). From a recording made during the opening night's performance of the above song:

[Rimshot. Laughter] Thanks, you're a great audience. Say, I just crawled in from Guantanamo, and boy, are my shackles bloody...

Blogosphere classic: Now They Hate Us With Our Freedom!

Comment at the link above, or send answers, tips, bouquets, brickbats to lambert_strether1 AT yahoo DOT com.--Lambert

A big thanks once again to our entire site team for helping the site run smoothly.

To give you an idea of what they deal with on a daily basis, let me show you the spam I got in my email inbox this morning. Heads up: as we get closer to the election, the troll you respond to may very well be a professional.

(Due to technical difficulties, we didn't get a round up yesterday, so today, we get a SUPER round up! ~Nicole)

Abortion concern trolls, human rights concern trolls and the plain old kind that should live under bridges. We need a study on how many species of rightwing troll there are!

Never mind the yellow ribbons, even the flag patches on troops' uniforms aren't made in the USA. Maybe conservatives can use that as an excuse for why their prayers go unanswered.

Web 2.008 - if it all came down to MySpace friends, Clinton and Obama would bury the field.

Holy Juice, the Moonies and Dinesh D'Souza.

Freedom of speech? Not while you're working!

"If you refuse to be daunted by anything less than impeachment, then you'll have no problem turning the government all the way to 11."

Welcome to Cheneystan - a nation of puppets, puppeteers and regencies where to dissent can have alarming (coincidental?)consequences and the name of the game is denial, whether plausible or not. What will it take to arouse the ire of the people? Can we continue believing that things will get better if we are patient...indefinitely? We've already created a situation where others don't have the luxury of patience anymore. If we are patient enough, we may find our right to speak up disappears. Meanwhile, the hating mob who enable the puppeteers still have the monopoly on impatience. Nor is there any real sign of a change.

Guest round up by Cernig @ The Newshoggers (newshog AT gmail DOT com).

Duncan points to this post on: What does it take to be a talking head?

They are the minor-league pundits -- political consultants, professors, activists, actors, journalists, bloggers and opinionated civilians -- and they're using 21st-century stunts to troll for airtime. Some try to break out of the blogs by repeating particular phrases in their written rants, designed to pop their sites up when TV bookers search for keywords online. Others are buying air time on AM and Internet radio stations to practice their punditry....

So far this year, Ms. Schlussel has appeared on more than 600 radio shows and 35 TV programs, she says. But while Ms. Coulter, America's most-famous blonde pundit, earns millions, the also-blonde Ms. Schlussel has earned well under $10,000 this year from her punditry, she says. Still, Ms. Schlussel feels momentum: Her online fan clubs have grown to 5,496 members.

I know I've talked to a few bookers in my time, but this takes the cake...One visitor on her site calls her:

Ms. Schussel, you are a empty-souled, vampiric monster.

UPDATE: (Nicole Belle) Apparently, Debbie Schussel is eager to prove vampiric rumors correct. This latest post is lowest of the low and there's got to be a special place in Hell reserved for her for this one. Apparently, some random private citizen in Indonesia has pictures of friends and relatives on a Flikr site. One person is identified as a South Korean student with glasses whose name is similar to VTech shooter Cho Seung-Hui. Obviously, it's the same person, right? And then when the Flikr account holder removed the photo. Well, that has to mean guilt, right? Debbie Schussel, you ARE an empty-souled vampiric monster.

Martini Republic: Exclusive--National Intelligence Estimate (as redacted) supports Bush on Iraq!

Senate Majority Project: GOP obstructionism on Iraq and terrorism

newsrack blog: Why don't we hear Muslims condemning terrorism more often ? Because we keep them out of the country.

The Reality-Based Community: Lies, secrets, and torture

Needlenose: The language of Democratic realignment

Grab Bag: Help defeat lying war flogger Nancy Johnson...and help Jack Murtha and his friends kick some lying SwiftBoat wannabe ass...another Rethug troll is caught astroturfing a liberal blog...this is Banned Books Week...The Lincoln Group has been awarded a new government contract for doing the "same exact thing Lincoln got caught doing last year."... Boxer and Dodd to introduce paper ballot legislation...our estimable colleague, Taylor Marsh, is broadcasting live Monday thru Thursday...and some more miscellany