The guest writer of Sunday's Politico Playbook was Meet The Press host Chuck Todd. Unlike in the case of the partisan politically correct Todd, there was no emergency zoom call of over 200 Politico staffers throwing a hissy fit about Todd writing in their publication as was the case recently with Ben Shapiro. Of course, the reason was that Todd could be always relied upon to faithfully promote the Democratic Party narrative as he has done over the years.
Todd, who has been obviously biased for his whole career, is unhappy when conservatives point out liberal media bias. He whined, "Personally, it’s been very frustrating to deal with, because of how cynical and exploitative the reason is for the avoidance. One of the laziest tropes in conservative circles is the issue of media bias. It’s such a reflexive response these days."
Chuck, you might want to read the NewsBusters section on you. Then get back to us on how "lazy" it is to call out your bias.
It was also quite ridiculous to read Todd give advice to Republicans on how to help the future their party. Yeah, it's so touching to see Todd so concerned about the well-being of Republicans especially on the heels of him raging at Senator Ron Johnson and his fellow Republicans for being arsonists for daring to hold hearings on the disputed 2020 election. Conveniently, his advice included him urging Republicans to break from President Donald Trump.
Despite Todd's open hostility towards Republicans, he is now also whining about them not appearing on his show as you can see in the title of his Politico Playbook, "Chuck Todd to Republicans: Quit ducking the Sunday shows."
Chuck kicked off by pompously lecturing Republicans on their "silence" on Trump. Of course, no similar lecture on the silence of Democrats and many in the mainstream media on their silence on a myriad of issues such as, for example, FISA abuses.
One of the hallmarks of the Trump era that anyone who works for a mainstream Sunday show knows all too well has been the selective silence of a large chunk of the elected leaders of the Republican Party, particularly in the United States Senate.
This week is no different from just about every other Sunday of the Trump era: a large swath of mainstream GOPers choosing silence over being forced to reconcile their role and the party’s role in the Trump era.
I’m sure many of these senators who chose to stay quiet in the beginning felt justified in staying off the airwaves. Why should we have to answer for the president’s behavior, some of them thought. Or perhaps more cynically, why stick my head up and let Trump supporters take a shot for being disloyal. Let Jeff Flake or Mitt Romney do it.
I say this not to discount the political or physical harm these folks may have felt in the moment. I’m sure the potential threats to their families and the risk of losing their political careers were also drivers of their near-silence the past four years.
Now back to Chuck's advice to Republicans that their future lies with demonizing Trump:
I’m someone who believes to cover American politics you do have to understand the dynamics of campaigns, not just general elections but primary elections too. I’m well aware of the strategic advice many of these senators got in the last four years from political consultants. Many have moral integrity, but many do not.
And while it’s politically explainable why a Nebraska Republican would be reticent to use a network bullhorn to criticize the president if that Nebraska Republican wanted to stay a senator past the Trump era, there is a consequence that comes with it — sending a subtle message that the president’s behavior is tolerable enough.
...David French of The Dispatch, with his usual provocative thoughtfulness, is nervous Senate Republicans might be getting cold feet and falling back into their bad habit of the last four years that I wrote about above. “[E]very single time Republicans refused to check Trump, they kept putting leadership of the Republic into unfit hands. They made a gamble that the costs would not grow too great. They chose poorly,” he writes. Now “Republicans in the Senate have a choice: Take the risk to end it now, or appease the mob, appease talk radio and Fox, and hope and pray it ends later. There is only one responsible answer. Do the hard thing. Convict Donald Trump.”
Here's a good lesson for life: Ignore advice from people who don't have your best interests at heart. That's definitely true with the liberal media trying to "help" Republicans.
