National Debt

In recent days you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some media member or politician blaming the Koch brothers for the government shutdown. On Wednesday, Koch Industries sent a letter to a number of people on Capitol Hill trying to set the record straight while attempting to end the misinformation campaign (published with permission):

Dontcha love it when liberals accuse people they don't agree with of not loving their country? It's especially delicious watching the perilously liberal Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday point her holier than thou finger at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.), a man who just two weeks ago stood for 21 hours on the floor of the Senate demonstrating for the entire world how much he loves his…

CNN viewers familiar with State of the Union host Candy Crowley certainly weren't surprised when she came armed to her Sunday interview with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tx.) with Democrat talking points. Fortunately, the Texas Senator was prepared and marvelously smacked her down when she twice claimed that Democrats feel blackmailed by Republicans proposing separate bills to fund parts of the…

Is it really the place for a game show to take sides in a political debate? The folks at Family Feud certainly think so, for some genius actually decided to send a tweet to the show's Twitter followers Saturday which read "@SpeakerBoehner, stop letting extremists sabotage our economy. End the #TeaPartyShutdown now. Speaker Boehner don't let Cruz run the US":

Syndicated columnist Pat Buchanan and the Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift got into quite a heated debate about the government shutdown on PBS’s McLaughlin Group Friday. At one point, Buchanan said Obama “wants to maximize the pain in order to maximize his political gain…It is a sinister and sadistic tactic” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

It’s becoming quite apparent the American people aren’t as concerned about the government shutdown as the Democrats and their media minions would like people to be. On the CBS Late Show Friday, when host David Letterman asked the studio audience if they were worried about the shutdown, they collectively said “No” (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):

As NewsBusters reported Tuesday, George Will has joined Fox News. In his first comments on the network, Will said on Friday's Special Report, "The President’s rather enjoying this [shutdown], and if the emblematic statement of the first Obama term was 'A crisis is a terrible thing to waste,' this term defined after just nine months is 'A crisis is a beautiful thing to create'” (video follows…

The Morning Joe crew, along with much of the liberal media, has lately been ringing the debt-ceiling alarm, saying that a failure to raise the debt ceiling by October 17 would cause a default that would devastate the U.S. economy. But on Friday’s Morning Joe, CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera stepped onto the set and took a wrecking ball to the wall of hysteria surrounding a possible default.…

CBS This Morning has a long established history of conducting softball interviews of liberal/Democratic guests, while unleashing on conservative/liberal ones. But on Friday, the morning newscast surprisingly hounded Rep. Nancy Pelosi on the ongoing government shutdown. Obama supporter Gayle King repeatedly pressed Pelosi about "people [who] are just saying...work it out....both sides have to be…

The liberal media are truly becoming unhinged. On NPR’s On Point Thursday, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman actually equated Republicans with the terrorist group Hezbollah (transcript follows with commentary, audio available here, and via NPR with relevant section at 13:48):

Sometimes Congressmen say the darnedest things. Toward the end of a heated debate with CNN's Carol Costello about the government shutdown and ObamaCare, Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.) brought up the media as part of the problem adding, "Carol, you're beautiful but you have to be honest as well" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Jay Leno clearly isn’t pleased with the government shutdown. On Wednesday’s Tonight Show, the host spent most of his opening monologue railing against the President and Congress concluding with him holding a sign up that read “F U Politicians” (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

Politico's Dylan Byers is determined to tell us that we didn't see and hear what we really saw and heard, and that Matt Drudge is a filthy liar (Update, 8:20 a.m., Oct. 3: as well as Real Clear Politics —"Reid To CNN's Dana Bash: 'Why Would We Want To' Help One Kid With Cancer?") for relaying what CNN's Dana Bash saw and heard — and reported. Today, after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid…

In an exclusive interview with President Obama on Wednesday, CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood lobbed this softball on the political fallout of the government shutdown: "Before the election last year, you said you thought there was a possibility your re-election would break the fever within the Republican Party. Didn't happen. Do you see this moment as a chance, through this…