God forbid conservatives should actually be held accountable for their lies. Michele Bachmann, who has a history of saying the most ridiculous, outrageous things about President Obama and who holds herself up as a high and mighty holy roller, has some real problems with the truth.

When CNN confronts her, she dodges and feints and ultimately runs. In the process, she looks like the liar and fool she is. Via Mediaite

For Tuesday night’s “Keeping Them Honest” segment, CNN host Anderson Cooper turned to Dana Bash‘s encounter with Rep. Michele Bachmann who, asked about comments she made about President Obama enjoying a lavish lifestyle at the taxpayer’s expense, repeatedly dodged the questions and “literally raced away.” Bash was “speechless.”

“A new book is out talking about the perks and the excess of the $1.4-billion-a-year presidency that we’re paying for,” Bachmann said in the speech. “And this is a lifestyle that is one of excess.” She added:

“Now we find out that there are five chefs on Air Force One. There are two projectionists who operate the White House movie theater. They regularly sleep at the White House in order to be readily available in case the first family wants a really, really late show.”

Bash sought to confront her about those comments — which got four Pinocchios from theWashington Post — and found herself chasing after the congresswoman. “She literally raced away from our Dana Bash,” Cooper remarked.

Gee, I wonder why. It's one thing to drop BS on stupid CPAC attendees, and quite another to actually have to answer for it. The day she is booted from Congress will be a day of celebration for me. She's just clinging to Sarah Palin's heels for the Worst Conservative Woman ever.

I probably shouldn't have enjoyed this as much as I did, but damn if I didn't laugh out loud at Anderson Cooper's mild-mannered smackdown of Rush Limbaugh's odd citing of Anderson Cooper and his ratings on CNN. I don't listen to Rush, so I don't know if discussing the ratings of the cable news channels or gossip columns are a regular part of his show or if he just needed to needle Cooper a little bit for some perceived slight.

Frankly, the subtext of Rush's comments ("Cooper's always at the gym or that bar") made it a little creepy. We know what he's implying about Anderson Cooper, although really, does a man who takes a jumbo bottle of Viagra on a fraudulent prescription on a Dominican Republic "golf holiday" really want to go there? But Anderson Cooper, classy to the end, reminds Rush that there's nothing wrong with trying to keep physically fit.

I will grant the following point, though, and I agree that this is some fantastically juicy gossip. So listen close. Stop the presses. I do go to the gym. I’m concerned about heart disease. I’ve raised money to fight heart disease. My dad died of it. And, yeah, I try to take care of myself. Mr. Limbaugh, I can only hope that you are taking care of yourself as well. You might try the gym from time to time.

Ooh...I don't care how placid the delivery, that one left a mark. I'm sure that Rush will have another volley soon.

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Our number two video on the countdown of C&L's most viewed videos of 2011, courtesy of CNN's Anderson Cooper, who apparently thinks bringing on Christian evangelist Kirk Cameron, who starred in the Left Behind series to discuss the mysterious bird and fish deaths in Arkansas, is something that passes for "news" these days.

Heaven forbid they might be lagging behind Fox in the department of not only pushing for more religion in our government (as long as it's the right kind of religion and not those evil Muslims, don't you know), but doing their best to validate the views of right wing evangelicals as well.

From January of this year -- Anderson Cooper Brings on 'Left Behind' Actor Cameron to Discuss Bird and Fish Deaths in Arkansas -- Seriously?.

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Next on our list of the most viewed C&L videos of 2011, here's the #6 -- an SNL Digital Short -- Andy Samberg and Pee-wee Herman get into a bit of trouble during a drunken night on the town.

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If CNN did more of this (and fired Erick Erickson) I would have a lot more respect for them. Anderson Cooper is on fire in this segment, calling out the Egyptian government on their lies, their violence, and their patronizing attitude toward the thousands of people in Tahrir Square.

In this segment, Cooper is full of facts and righteous indignation. He's the guy I remember from tsunami coverage, and the Haiti earthquake coverage, but with more of an edge. You can almost feel the anger in his voice as he names the lies, one by one, and then names the liars.

As he moves through the lies and threats of Omar Suleiman, Cooper mentions journalists who have been detained and harassed, protesters who have died at the hands of government thugs, and others who risk their freedom and lives just coming and going through Tahrir Square. ABC is keeping a list of all journalists harassed, detained, intimidated or threatened by the government. Human Rights Watch has published reports of journalists harassed, and also says the death toll is now over 300.

As an aside, this Pew Research poll is really not a positive sign for the health of this nation. According to the poll, 52% -- FIFTY-TWO PERCENT -- of Americans polled have heard little or nothing about the protests. How is that even possible?

Cooper begins with Egyptian Vice President Suleiman's veiled, but crystal-clear threat to the protesters of 'police action', and takes down the rest of the lies from there.

Transcript follows:

Continue reading »

President Mubarak, you misunderstand America. Sure, we are historically willing to accommodate dictators, we have endorsed and supported your corrupt regime to serve perceived strategic interests. But even at our most cynical, we have our limits.

You, sir, have crossed a line our country will not abide. It's hard to deny the awe-inspiring power of a unified democratic uprising, and Egypt deserves real elections. And you need to get out of the way before some really spectacular cheekbones are endangered.

And there are economic consequences for Americans. If something happens to the Silver Fox, what else have those poor folks at CNN got? Parker/Spitzer? PARKER F-ING SPITZER? Those people need to eat, they have families.

Everybody cool out.

We've all seen the type. The standoffish, petulant misfit who doesn't really have any friends but wants to be in the center of everyone's group. When they don't get what they want they start playing gossip games and trying to turn one against the other.

Tucker Carlson is one of those. Eclipsed back in the day by Anderson Cooper on CNN, he moved on to MSNBC, where he didn't quite fit, and from there to Fox where he is comfortably nondescript and not particularly useful.

But Tucker is resourceful, cunning, cruel, and petty like most conservatives, so the idea of weaseling his way onto a private listserv where members thought they were speaking on a private email list in order to then publish those private emails selectively...well, that was too delicious for Tucker to resist. I'd call him the Hedda Hopper of the Internet age but that gives him too much stature.

Long story short: Tucker weasels his way onto a private listserv of journalists owned by Ezra Klein which, to everyone's shock and awe, has...liberal journalists on it. Oh, the horror, the awful, awful horror.

And then, I read his intellectually dishonest, lizard-scaly, creepy self-justification and just had to say it: This Daily Caller has no balls.

Tucker rushes to his own defense with this:

To be clear: We’re not contesting the right of anyone, journalist or not, to have political opinions. (I, for one, have made a pretty good living expressing mine.) What we object to is partisanship, which is by its nature dishonest, a species of intellectual corruption.

Errrrr...what part of being a senior fellow at Cato Institute isn't partisan, Tucker? Just sayin'. And no, it's not a species of intellectual corruption. Human beings are, by their nature, social and tend to gather in affinity groups where they share similar goals, outlooks, hopes and dreams. Partisanship is but one way of expressing that.

Again and again, we discovered members of Journolist working to coordinate talking points on behalf of Democratic politicians, principally Barack Obama. That is not journalism, and those who engage in it are not journalists. They should stop pretending to be. The news organizations they work for should stop pretending, too.

Why TUCKER, I'm so glad you looked in the mirror! You might have even seen your reflection if it weren't daylight and you weren't a slimy little vampire sucking notoriety off of ginned up blown out of proportion pronouncements. But hey, let's just see whether you actually measure up to your own standard.

• This interview with Ron Paul where you admitted you voted for him and "slobbered all over him"? You're right. It's partisan pretending, and shouldn't be considered journalism. (Pssss, Tucker. Ron Paul is a Republican. Partisan. Party. Republican.)
• How about admitting that liberals like Barney Frank "fill you with hatred"? Partisan. Not journalism.
• On supporting the Iraq War before the flip-flop to not supporting, how about your defense of Karl Rove? Partisan. Not journalism.
• Or perhaps this slam against Al Gore in 2007 where you said if he were President we'd be living in yurts? Partisan. Not journalism.
• Bashing Hillary Clinton in 2006? Partisan. Not journalism.

I could go on, and on, and on. But you get the idea. And while we're on the topic of the corruption of journalism, perhaps it's worth pointing out that Tucker Carlson's petty two-bit "who can pee farther" contest with MSNBC's Keith Olbermann smacks of desperate penis ratings envy?

But this-- this might just frame Tucker Carlson's hypocrisy perfectly. From a Salon interview when he was pimping his book:

...even though we claim to withhold judgment until we know all the facts, but we don't, all the times. And our prisons are nAoot packed with innocent men, but there are some. And I think we all, especially those of us in the press, ought to remember that.

Unless, that is, your name is Tucker Carlson and you're a slimy weasel named Tucker Carlson who slithered onto a private email list and made a lot of weaselly Tucker Carlson promises about not flaming and then cherry-picked the email list to paint liberal journalists as incompetent partisans because your name is Tucker Carlson and you're a pathetic loser who couldn't figure out a REAL STORY. If that's who you are, then you're just pathetic.

Not innocent. Not a journalist. Not immune. Just pathetic.

Update: Oh, Jon Perr and BlueGal just sent me more reminders of how "non-partisan" Tuckie is. Among the invited guests to the Daily Caller's launch? None other than Scooter Libby. Scooter is Tuckie's special friend after he talked him up all over cable news during his trial while Tuckie's daddy was promoting and managing Scooter's Legal Defense Fund.

Yeah, nothing says nonpartisan quite like the whiff of Daddy's BigBuckBuddies in the Republican Party. Good going, Tuckie.

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Anderson Cooper needs to stick to oil spills and hurricanes because when it comes to political commentary he's as lame as the Fox journalists. There's only one story to be told when it comes to the Shirley Sherrod fiasco: Andrew Breitbart lied. That's all. Andrew. Breitbart. lied.

But this is what journalism is today. There is no one with enough of a moral compass to just come out and say that in the media. This is why, by the way, Robert Gibbs and the Obama Administration won't say it either. I'll get to that toward the end of this post, but first let's have a look at Anderson Cooper's Invented America.

COOPER: But we begin with a political storm that nearly destroyed Shirley Sherrod. President Obama spoke with her on the phone today. And we will speak to her in a moment about that conversation.

But first the blogger who slammed Shirley Sherrod, we're "Keeping Them Honest." He is the only actor in this dismal drama that has not apologized to Ms. Sherrod. And, in fact, he says he is the victim and that the Obama administration and mainstream media are out to destroy him.

He told Politico today -- quote -- "I am public enemy number one or two to the Democratic Party, the progressive movement and the Obama administration based upon the successes my journalism has had."

Now, calling what Mr. Breitbart does journalism is hard for those of us who actually check and try to be fair. I'm certainly not perfect, and have made mistakes, and have apologized for them. But journalism shouldn't be about left and right. It should be about the truth.

Up to this point, I'm right there with him. Yes, journalism shouldn't be about left and right. It should be about truth. And facts. And full telling of the truth and facts. If Anderson Cooper had stopped here, I'd be applauding. Andrew Breitbart wouldn't know the truth if it reared up and breathed hot fire in his face.

But this is not what journalists do. We don't live in an age where they actually call it what it is and move on to the next story. No, instead they have to create that false "balance", or equivalence that just doesn't exist.

The single reason that Robert Gibbs and other Obama administration officials, including the President himself, will not call out Fox News and Breitbart is because of stupid assertions like the ones Cooper is about to make. If Gibbs had pointed out that the entire story was the product of a lie manufactured by Andrew Breitbart for attention and giggles, the narrative would have shifted to "Mean President Obama Whines and Picks on Andrew Breitbart".

The administration would have been painted as "petty", "blaming", "ducking the issue". It would have just obfuscated the truth of the matter, which is simple, and which I will repeat a few more times: Andrew Breitbart lied.

What Mr. Breitbart does and what others on the left and the right do may very well be what journalism has become, but it isn't certainly not what it should be. Mr. Breitbart also Politico -- quote -- "The desire here is to make it about me and not the Democratic establishment and the NAACP vs. the Tea Party."

That's been Mr. Breitbart's excuse since it was revealed that his video was not what he said it was. He claims this was never about Shirley Sherrod. In fact, he said to Sean Hannity -- quote -- "I could care less about Shirley Sherrod, to be honest with you."

That is the one thing he has said that is indisputable. He does not care about Shirley Sherrod, doesn't care about making false allegations against her or ruining her career. Andrew Breitbart has his ideology. He believes he is right. And in his mind that justifies any action he takes.

I'm still good with it through this point, even. Cooper has clearly named the villain in the plot and called it non-journalism, which it is. He could have even said Andrew Breitbart just lied, but we all know that would be too good to be true. His next segment is where he falls off the edge of the planet into Outer Journo space:

And that's how ideologues think on the left and on the right. Post a video clip that's misleading? No problem if it helps you make your argument, if it helps boost visitors to your Web site. Make false claims about a person? Why not, if it gets you more Web traffic?

That is where we are today. Andrew Breitbart is conservative. But, as I said, there are liberals online and on TV who do the exact same things. They cherry-pick the facts that prove their arguments, not the facts that reveal the truth.

Oh, really? If you know of any liberal blogger who has intentionally edited a video clip to mislead and cause entire organizations serving poor folks to crumble, post a comment with a link, please. Anderson Cooper's equivalence sounds oh, so lofty until you sit down and ask yourself where exactly are these misleading video clips posted from the left that destroy people?

Where are they? Where is the left saying that an entire organization on the right loaded up voter registrations with bogus Republicans? I've only seen proven allegations with a criminal record to back them up.

Where ARE those lefty videos? Please, show them to me.

Of course, you can't. Because there are none. Huffington Post, which is probably the closest thing to Breitbart's sites, has nothing like that video. This site doesn't. Daily Kos? FireDogLake? I don't see any there. So please, tell me where are these videos?

Of course, Anderson doesn't stop with that. He invokes one of the 'reasonable right' (and I use the term guardedly) to back his assertions.

David Frum, a conservative, said on this program last night the problem is not liberalism or conservatism. It's factionalism, seeing the world through your own limited political lens and never admitting when you have made a mistake, never admitting the other side may be right some of the time, never doing anything that damages your faction.

Funny, I've been known to hammer on those to the left of me about hammering on our own, because they are all too willing sometimes to flog OUR side at the expense of the bigger picture, in my opinion. Whether I hammer or not, there's always someone in the liberal blogosphere willing to take OUR side to task without regard to what the rotten Right might be up to. So again, I'd really like to see the evidence of that. Show us. Quit saying it and show me the goods.

It's a game for people like Mr. Breitbart and others. They don't go out into the field and meet the people they're supposedly reporting on. They don't go out and challenge their assumptions. They stay behind a desk and see the world as black or white, left or right. And it's a lot more complex than that.

Actually, Anderson, here's a news flash for you. I've met Andrew Breitbart and he doesn't sit behind a desk all day. He sits in a bottle a lot, though. Why not call him what he is? A bully, an idealogue, a liar and a likely lush.

This isn't a question of "both sides do it." What Breitbart did, by his own admission, was use a government employee as a weapon to stir racial tension. The fact that it worked at first is another issue entirely. He lied to get a reaction. Andrew Breitbart lied. Repeat after me: Andrew Breitbart lied.

Where I come from, that's dishonest antagonism. Not journalism.

As Karl Burkart at Mother Nature Network says, if Anderson Cooper is ticked off, something must really be wrong.

COOPER: There is this yellow line up there. And they literally will not get you within 20 to 30 feet, where you can actually get a picture of an oiled bird being brought in.

Why? They say they don't want to upset the birds, and they don't want to interfere with workers. But, I mean, I can assure you, one cameraman is a trained professional at CNN, and they're not going to interfere with workers.

As -- as for BP, they have promised transparency on a number of occasions. Most recently was a letter that we just obtained yesterday. It was actually sent out a couple days ago. And, in the letter -- it is from BP Doug -- COO Doug Suttles -- they say -- quote -- "BP has not and will not prevent anyone working in the cleanup operation from sharing his or her own experiences or opinions with the media."

That's from, as I said, BP's Doug Suttles to company employees and contractors. Now, the "has not" part, that they haven't done this, is patently false. I mean, that's a rewriting of history. Many reporters from many news organizations over many weeks have been blocked and stiff-armed and given the silent treatment or told flat- out, BP said we would lose our jobs if we talked.

And this isn't just one news organization. This has been going on for weeks. As for the "will" not part, that they're not going to prevent anyone from cooperating with the media, well, maybe not everyone has gotten the memo. We put it to the test today.

Karl's post suggests this goes beyond the possibility of simply covering for BP, though. While he's not revealing specifics, he refers to a text message he received from a friend in the cleanup zone:

At first I thought it was because the government was somehow backing for BP, supporting them in their attempt to keep the story from getting out of hand. Now I’m not so sure...

This afternoon I received a text message sent on a borrowed phone from someone who had recently returned form [sic] the cleanup operation. The contents of that message were so mind-numbingly horrific that I cannot publish them here.

I am earnestly attempting to confirm what I was told, and I will be tweeting about my findings on @greendig. If true, it would explain WHY the government won’t let even the New York Times fly over the original site of Deepwater Horizon. And it would also explain why Obama has done a 180 on his policy of government transparency, risking his entire political career by deceiving the American people.

Now Karl is a pretty level-headed blogger. He doesn't routinely don a tinfoil hat and start writing about undisclosed text messages that appear to be harbingers of doom, or worse. So I'm inclined to take him seriously, and am watching to see if he receives confirmation of what he suspects.

All I can say is this: I hope whatever it is that has him so concerned isn't related to that munitions dump due west of the Deepwater Horizon. Because it would explain a lot, if it does.

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This is some pretty pointed advice from James Carville, who knows a political train wreck when he sees one - and even from Chris Matthews, who's normally quite gleeful when Democrats screw up.

All I know is, this "let's just trust BP and it'll all work out" approach is breeding the worst kind of public cynicism:

Democratic strategist James Carville and MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews, two reliable supporters of President Barack Obama, have issued withering critiques of the administration's handling of the Gulf oil spill.

Carville, the famously outspoken Louisianian who was a chief political aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday that the administration's response to the spill has been "lackadaisical" and that Obama was "naive" to trust BP to manage the massive clean-up effort.

"I think they actually believe that BP has some kind of a good motivation here," he said. "They're naive! BP is trying to save money, save everything they can... They won't tell us anything, and oddly enough, the government seems to be going along with it! Somebody has got to, like shake them and say, 'These people don't wish you well! They're going to take you down!'"

Carville also accused the White House of going along with what he called the "let BP handle it" strategy.

"I'm as good a Democrat as most people, and I think this administration has done some good things. They are risking everything by this 'go along with BP' strategy they have that seems like, lackadaisical on this, and Doug is right, they seem like they're inconvenienced by this, this is some giant thing getting in their way and somehow or another, if you let BP handle it, it'll all go away. It's not going away. It's growing out there. It is a disaster of the first magnitude, and they've got to go to Plan B."

Likewise, Chris Matthews argued during a "Tonight Show" appearance that the President was to "acting a little like a Vatican Observer."

"The President scares me," he said. "When is he actually going to do something? And I worry; I know he doesn't want to take ownership of it. I know politics. He said the minute he says, 'I'm in charge,' he takes the blame, but somebody has to. It's in our interest."