Trace Gallagher, the co-host of FNC's The Live Desk on Fox News got a little excited at the prospect that Arlen Specter's defection might give President Obama that 60th vote -- which could mean that he can pass his key policies! Like he won the election or something!
Gallagher completely lost his objectivity as a news host and told us how he really felt:
Gallagher: Brit, over the past 24 hours I have read countless articles about the doom of the GOP, but might it be the reverse? I mean if you think about this, if you have 60 votes, right? You can't really blame the other guy, if you don't have 60 votes you can always say it's their fault, but if you have 60 it's kind of your game.
Hume: Well, that's true Chase, but in the near term it certainly doesn't help the Republicans as they try to resist the enactment of much of the Obama agenda, which they consider something of a radical agenda, and Specter's presence as a Democrat now will change all that. Remember this, Trace, Specter has been welcomed into the Democratic Party by its leaders in Washington. It is not entirely clear, however, that the Democratic voters of Pennsylvania, who remember Specter as a Republican who did many things that they did not like, will be so welcoming.
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So, look for Specter to very much be, most of the time, the 60th vote. And while the results in the end of the policies enacted will tell the tale of which party benefits from all this, in the near term at least it certainly does help the Democrats.
Gallagher: So what you're saying in essence -- the president has wide popularity now and the American people are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, so if Specter really does as you say serve as the 60th vote, are we about to see the Obama agenda, for lack of a better phrase, crammed down out throat?
Hume:Well, crammed down out throats would be the way opponents of it would look at it. It passed with flying colors would be the way that people, Democrats and liberals who like this sort of program, will feel about it.
That was a bit over the top, don't you think? Fox was on a destroy Benedict Specter jag yesterday and today. The harshest word Fox ever uttered about Bush was that he was being too nice to the media. Brit Hume had to try and guide Gallagher back to Earth there for a while. He did that pretty smoothly too, even if he feels the same way about the president and his policies. He was protecting good old Trace. Nice try.
