Did someone make this "Declare Your Devotion To a Dem Day" at MSNBC? You have to wonder. During the network's noon hour, Dr. Nancy Snyderman declared herself a "big fan" of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Not to be outdone, during the following hour Andrea Mitchell ended her interview with Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Ia.) by thanking him profusely—and I mean at length—for having pushed through passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act 19 years ago today.
Dr. Nancy let us know she's a member of the Sebelius Fan Club while chatting with Sarah Baldauf of US News and World Report [it apparently still exists] about an "obesity conference" happening today in DC [please read this item on your iPhone while jogging]. Sebelius rolled out a multi-point federal plan to deal with obesity that included "get fresh produce into low income neighborhoods and make it affordable." Right. We've got to break down those police roadblocks preventing fresh produce from getting into the barrio.
In any case, here was the exchange.
SARAH BALDAUF: She [Sebelius] said HHS is back and they have a plan.
NANCY SNYDERMAN: You know, I think she is really taking on, she is really biting off a lot of things, and I'm a big fan of Kathleen Sebelius.
During the following MSNBC hour, it was Andrea's turn. Harkin appeared to discuss the fate of the health care legislation. He apparently believes the so-called "public option" still has a pulse. Whatever. At the end of the interview, Mitchell went on—and on—praising Harkin for having pushed the American Disabilities Act through yea those 19 years ago. At the very end, Mitchell gushed: "you've changed the face of America and we want to thank you."
You might think ADA is a good thing. Those with a libertarian bent, like the folks at the Cato Institute, do not, persuasively making the case it's hurt the very people it was supposed to help.
In any case, is it the role of Mitchell, putatively a "correspondent" and not a pundit, to be thanking partisan politicians like Harkin and praising a controversial, litigation-spawning piece of legislation like the ADA?
Snyderman and Mitchell have set the Dem sycophancy bar high. But the day is still young. Who knows what MSNBC's evening crew will come up with when it comes to lavishing praise on the party in power? Stay tuned!
