On Meet The Press, reports Left Coaster‘s Steve Soto, Mary The Masticator accused Gregory of a “jihad” for pressing WH Press Secretary Scott McClellan on the Cheney shooting story:
David [Gregory]: there was disagreement and Mary [Matalin] well knows within the White House how this was handled–There were some WH officials who told me this week, it made the President look bad-it raised questions about who is running the rodeo in the White House.
[Maureen] Dowd: … […]
Matalin: It strikes you as odd (Gregory) because you live in a parallel universe–
Gregory: If the vice president did everything right by disclosing it the way he did-then why did you do a big national interview this week?
Mary: Because you went on a jihad, David-four day jihad-
David: That’s an unfortunate use of that word by the way..
Mary: Oh, OK…were you saving up for that line?
Now, this Mary Mad-gal-an is no holy virgin mama when it comes to selling GOP/Neocon bullshit spin and marketing lies that have killed hundreds of thousands of people. After all, she was a core member of the all-powerful White House Iraq Group (WHIG) that plotted how to bend the intelligence and sell the Iraq war to the American people.
Then, over on Howie Kurtz’s CNN gig, “Reliable Sources,” Ari Fleischer claimed that the WH press corps has gone “bonkers,” and Howie Kurtz eagerly followed with a let-me-help-you-nail-’em question, “Why are they going bonkers?” … below …
KURTZ: Each network, in fact, made sure to feature its own correspondent hammering McClellan. On “NBC Nightly News,” it was David Gregory.
[…]
FLEISCHER: Well, I think both. I think the White House correspondents were right on this one. They did have a legitimate beef. They should have been told about it. But I think you can be right and still go bonkers, and I think that’s what happened here.
KURTZ: Why are they going bonkers?
FLEISCHER: Well, I think they’ve just made this too big a story, too much the focus, too much the flashpoint. Is this really what dominates people’s lives when we have Iran enriching uranium, when there are so some other controversies around the world, about the path that this news flowed?
After all, the American people were told about it Sunday night on the network news. It’s just they weren’t told about it through the White House press corps.
In my judgment it would have been better if they had been told about it through the White House press corps, but I do think there is an element here of the press going bonkers because they didn’t get the story, somebody else did, and they wished it had been them.
KURTZ: Right.
Steve Soto says:
You can write Timmeh here and ask him why he allows Matalin to equate a free press with Islamic terrorism, and you can write Jimmy Carville and ask him if he shares her views.
It also goes without saying that by adopting Matalin’s patriotism test, every damn thing she and the right wing said against Clinton would similarly fall into a “jihad”, would it not?
Not sure Timmeh and Jimmy will care, but what the hell.
From now on, David Gregory will be the White House reporter who went bonkers on a four-day jihad.
Will he be reassigned any time soon?
What really should happen is that Ari and Mary end up in the hoosegow for at least a couple years for perjury, misuse of classified documents, or whatever else Patrick Fitzgerald could get ’em on. I know I’m dreamin’, but it’s the least they deserve for all of their lies that have actually KILLED people.