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Sunday shows: What you missed

Sun, 23 Jun 2013 16:46:00 +0000

This week, on a Breaking News! edition of the Sunday shows: Where is Edward Snowden right now? (He's on a plane to Moscow.) Where will Edward Snowden be going next, then? He's fast, Edward Snowden. And the most important question of all: should Glenn Greenwald go to jail for having Edward Snowden as a source, and also for having an annoying tone sometimes? ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press," and CBS' "Face the Nation" will solve these questions, and more.

First up, "This Week": Fast Eddie Snowden is hot on the move. How does he keep "bedeviling" US officials like this? It's a "cat-and-mouse game," and the U.S. "lost this round," says the breaking news correspondent.

Host George Stephanopoulos is now talking to Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the NSA. Mister General, Stephanopoulos asks, how did you let this guy out of Hawaii in the first place? Alexander is mentioning 9/11 and how Edward Snowden is making us vulnerable. "We are now putting in place systems" to track those with high-level security clearances. For example: "We've changed our passwords." Good luck, hackers.

Sunday shows solve Syria and government surveillance!

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Today on the Sunday Shows: War in Syria. The U.S. arming "the rebels." The Surveillance State. A world of terror, danger, chaos and impending doom. And so ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS' "Face the Nation" will seek to answer the metaquestion: Are you proud of us, Daddy?

First, and solely because it starts a half-hour earlier than the other shows, we'll check out "This Week," where Jonathan Karl is substituting for George Stephanopoulos. "Is the U.S. going to get involved in another war in the Middle East?" Always, Jonathan Karl, always. Let's see what Marco Rubio has to say.

Rubio, a war-friendly Republican, says that President Obama blew it by waiting so long to get involved in Syria. (Assuming this really is the broad change in strategy it's been billed as.) Now who are we giving arms to? Al-Qaida "elements." What would President Rubio have done? Karl asks. Well, Rubio never would have allowed it to get to this point, of course. If Rubio were president, Syria would be a sunny democratic Utopia already, because he would have managed it so perfectly, you just have no idea how perfectly President Rubio would have done things.

Sunday Shows meet Glenn Greenwald!

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 18:30:00 +0000

Welcome to your recap of this week's "Sunday shows," where the hot topic is how the government has access to everyone's phone and Facebook and video sex chats all the time, EVERYONE FREAK OUT, NOW. We'll be watching ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press" and CBS' "Face the Nation," and yes, in that priority order.

"This Week" promises to be a grand old time, as some producer has let civil liberties reporter and commentator Glenn"zilla" Greenwald on national television again to scorch the earth. Greenwald, of course, has been the lead reporter behind a number of top-secret leak reports this week.

"You are really on a roll," George Stephanopoulos congratulates Greenwald, of "the Guardian newspaper." (Full disclosure: I am a contributor to the Guardian U.S.) What are the key findings of your stories this week? Greenwald, talking super-fast to get it all in, has two. From the transcript:

Watching the Sunday shows so you don’t have to

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 17:28:00 +0000

Welcome to this week's Funday Shows recap, a look at all the hot chatter on NBC's Meet the Press, CBS's Face the Nation, and ABC's This Week. The topics under discussion this week include: Is Eric Holder the worst human being in history? Has he killed off any remaining semblance of Freedom of the Press in this country? Why aren't we bombing Syria yet? Are IRS employees dancing too much, and are we not going out of our way to humiliate them enough?

"SUNDAY SHOWDOWN!" George Stephanopoulos greets us, to open This Week. It's a political consultant versus another political consultant! Whose talking points will win? "Let's get right to it" with David Plouffe versus Karl Rove, before you even have time to run to the bathroom. Arianna Huffington, Gwen Ifill and the WSJ editorial page's Paul Gigot watch from the other side of the table.

Stephanopoulos shows poll numbers that indicate the public doesn't especially care about any of The Scandals, today's hot lead. Forty-four percent find the IRS targeting scandal the most important, however. And Karl Rove says if you look "inside the numbers," the public is still very unhappy with the economy. And the IRS collects taxes from the economy, so there you go: biggest scandal ever, searingly pertinent to all.

Sunday show roundup: disaster aid, drone debates

Sun, 26 May 2013 19:48:00 +0000

Following President Obama's Thursday speech, which promised in platitudes a new, more focused phase of the War on Terror, had talking heads yapping Sunday. The Sunday shows also touched upon disaster relief aid in the wake of this week's deadly tornado in Oklahoma.

Lethal drones:

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a typically unbearable politician, once again stepped admirably up to bat in critiquing U.S. lethal drone strike policy. (Although again, Paul's concerns extended only to Americans' rights and not foreign civilian casualties). He told ABC's "This Week" that while the president's comments could mark a step in the right direction, more needs to be clarified regarding due process, legal standards and justifications. "A lot of what's very important to myself and others is what the law says, and how you should approach this,” Paul said.

The Sunday Shows take on guns and gays

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 20:26:00 +0000

One interesting thing I've noted since I started watching the mostly wretched Sunday shows is that for the most part there is not much debate, between the liberal and conservative panel mainstays, on gay marriage. Everyone is in favor of it or not inclined to strongly oppose it. So in order to have a proper right-vs-left Sunday Show Debate on the matter, two of the shows today were forced to bring in outspoken bigots. National embarrassments Tony Perkins and Ralph Reed both gamely answered the call, and defended "traditional marriage" from the inevitable march of widespread acceptance of gays and lesbians.

First, though, ABC's "This Week," the only one of the big three shows this morning to have another idiotic debate about budgets, began with George Stephanopoulos actually bragging -- bragging! -- that he had both Jim Messina and Karl Rove. Oh boy, two campaign strategists! When I am looking for well-considered and thoughtful commentary on national issues, I always turn to people who are good at managing political campaigns.

Sunday show roundup: Immigration, guns and money

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:34:00 +0000

Here are the highlights from today's political gabfests:

Jeb Bush

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush made a full-fledged assault on the Sunday shows today attempting to clarify his position on immigration. Last week he said there should not be a “path to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants, a view he expressed in his new book, “Immigration Wars,” which was written before Mitt Romney got thumped in November and the Republican Party immediately decided that its hard-line immigration stance was not going to fly given current demographic trends. On "Face the Nation," Bush calibrated his stance to bring it more in line with mainstream GOP opinion or what mainstream GOP opinion could become:

I haven't changed. The book was written to try to create a blueprint for conservatives that were reluctant to embrace comprehensive reform, to give them perhaps a set of views that they could embrace. I support a path to legalization or citizenship so long as the path for people that have been waiting patiently is easier and costs less, the legal entrance to our country, than illegal entrance.

Sunday best: Gun control, ZDT and Paul Ryan

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 20:19:00 +0000

This morning's political shows featured unrepentant talk on gun control, "Zero Dark Thirty" and the return of Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.):

CBS:

“Face the Nation” highlighted a series of views on gun control. New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly, whose job involves fighting crime, said universal background checks on gun sales could have a measurable impact. “About 6 million weapons estimated were sold last year without a background check. So that’s a significant, that’s the loophole that they talk about. I think the background check will also be helpful in identifying store purchases, making them more aware of the fact that their now on record and you can record purchases that they make.”

Universal background checks aren’t the bills in play right now. (Or at least not yet.) Instead, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) defended the prospects of the assault weapons ban that she is sponsoring "because the American people are very much for it, " even though she acknowledged that it confronts an “uphill battle” to become law.

Sunday show roundup

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:27:00 +0000

While both the president and VP were sworn in for their second term in intimate ceremonies ahead of the public extravaganza Monday, the debates du jour continued on the Sunday talk shows.

Gun control:

The head of the National Rifle Association David Keene, in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," was confident that efforts to ban assault rifles and high-capacity ammunition weapons would fail.

"I'm willing to say that guns in this country have as much influence as they always have, and perhaps more," he told host Candy Crawley.

Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) -- a Congressman with strong NRA support -- urged an approach to curtailing gun violence that does not focus just on guns. "If you're just going to say it's all about guns, and we need gun changes and bans, then you're wrong," he said, noting that he and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would be sponsoring a bill to launch a commission on "mass violence," which would look at cultural depictions of violence, mental health care as well as gun control.

Obama's senior adviser David Plouffe, who made the talk show rounds Sunday, told "State of the Union" that he believed there to be "consensus on Capitol Hill" over gun control. "We think we can get 60 votes in the Senate and 218 [votes in the House],” Plouffe said.

Condi joins CBS News

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:12:00 +0000

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is joining CBS News as a contributor. Her new role was announced Sunday as she appeared as a panelist on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"Everybody knows Condoleezza Rice was President Bush’s Secretary of State but I'm highly pleased to announce she has a new job. As of today, she’s joining CBS News as a contributor," said host Bob Schieffer said.

Ahead of the inauguration of President Obama's second term, Rice recalled beginning a second term working under George W. Bush when she was nominated Secretary of State, and how quickly the time passes. "You better know what you want to achieve in these three years or so," she said.

Via CBS:

Sunday show roundup: Gun defenders mum

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 18:40:00 +0000

David Gregory, host of NBC's "Meet the Press," told viewers Sunday morning that not a single pro-gun rights senator accepted an invitation to appear on the show following the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday.

"A note here this morning: We reached out to all 31 pro-gun rights senators in the new Congress to invite them on the program to share their views on the subject this morning," he said. "We had no takers."

Since Adam Lanza shot 20 children and 6 adults dead with a semiautomatic, few defenders of gun rights have spoken publicly as cries for greater gun control have amplified. On Sunday, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was the lone pro-gun voice to grace the talk show circuit. He said on "Fox News Sunday" that Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung should have been armed:

"I wish to god she had had an m-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out ... and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids," Gohmert said.

Watch Gohmert's comments, via Fox News:

David Gergen: Great men have affairs

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 16:53:00 +0000

David Gergen -- a friend of Gen. David Petraeus as well as the woman he reportedly had an extra-marital affair with -- said on "Face The Nation" this morning that great men have affairs -- and that those relationships can be very important to them in difficult times.

"I would hope people would remember that there have been other great leaders in this country ... Remember President Eisenhower, when he was General Eisenhower, Kay Summersby, how important that relationship was to him," Gergen said.

"Remember Franklin Roosevelt and Lucy Mercer, how important that relationship was to him during the second World War.

"I think we have to be understanding that, as the saying goes," Gergen stammered, "the best of men are still men, men at their best."

Sunday show round up

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 17:49:00 +0000

With just one day to go before the final presidential debate, which will focus on foreign policy, the Sunday shows were awash with Obama and Romney surrogates trotting out party lines on foreign policy topics du jour -- predominantly the Libya embassy attacks and Iran.

Iran

Fox News Sunday saw Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tow a hawkish line on Iran, calling the crippling program of sanctions currently in place a "miserable failure." "Time for talking is over he said," echoing Bibi Netanyahu's call for the U.S. to draw "red lines" over Iran's nuclear ambitions. "We should be demanding transparency and access to their nuclear program," Graham said.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) defended the sanctions program against Graham's attacks, "There's unrest in the streets of Tehran and the leaders in Iran are feeling it," he said.

David Axelrod echoed Durbin's point during his appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," "They're [Tehran is] feeling the heat. And that's what the sanctions were meant to do. So if they're sensible, they're looking at that and saying it's time to set aside our nuclear ambitions and save our economy."

Sunday show roundup

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 16:48:00 +0000

With fewer than 7 weeks until the election, pols and pundits made a show of force on the Sunday talk shows:

On "Face the Nation," conservative op-ed writer and Romney critic Peggy Noonan said Republicans thanked her for her critical column in private:"I will tell you, Bob, it was very interesting. There was a lot of formal official and public blowback from the Romney campaign, from Romney surrogates, et cetera. What was interesting to me, however, was that privately, the constant communication I got was, thank you for saying that they need help at the Romney campaign, they need to be woken up, they need to raise their game."