That said, I think Colmes does a decent job given the constraints I’m sure he’s under… not that I don’t have my quibbles but overall I think he helps more than hurts the cause… and I’ve been blogging about him for almost three years. I’m not sure I can say the same thing for Powers. She seems more interested in launching her television career than in doing anything for Democrats.

However, more important than the performance of Colmes and Powers are those of the Democratic guests. As Jerry wrote above, they need to learn how to deal with the right wing noise machine, their tactics and talking points. More often than not, they are unprepared and seem unconcerned. If I had a dollar for every opening fed to a Democratic “strategist” by Colmes that they then failed to exploit, I’d have enough money… well, probably to pay my internet bill.

So in my view, rather than trying to change Colmes and Powers what we really need are better spokespeople to be guests on FOX News and the other cable networks. Wesley Clark is great, so is Jane Fleming (formerly of Young Democrats of America). Almost everyone else is mediocre.

To paraphrase Oliver, it’s long overdue for the Dems to stop sucking.

Cheers.

Does Bush damage the name of Republicans by being a visible national spokesman for the GOP?

To test the question, lets let the Senators and Congressman running for office vote with their feet. I’m betting he gets even fewer invites next round.

It’s not like Katrina van den Heuvel and Katha Pollitt write this blog. So for Willis - who has no strong leftist to grind - to call out Colmes for being too accommodating of his right-wing employer and co-workers is a relatively severe indictment.

Colmes knows that Hannity will say something one night to progress his opinion and then switch the next night when it benefits him in that context.
I’ve watched that show for 5 years and Sean Hannity runs it.

All topics are picked by Hannity - when
your panel talks about how a left winger said this “unhinged” thing or that “hateful” thing why Alan don’t you balance it out with something extreme said by a conservative? Here, I’ll give you an example - Mark Steyn, no stranger to Foxnews, discussing the VT shooting directly questioned the manhood of the victims that didn’t (as if we know) rush the killer. He put quotes around the word “men” in his column to imply that they weren’t living up to the male standards of bravery and fortitude. Those kids are dead - in the ground, they can’t even defend themselves.
Why don’t you Alan Colmes approach Sean Hannity, or use the chain of command - Roger Ailes, and inform him that will be your lead off story back from the 9:30 commercial break?
I mean, you are a liberal. Steyn is an ultraconservative. Sean Hannity is a master at exposing the divisive invective spewed by liberals. Shouldn’t you be doing the same?

Oliver: I only recently started visiting your site. I had no idea you submitted a large % of the content to Mediamatters. That’s awesome.

And Alan…why in 5 years has Sean Hannity never chosen the non-white side of any racially charged issue he scopes the country for to highlight on the show?

WTF does that even mean?

“the Fox Dems literally break their own necks racing to agree with their conservative counterparts”

Er, I’m pretty sure you don’t mean “literally”.

Good one. The problem is he doesn’t know what “literally” means. Probably thinks it means “like, totally”.

Er, I’m pretty sure you don’t mean “literally”.

I remember reading his book, “Red White and Liberal” and it opens with this email conversation he had with a conservative viewer of H&C, and in it the guy comes off like insanely anti-liberal, treating them as less than human or something. Colmes tries to get him to equivocate by asking “you’re saying that you wouldn’t let a heart surgeon operate on you or your family if you knew they voted democrat?” and the con actually agrees to this, and proudly so. Colmes uses this to show how so much of the modern right is unhinged, but I read it and just asked “This is how you actually deal with people who tell you to your face that they want you dead just because you disagree with Sean Hannity?” You remember in middle school at lunch when someone would take your chicken nugget and you’d call them on it and they’d say “I didn’t take nothing!”? Alan Colmes is the guy who comes up and says “Aha! Double Negative!” and gets beaten for it, and walks home focusing on being right. The problem isn’t lack of backbone, the problem is lack of perspective.

So pointing out a person’s hypocrisy is now considered a “snarky talking point”? Who knew?