Sunday show roundup

The pundits addressed pot and Petraeus

Topics: sunday morning shows, Fiscal cliff, Peter King, David Petraeus, Immigration Reform, 2012 Elections, ,

Sunday show roundupU.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, speaks at a news conference in front of police headquarters in New York, Monday, March 5, 2012. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

On this week’s Sunday shows, politicians and pundits addressed the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus, as well as the looming showdown over the federal budget. Here are the highlights:

On Petraeus:

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., was confused as to why the the FBI didn’t alert President Obama to the affair until just last week. “The FBI should have had an obligation to tell the president,” King said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It just doesn’t add up.”

But Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., also on CNN, said everything about the FBI’s handling of the revelations appears proper: “I don’t see a conspiracy behind every curtain as some of my colleagues do.”

On the budget negotiations in Congress:

Bill Kristol argued that the GOP should not “fall on its sword” defending lower taxes for millionaires. “Don’t scream and yell when one person says, ‘you know what, it won’t kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires.’ It really won’t, I don’t think,” he said on Fox News Sunday.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., explained what will happen if the GOP does refuse a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans: “[T]o solve this problem, the wealthiest Americans have to pay their fair share too,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.” “If the Republicans will not agree with that, we will reach a point at the end of this year where all the tax cuts expire and we’ll start over next year, and whatever we do will be a tax cut for whatever package we put together. That may be the way to get past this.”

But Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn, seemed confident on Fox News Sunday that it won’t come to that: ”I think there is a deal. Look, the ying and the yang of this is that we know there has to be revenues. And I think, look, I haven’t met a wealthy Republican or Democrat in Tennessee that’s not willing to contribute more as long as they know we solve the problem.”

On immigration reform:

On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., argued that when it comes to Republicans’ support from Hispanics, ”it’s one thing to shoot yourself in the foot, just don’t reload the gun.

“So I intend not to reload this gun when it comes to Hispanics,” Graham said. “I intend to tear this wall down and pass an immigration reform bill that’s an American solution to an American problem. But we have nobody to blame but ourselves when it comes to losing Hispanics. And we can get them back with some effort on our part.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that immigration reform could come soon. ”Senator Graham and I have talked, and we are resuming the talks that were broken off two years ago,” he said. “We had put together a comprehensive detailed blueprint on immigration reform. It had the real potential for bipartisan support.”

On pot:

“It’s time for the Justice Department to recognize the sovereignty of the states,” Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., said on “State of the Union,” adding: “I believe the president and the Department of Justice ought to respect the will of the separate states.”

“I think the federal law can maintain, but it shouldn’t try to nullify reasonable state measures,” Brown said:

And on the election night losses for Republicans:

“I don’t think it’s about the Republican Party needing to become more moderate. I really believe it’s the Republican Party becoming more modern,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., also on “State of the Union.” “And whether it’s Hispanics, whether it’s women, whether it’s young people, the Republican Party has to make it a priority to take our values, to take our vision to every corner of this country.”

Continue Reading Close

Jillian Rayfield is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on politics. Follow her on Twitter at @jillrayfield or email her at jrayfield@salon.com.

Next Article

Featured Slide Shows

What To Read Awards: Top 10 Books of 2012 slide show

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10
  • 10. "The Guardians" by Sarah Manguso: "Though Sarah Manguso’s 'The Guardians' is specifically about losing a dear friend to suicide, she pries open her intelligent heart to describe our strange, sad modern lives. I think about the small resonating moments of Manguso’s narrative every day." -- M. Rebekah Otto, The Rumpus

  • 9. "Beautiful Ruins" by Jess Walter: "'Beautiful Ruins' leads my list because it's set on the coast of Italy in 1962 and Richard Burton makes an entirely convincing cameo appearance. What more could you want?" -- Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"

  • 8. "Arcadia" by Lauren Groff: "'Arcadia' captures our painful nostalgia for an idyllic past we never really had." -- Ron Charles, Washington Post

  • 7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn: "When a young wife disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, her husband becomes the automatic suspect in this compulsively readable thriller, which is as rich with sardonic humor and social satire as it is unexpected plot twists." -- Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor

  • 6. "How Should a Person Be" by Sheila Heti: "There was a reason this book was so talked about, and it’s because Heti has tapped into something great." -- Jason Diamond, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

  • 4. TIE "NW" by Zadie Smith and "Far From the Tree" by Andrew Solomon: "Zadie Smith’s 'NW' is going to enter the canon for the sheer audacity of the book’s project." -- Roxane Gay, New York Times "'Far From the Tree' by Andrew Solomon is, to my mind, a life-changing book, one that's capable of overturning long-standing ideas of identity, family and love." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 3. "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" by Ben Fountain: "'Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk' says a lot about where we are today," says Marjorie Kehe of the Christian Science Monitor. "Pretty much the whole point of that novel," adds Time's Lev Grossman.

  • 2. "Bring Up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel: "Even more accomplished than the preceding novel in this sequence, 'Wolf Hall,' Mantel's new installment in the fictionalized life of Thomas Cromwell -- master secretary and chief fixer to Henry VIII -- is a high-wire act, a feat of novelistic derring-do." -- Laura Miller, Salon

  • 1. "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" by Katherine Boo: "Like the most remarkable literary nonfiction, it reads with the bite of a novel and opens up a corner of the world that most of us know absolutely nothing about. It stuck with me all year." -- Eric Banks, president of the National Book Critics Circle

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 10

More Related Stories

Comments

9 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username ( profile | log out )

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>