Great Moments in American Political Discourse

I put Bill O’Reilly and Paul Krugman about even on the unbalanced-political-hack scale; both are just crazy enough to dissent from their side on occasion, but that still doesn’t mean they’re respectable. The two men faced off on Tim Russert’s CNBC show last weekend (transcript here); here are some highlights:

Mr. O'REILLY: Look, the Iraq War was a big screw-up, all right? I think every clear-thinking person in the country knows it was.”

I seem to remember Bill, a few days after the war started, saying something like “anyone who criticizes the war at this juncture is a bad American.”

(O’REILLY): What I object to is the lying charges, the slander and defamation that comes out of the Krugman wing, if you want to call it, of the social landscape. And don't give me that. Who are you appearing with today in your book signing?

Prof. KRUGMAN: I...

Mr. O'REILLY:You're appearing with Stuart Smalley, the biggest character assassinator in the country.

Mr. Factor is speaking of the book signing that I attended last week, at which Krugman appeared with Al Franken (who O’Reilly only ever refers to as “Stuart Smalley”). Biggest character assassinator [sic] in the country? I’d put at least a half-dozen ESPN commentators- and a half-dozen more rappers- ahead of Al. You can hear about more of them in Stephen Sondheim’s landmark musical, “Assassinators.”

Prof. KRUGMAN: Well ...(unintelligible) kill Fox News entirely. I mean, what the...

Mr. O'REILLY: Yeah, OK. Another cheap shot, by the way.

Prof. KRUGMAN: No, it isn't.

Mr. O'REILLY: Yes, it is.

Prof. KRUGMAN: No, it isn't.

Fox is biased! Na na na na na!

Mr. O'REILLY: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I gotta get this in.

RUSSERT: Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me just.

So hard for O’Reilly to get a word in edgewise, now that he’s on someone else’s show.

Prof. KRUGMAN: Hey.

Mr. O'REILLY: Why don't I call the Ku Klux Klan?

Prof. KRUGMAN: Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.

I guess that’s what separates O’Reilly from ‘80s-era Geraldo- he never has the Klan on his show. At least, not yet.

Mr. O'REILLY: If you look at the Fox News commentators in prime time, starting with Hume and ending with Van Susteren, it comes right down the line, OK? Van Susteren is a liberal, Colmes is a liberal, Hannity is a conservative, I'm a traditionalist, Shepard Smith is really nothing and--you know, he's just in--a neutral guy, in the neutral zone, and Hume, I would say that he's slightly conservative, but certainly no bomb thrower. All right?

Prof. KRUGMAN: Unbelievable.

Shep Smith is just a nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans… anyone putting Alan Colmes forward as an example of Fox News’ evenhandedness in prime time deserves to be laughed out of the room; Krugman, to his credit, doesn’t try to make the same argument about the NYT’s editorial page.

On Michael Moore:

Mr. O'REILLY: All right. You want to think he loves his country, you go (unintelligible).

Prof. KRUGMAN: And he loves the working pow--people of America, and if you could watch that...

Mr. O'REILLY: Hezbollah feels the same way that you do.

Hezbollah loves the working people of America? You sure?

(O’REILLY): I can take tape of you, Tim Russert, over the last five years and I can make you look like anything I want you--to make you look like. And you know it. You know how it's done. I can make you look like a Communist. I can make you look like a fascist.

Do it for me, Bill! Make me look like a Communist, or a fascist! Please???

RUSSERT: Thank you, gentlemen, for a very interesting hour.

Mr. O'REILLY: Lively.

Prof. KRUGMAN: Exciting.

Mr. O'REILLY: Lively.

Prof. KRUGMAN: Exciting.

RUSSERT: Lively and spirited.

Well, that’s one way of putting it. These are, lest we forget, two of America’s major political commentators. And of the three of them, somehow it’s Russert who has to worry about going to jail.

Posted by Stephen Silver at August 10, 2004 09:56 PM