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Two Conservatives Try and Epically Fail to Take Down Rachel Maddow
On Real Time With Bill Maher, it was a moment the right dreams of daily. Two conservatives had their chance to take down Rachel Maddow, and both of them were a bundle of fail.
Things got personal while discussing Fast and Furious. Both of the conservatives on the panel, Mort Zuckerman and Gillespie, claimed that they weren’t Republicans. Although each of them have appeared on Fox News regularly, and when Zuckerman was considering a run for the U.S. Senate he courted the Republican Party. Gillespie calls himself a libertarian and wants to believe he is non-partisan, but self-delusion is a powerful thing.
Both of the conservatives on the panel were hell bent on convincing America that Fast and Furious was not about taking away guns. Gillespie claimed it was Holder not knowing what is going on with his own DOJ, and Zuckerman focused on the widely debunked claim that it was all about the documents, which contain information that Darrell Issa and his fellow committee members were briefed on 2010 and 2011.
Since Nick Gillespie is a Libertarian, he hates all government agencies, but especially the ATF and DOJ because of the drug war. He was off on a patented anti-government tirade, but Maddow brought a little reality into his spin. She said, “Can we just talk about what we left behind here though which is that the Bush administration started this policy, the Obama administration continued it and then shut it down. And the Republicans in Congress are furious about this because they decided that since it continued during the Obama administration, it must be a conspiracy to somehow take away gun rights. When you listen to Republicans in Congress talk about why they’re doing it, it’s all about the conspiracy theory.”
Maddow then turned her attention to shooting down Zuckerman’s claim that is all about the documents, and took him down by pointing out that the things Issa is requesting have nothing to do with the operation of Fast and Furious.
Having stuck out against Maddow on the issue, Nick Gillespie launched a personal attack against her partisanship.
Video of the attack on Maddow’s partisanship:
Transcript via Mediaite and me:
Gillespie: You should not be forced by your Democratic partisanship to be forced to…
(Crosstalk.)
Maddow: I’m just trying to say a nice thing, and you’re already, ‘You’re a hack!’ Listen, dude, I’m not even a Democrat!
Gillespie: That’s not what I’m saying…
(More crosstalk.)
Gillespie: You will always take the side of a Democrat over a Republican.
Maddow: No, I won’t. You don’t even know me.
Gillespie: What’s an example? I’ve seen your show.
Maddow: I assume. I assume that you always done the thing that I assume based on the way you look.
Bill Maher jumped in and said that it wasn’t a fair question, because the Republicans have become the party of mental patients.
Gillespie whined that he didn’t want to be put into the partisan box of Democrats versus Republicans. Maddow told him that he was the one putting himself in the box.
I understand that Nick Gillespie has deluded himself into thinking that he is intellectually superior because he is not a Democrat or a Republican, but he is kidding himself if he thinks that he is not partisan. Gillespie is just as married to his partisan ideology as Democrats and Republicans are. Just because fewer people vote Libertarian, does not mean that Libertarians aren’t ideological.
There is nothing more annoying than a sanctimonious, ideologically-welded, third party follower declaring their intellectual superiority while they blindly tout the same fringe views that have gotten them nowhere for decades. If Gillespie had read Maddow’s book Drift, he would have known how stupid his attempt to frame her as a Democratic mouthpiece really was. Gillespie doesn’t know it, but his defenses of Ron Paul make him more partisan than Maddow ever has been. Rachel Maddow has never openly supported a political candidate, or gone on television to defend Ron Paul the way Gillespie has.
This segment revealed a reality within the right. There are a group of people on the right like Zuckerman and Gillespie on the right who disguise themselves as something they are not. Both claimed that they aren’t Republicans, but both took positions supporting the Republican Party.
Gillespie thought he could take down Rachel Maddow. The right dreams of taking down Maddow, but he crashed and burned. The evidence of his failure was the fact that he had to resort to a personal attack. These sorts of attacks are the last refuge of defeated. He couldn’t discredit Maddow’s facts, so he tried to discredit her as a source. Maddow could have easily turned Gillespie’s question around on him, but she has too much class to engage in such behavior.
Instead of taking down Maddow, all Gillespie managed to do was out himself as a partisan hack who is too trapped inside his on self-infatuated, smug bubble to see that he was actually the biggest ideological tool of them all.
Saying that Democrats and Republicans both suck doesn’t make you intelligent, it makes you a lazy thinker who is too busy touting your own smug sense of superiority to actually listen to the debate.
Gillespie and Zuckerman’s epic fail proved that it is going to take more than a closeted Republican and a Libertarian to stop Rachel Maddow. The right is going to keep coming after her, but Rachel Maddow just keeps knocking them down.
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37 Responses to Two Conservatives Try and Epically Fail to Take Down Rachel Maddow
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Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Rachel Maddow’s book is “Drift”, not Fringe. Having made that correction I will say I said after watching Bill last night that Rachel wiped her behind with these two hacks and totally shut them down.
Jason Easley
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Thanks for the correction. It was a typo. I’ve read the book, just a simple slip of the mind. Thanks for spotting that one.
desertflower
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Honest mistake, considering how much oxygen is being sucked out the country by them.
Reid
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 1:26 pm
Wow – Maddow and Maher look like complete idiots for not knowing the facts behind F+F. I expect that from a comedian like Maher, but Maddow is supposed to be MSNBC’s top news anchor. Embarrassing display on her part.
Albie Pabon
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Fast and Furious has drawn many on the right into a paranoid conspiracy fringe group. What makes you think Maddow and Maher don’t know the facts about F&F? A ride on the net highway will get you to the facts if you seek out reputable sources and stay away from the Conservative sites.
Vanderboegh who is hailed as a hero by the Right and specifically by Issa as a F&F expert o actually started the conspiracy theories that got it going. He is the same character who through net writings told people to throw bricks (later “rocks”) in the windows of Obama supporters.
Because of him, Gabby Giffords’ office was trashed; there are more such instances.
So it is my suggestion that you select your reading materials before suggesting others are ignorant of the facts of an issue.
Lisa Lopez
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 5:25 pm
Every point you made is right on. That NRA kook Vanderboegh met with Grassley, Sessions, Issa, & other GOP conspiracy theorists in Congress. Then lo and behold, the ATF is accused of “walking guns” across the border to drug cartels in the hopes of escalating violence so the Obama administration could “pad their statistics” and go after the Second Amendment rights of Americans. They will do and say anything to fulfill their goal of bringing down this presidency. This operation has gone through so many name changes just to get to this point–sounds like a movie, but this stuff is real. It went from Project Gunrunner to Project Gunwalker to Walking Gun-gate Scandal to Project Gunwalker Scandal to Fast and Furious, and somehow they managed to tie in Voter Suppression. WTF??
Roe
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:20 pm
Reid, which facts are those? The one Republicans keep overlooking about Bush & the ATF “walking” guns to Mexico to feret out straw purchasers in 2006, or the one where Issa’s “contempt” charge is based on the Attorney General’s refusal to turn over grand jury transcripts, which would be an illegal act? Just keep parroting the “facts” that laughingly are referred to as “news” on Fox.
desertflower
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:29 pm
I think that you may be the only one that doesn’t understand what’s behind F&F….Dr. Maddow understands VERY well. Hopefully, after watching this, you will too.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X...
Brigita Petrutis
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:46 pm
wru referring to, the dox or the jox?
James
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 5:44 pm
If you think for a second that Rachel doesn’t know about fast and furious you really are naive! Maybe you should have watched her show the day before this. It’s the GOP that really doesn’t know about fast and furious and the uneducated robots that watch fox that are being led down the wrong path for all the wrong reasons. This could simply end by calling bushes AG to testify. But hey wont and that’s because he would blow this thing wide open and take them all down. Ask Issa how he voted for fast and furious then get back to me. All a smoke and pony show.
stacey
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Have you even watched Maddows show?? IF you did you would know that she has been reporting on the F&F for a long time and seems to know a lot about it.
Amanda Hardlech
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 7:44 pm
You can go as far a looking at the MASSIVE fiascos of republican administrations and how so many will pick the same INCOMPETENT LEADERS and same fiascos again, and again. CONSERVATIVES think FOX is somehow a liberating experience of the “liberal bias” when really being a VERY SCRIPTED version of half trues to benefit TOTALITARIAN corporate power. MOST PEOPLE in this country cannot even recognize what propaganda is, even when is so blatant synchronized BULLSHIT TELLING with absurd logic in very specific media outlets Yeah, the lies become the “logic” they so much look for since their cognitive abilities are not there. But yes, while the right keeps fighting government , being subservient to those that experience record profits in the midst of the economic collapse, the left keeps trying to explain or make sense of the many LIES the right makes up by the second. Of course you can go the rabbit hole when trying to take serious the right wing clownery and obscene falsehoods. This country knows VERY LITTLE of what really happens. How many right wingers even acknowledge all of the secret operations pushed by conservatives ideologues since the 60s? They have NO CLUE of the atrocities they support by remaining IGNORANT. NO CLUE the have been selling weapons to EVERY “enemy” since the 60′s… but yes, fast and furious is a “real” threat.
Shiva (Moderator)
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 7:51 pm
One of my favorite examples is the fact that the NRA fights so hard to keep the thousands of gun shops along the Mexican border open and unregulated as much is possible. Weapons are sent across the Mexican border daily by these gun shops who are making profits off selling legal weapons that it illegally go across the border. This is little more than the NRA in the GOP gunrunning on the side. How many thousands of Mexicans have died?
Tim
Jun. 24th, 2012 at 2:00 pm
You hit that on the head. How can you have a whole panel that has not a clue of any of the facts.
Alan Eggleston
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 1:34 pm
I’ve run into a similar phenomenon, someone who claims not to be a Republican, who claims instead to be a conservative (she told me she was an independent but now even denies that), but is as partisan as any Republican, totally toting the Republican lines and defenses as any party lackey. But she smugly says she isn’t a Republican. She is the campaign manager for an Independent conservative candidate, and I wonder if her claims aren’t more to aid her job title than her actual politics. Honestly, I think it’s more of a Republican PR ploy than anything else, hoping to attract more independent voters to Republican candidates than really being independent themselves.
Brigita Petrutis
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:47 pm
Everyone has to make a living, and unfortunately not everyone has thought about making the world a better place in spite of it.
Angie
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Very well said!
Johnee
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 2:10 pm
Jason, overall I agree with the points you made. Rach did take these guys down. However you call Gillespie a conservative in the first part of the article and a libertarian in the second. ??? Gillespie is a typical libertarian in that he hates public programs and ANYTHING that regulates big business… but is otherwise extremely liberal on social issues.
While Gillespie’s Randian trickle down theory positions are absurd, I recognize that he is on the right side of history at least part of the time. I can’t say that for most of today’s neo-cons..
Ruth
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:19 pm
As usual, Rachel had more class – and more accurate information – than the people trying to put her down. “Drift” should be required reading; anyone who reads it and doesn’t “get it” should have to take citizenship classes.
Gerry Panzica
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Nick Gillespie may be GORGEOUS..but politically, he is an A55HOLE !!!!!!
You go, Miss Rachel !!!!!
Bob Wagner
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:28 pm
I do disagree with the “republican” ideas 99% of the time. The point that was made and it is true. The “republicans” changed to what I call the Republiturds. Back in 2003 they began and would scream that thing with “if you’re not with us, you’re agin us”. And that is how they operated throughout everything after 9/11. To “work with” a Republiturd, you MUST accept everything they say as:
Gospel,
Truth,
The Way, and/or
The Only Solution.
And if you do NOT accept that:
You’re Un-American,
You Hate America,
You Should Just Leave America, and
the list goes on and on.
That is not reason, it’s a bully demanding his dues without providing anything in return for payment. Partisan? Maybe that does make me partisan in the eyes of screaming republiturd, but as an American, a veteran, a taxpayer, a worker making $12,000 LESS than before the business practice of “let’s lay off 10% of the workers to look profitable”. But I won’t apologize for it, I see no reason for one.
Brigita Petrutis
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Thank you Jason, for providing me with some back-up on this whole (in England it’s a Wide-O) situation. I had a bullying on fb over the Wisconsin thing, and it took me days to get over it. It seems that we are at such survival frenzy with the us v them in political rhetoric, you have to (assume) folks act desperately when they are about to get annhiliated.
What is going to tamper down this powder keg?
DennisNYC
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 5:33 pm
Brigita: “What is going to tamper down this powder keg?”
A nice big pipeful of weed.!
Ken
Jun. 24th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
I hope some weed will tamp it down, but I suspect civil war will be the ultimate solution. There may be violent riots by the TPers if the ACA is upheld or if Obama is re-elected. I really see that as the probable outcome, sorry to say. The reason being, you can’t be rational with stupid people who never see the truth.
Shiva (Moderator)
Jun. 24th, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Just think how the insurance corps will lose. We could fight the mandatory insurance law, helmets on bikes you name it. Dog licenses
GeneralLerong
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 5:00 pm
“Saying that Democrats and Republicans both suck doesn’t make you intelligent, it makes you a lazy thinker who is too busy touting your own smug sense of superiority to actually listen to the debate.”
Damn straight. These twits are tiresome, aren’t they?
majii
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 5:28 pm
It’s a sad time in America. Some Americans refuse to look at the facts in any situation. Some of us have become consumers of propaganda, lies, and conspiracy theories that are passed off as the truth. Some conservatives are pretending that gun walking never occurred in the GWB administration under the name of “Wide Receiver,” and they’re pretending that they don’t understand why AG Holder can’t turn over certain materials to Issa. It’s impossible to discuss anything with people of this sort. I had an encounter with one of these people on Twitter last night who was using the RW talking point that Latinos have the highest unemployment rate and food stamp usage of any group in America. I sensed a RW ideologue when I saw Nobama as part of his profile. When I asked him what the republicans have done besides deny the extension of unemployment benefits and cutting food stamps, he changed the subject to say that was a big liar. I knew then and there this person wasn’t worth fooling with since it was obvious he was willing to ignore the constant stream of lies that come from Romney’s mouth. I called him out on his dishonesty, and asked him to not respond to my tweet because I was finished with the conversation. He responded with a taunting tweet hoping I’d re-engage with him, but I ignored him. I simply don’t have the time or patience to deal with people who deny facts and reality. All they do is make comments, receive fact-filled responses from dems, and change the goalposts or the topic of the conversation. These are the people who are very much responsible for our current economic woes because they thought GWB was a ‘good ole boy’ they’d like to have a drink with. It never entered their minds that GWB had no intention of sitting down anywhere to drink anything with them. A man who wipes his hands on President Clinton’s shirt after shaking the hand of a Haitian kid is not going to intentionally interact with those he considers the ‘unwashed,’ and only a delusional individual would think that he would. These are the same people who ignored the fact that he wasn’t worth a d@mn when it came to governing, but they sure loved to see him ride his bike and cut brush in Crawford, TX, and a realist will admit that Americans were worse off at the end of his two terms in office.
Lisa Lopez
Jun. 24th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
I forgot about the first name of the operation when it began under Bush 43–Wide Receiver, so let add it to my previous post. “This operation has gone through so many name changes just to get to this point–sounds like a movie, but this stuff is real. It went from Wide-Receiver to Project Gunrunner to Project Gunwalker to Walking Gun-gate Scandal to Project Gunwalker Scandal to Fast and Furious…, So lets see, a wide receiver catches & runs with guns; a gunrunner runs with guns; a gunwalker walks with guns; OMG! Who would’ve thunk running & walking is bad for you? What a scandal–NOT!
majii
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 5:30 pm
…to saying that PBO was a big liar…
Shiva (Moderator)
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 5:30 pm
the moronic Republican Congress is trying so hard to make this look like fast and furious started just before the border patrol and was shot. They will not recognize under any circumstances that this was an ongoing program. They will not recognize that Eric holder had no idea of what was going on. Nor did the president. They know the truth but they’re trying very hard to slant it.
Trying to say that this was all about Obama wanting to take guns away is absolutely hilarious. But it may work for them for a while. In the meantime, they’re going to have to crash and burn on this just like these two conservatives did. The president and Eric holder going to have to make Darrell Issa and John Boehner look extraordinarily foolish
Lee Barnett
Jun. 23rd, 2012 at 8:34 pm
AG Holder cannot respond to the subpoena because it was so broad that it would be illegal for the AG to disclose Grand Jury Minutes OR wire tape applications and that is why Issa is so pissed off!
jeanne Tifft
Jun. 24th, 2012 at 11:01 am
i wonder – and hope – that the Democrats have a VERY strong candidate to run against the reprehensible Darrell Issa this November.
Tim
Jun. 24th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
I really enjoy Maher but he really needs to hire a single researcher that can provide him with facts.
For someone that complains about the bubble it is embarrassing how often he gets his facts from the same bubble.
I was also very surprised that Maddow had not followed the hearings closer and not having some of her facts right either.
There was definitively some bad blood from the beginning with Gillespie, maybe he was convinced he could change her sexuality. I’ve never seen her befuddled with someone before.
I was waiting for some real blood.
Ingrid Buxton
Jun. 25th, 2012 at 11:00 am
It isnt just political. The “boys” were trying to intimidate and drown out the “girl”. Well Rachel doesnt demure to men especially when they are spouting talking points rather than speaking for themselves.
Dis Gust
Jun. 25th, 2012 at 11:49 am
Gillespie is from Reason TV. This information about Reason is from Sourcewatch www.sourcewatch.org/index...
The Reason Foundation is funded, in part, by what are known as the “Koch Family Foundations,”[3] and David Koch serves as a Reason trustee. [4]
Dr. Adrian Moore, Vice President of Public Policy of the Reason Foundation, is an Advisor to the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Commerce, Insurance & Economic Development Task Force.[6] Reason Foundation representatives have also advised ALEC Task Forces on issues such as state budgets [7], and health reform. [8]
The Reason Foundation’s Director of Government Affairs, Mike Flynn, was previously policy director for ALEC. [9]
William A. Dunn, chairman of the board; Dunn Capital Management; director of Cato Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Property and Environment Research Center, etc
Also, if you go to www.muckety.com/Reason-Fo... you will see the direct relationship between Reason and the funders of other radical right wing organizations.
Brian Daniels
Jun. 25th, 2012 at 1:13 pm
This is the second time I’ve watched Gillespie’s act on Real Time and I find him hilarious. From the Marlon Brando “The Wild One” outfit to his non-stop pandering to the GOP he claims to disavow he is one seriously funny guy. Up against Rachel and Mark Ruffalo he is so far out of his league that it takes some of the joy out of watching him get his ass kicked. If “Cheers” ever gets remade, we have our Cliff Clavin.
ed
Jun. 25th, 2012 at 9:23 pm
You guys are kidding right? Rachel Maddow’s meltdown over the question on Romneycare from Gillespie and Maher was hilarious. My job is to cover the news, not to tell you if I like it or not???? That is her whole show! Seriously, you think she schooled everyone? The silence after that statement was incredible for a Bill Maher. Everyone really watched the show and thought her behavior was schooling people? I am very willing and able to look at both sides and I thought Maddow looked ridiculous but I thought Ruffalo actually got his point across very well.