And conservatives would be cheering him along.

In Media Matters’ defense, we caught the other doctored Hannity videos.

Question boldly.

“There is a frustration when you are getting yelled at by people who weren’t even a gleam in their daddy’s eye when you were getting beat up by hard hats on Wall Street [while] protesting Vietnam,” he said.

The problem, Bob, is that you are a loser. Your claim to fame is being the campaign manager for Walter Mondale’s campaign. For those of you not familiar with your U.S. political history, this was one of the biggest landslides in electoral politics. And Beckel was on the wrong side of it. So pardon us when one of the architects of Ronald Reagan’s second term goes on TV and keeps taking a dive in the interest of propping up “Fair and Balanced” (along with Kirsten Powers, Lanny Davis, Doug Schoen, and Pat Caddell) we don’t exactly throw a ticker tape parade.

You guys are the political equivalent of a minstrel show.

And Chris Wallace? Off your knees. It’s just… embarrassing.

Oh, damn.

When the conservative movement asserted during the Bush presidency that they created their own reality, some of ‘em took that a little too seriously.

Mr. Murdoch has flattered Communist Party leaders and done business with their children. His Fox News network helped China’s leading state broadcaster develop a news Web site. He joined hands with the Communist Youth League, a power base in the ruling party, in a risky television venture, his China managers and advisers say.

Somehow I doubt you’ll see any of that on Glenn Beck.

(via)

“I choose to fight. Stand and fight, stand and fight!”
– John McCain

Conservatives had it easy for several decades. The Democratic left of the ’70s and ’80s was in full retreat, convinced by the Reagan revolution that they had no serious place in the American political spectrum. Occasionally there were flashpoints, like Ted Kennedy being so mean to Robert Bork, or for other Democrats not rolling over for the nomination of Clarence Thomas — who retreated into identity politics when his sexual harassment was revealed.

But those were exceptions. Cons set the parameters of the discussion, they said the worst they could about the left and the left was mute, foolishly assuming that the mainstream media might do their jobs and debunk the lies that pass for discourse on the right. Of course that didn’t happen.

We had a moment of false hope when Clinton ran for president, as the war room was conceived of to fight back versus the smear machine – but at best it neutralized elements of it. The right was still able to impeach Clinton and the mainstream press just kept on carrying the water.

Then came the Bush presidency, 9/11, and the Iraq War. At that moment, the Democratic party essentially ceased to exist for all intents and purposes. They went along with the entire Bush program with nary a protest. It wasn’t until the blogosphere came along and began to fill the coffers of pols who refused to back down like Howard Dean did the left regain it’s capacity to fight – the same spirit that fought against racism and sexism in some of the seminal battles of the American story.

Now we’ve got a Democratic administration who has simply pushed back against the day-in-day-out smears of Fox News, as well as a congressman who is telling the basic truths of the GOP’s non-plan for health care reform. For this, the mainstream press rushes to Fox’s defense, while the Republican noise machine expresses OUTRAGE that a Democrat would do to them what they’ve done for the last 20+ years.

Oooooh, scary.

Here’s hoping this fighting spirit becomes the natural position of the left. No more cowering, go toe to toe. Don’t turn off what offends you, but refute it and yell it from the highest mountain. When they punch you in the gut, you rhetorically beat them in the face until they can’t stand anymore.

I chose to fight.

“You’re never going to make everybody happy all the time. That’s just the rule of politics,” said Democratic strategist Josh Gottheimer, a former senior adviser to the Clinton administration.

“I think he’s done plenty for the left, he’s done plenty for the center,” he said of Obama. “He’s got a philosophy. He made it clear when he was running for president that he was going to do what’s best for the country in very difficult times, and you’re not going to please everyone.”

Oooh. Burn. Obama’s gotta really feel that zinger. But it gets better.

The other person FoxNews.com quotes is Michael Gerson. Who is Michael Gerson, you might ask? Michael Gerson is a conservative columnist for the Washington Post and even better – the former speechwriter to failed president George W. Bush. Gerson comes to the shocking conclusion that President Obama has disappointed his liberal base. SHOCKING.

Not a single other person is quoted in the article. There are no data points cited to make the article’s main thesis (in fact, among Democrats the President has an average approval rating of 83.5%).

The article notes that Fox News White House correspondent Major Garrett contributed to it. In recent articles discussing the Obama administration’s view of Fox, the White House and others have said that Garrett is not as biased as the rest of Fox. Maybe they should rethink that.