Sunday, October 4, 2009

Rachel Maddow Attacks Stacy McCain

[Scroll down for updates]

Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press this morning, called Robert Stacy McCain a white supremacist. I'm thinking she's been listening to Charles Johnson a little too much.

The panel was discussing the Sarah Palin book, Going Rogue, when Maddow offers her criticism of Lynn Vincent, Palin's ghostwriter. Maddow explains that Lynn Vincent "co-authored a book with a guy who is widely believed to be , and I believe him to be, a white supremacist. So she's [Palin] chosen Lynn Vincent who has written a book with a white supremacist to write her book." Robert Stacy McCain and Lynn Vincent co-authored Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party in 2006.

Slide on over to 8:00 for the quote.



I'm just going to second my friend William Jacobson who defended Stacy McCain back in September when this meme started. I've read NOTHING in Stacy's works to support such an accusation and it seems to me that Maddow just lowers the level of debate when she spews trash garnered from Charles Johnson.

Was it necessary for Maddow to slander Stacy McCain in her attack on Palin's ghostwriter? I don't think so.

It's a nasty, damaging attack to label someone as a "white supremacist" and it shows that Maddow has sunk lower than I even thought her able to go, which was pretty low.

Update: Here's the entire exchange, in context, (emphasis mine) from the Meet the Press transcript:

MR. DIONNE: But she'll sell a lot of books.
MR. MURPHY: No, she will sell a lot. I'm, I'm going to buy it. I'm going to wait for it to get spell-checked, but then I'm going to buy it.
GREGORY: Right. And she's number--I should point out, I mean, number one on the best-seller list for Amazon.
MR. MURPHY: Yeah. No, no, look, she has a constituency. She'll never be the nominee, I totally agree with David. I agree with Steve Schmidt, it would be actually a disaster if she was the nominee. I do wish my friend Steve felt that a year ago when a lot of people were asking John McCain to put her on the ticket. But the truth is--and I'm going to agree with David here, too--the noisiest parts of kind of the conservative media machine have far less influence than the mainstream media machine that covers the Republican world thinks they do. These radio guys can't deliver a pizza, let alone a nomination. And you can case study that out in the last election. So I--the question is whether or not our party will learn, when we have a pretty good midterm victory due to Obama's mistakes this time, that turning up the volume is not the reason that we're going to do well, I believe, in the midterms. And the fact is to get all the way, there are a lot of things we have to do to modernize conservativism to be successful.
MS. MADDOW: I, I do think that there's a little bit of reckoning that needs to happen on the right for Sarah Palin's success. I mean, she was the vice presidential nominee, she is going to sell a kazillion books and she is the biggest brand name in Republican politics still right now. And she's chose--the person who's writing her book, her last--the last person who she co-authored a book with was called "Donkey Cons" and it was co-authored with a guy who's widely believed to be and I believe him to be a white supremacist. So she's chosen Lynn Vincent, who's written a book with a white supremacist, to write her book, and she's the biggest name in Republican politics.
MR. MURPHY: Oh, but, Rachel...
MS. MADDOW: And you can dismiss her and say she's not going to be the nominee, but I do think the right needs to sort of answer for what's happened to conservatism.
MR. MURPHY: But let me just say, I am a well-documented nonfan of Sarah Palin, at least as a national politician. I don't know her personally. But that's guilt by association stuff. That's the cable stuff. That's the problem.
MS. MADDOW: But why would you--you can pick anybody to be your ghostwriter.
MR. MURPHY: Sarah Palin's a lot of things, but she's not a white supremacist. And...
MS. MADDOW: You could--no, I don't think she is. But when you can pick anybody, why would she pick somebody who's associated with the League of the South, who said that Americans are revolted by the idea of having a black sister-in-law. I mean, she--this is who she picked to write her book.
MR. MURPHY: Yeah, but there's...
MS. MADDOW: Why do you do that?
MR. MURPHY: That's sort of guilt by association stuff, which I don't know and it can--I--check it out.
MS. MADDOW: It's guilt by choice. It's guilt by choice.
GREGORY: OK.
MR. MURPHY: It is, is so, so not important to the central questions in the country right now. But that's what cable TV has become, so I...
MS. MADDOW: Sarah Palin's popularity is a central question in the Republican Party right now.
GREGORY: Quickly, E.J.
MS. MADDOW: And you can make fun of her, but it doesn't make it go away.
MR. DIONNE: Forget guilt by association. Governor Rick Perry may win a Republican primary because he talked about secession. You haven't had somebody win an election on secession since 1858.
MR. MURPHY: Yeah. E.J., I can tell you...
MR. DIONNE: There's a radical strain in the Republican Party. It's not guilt by association, it's right out there.

Update 2: Robert Stacy McCain responds.

6 comments:

AmPowerBlog said...

Thanks for the heads up, Pat. I was actually watching Meet the Press, but I tune out sometimes amid the blather, and I missed her comment about McCain ... I'll be writing about this later, but I'm adding your blog to my babe blogging roundup right now.

Repack Rider said...

Rachel Maddow is easily the smartest person the news shows. The only other people on TV who are in her league are the comedians, Colbert and Stewart, with Maher a distant fourth.

She says she BELIEVES the man is racist, offered as an opinion on a show that is all about opinion. Her opinion is certainly worth as much as that of Beck, Limbaugh, North, or whatever other conservative fools offer unsupported opinions of Mr. Obama's experience, intellect, or "hate[red of] white culture."

YMMV.

Red said...

Maddow needed some attention so she's jumped on the LGF hate-train ;-(

BrideOfRove said...

Wow. Now that I read the transcript ... holy cow. She's got a real hate-on going there - does Ms Maddow. She offers absolutely NO facts to back that up, either which is typical for MSLSD. RSM will have a field day with this one.

What set her off I wonder? Was is McCain's post about not slutting around before marriage? Did that hit a soft spot with Maddow? Tsk. You just never can tell with people anymore.

Bob Belvedere said...

Thanks for bring those comments to our attention, Pat. And thanks for doing the dirty work of actually watching that fetid piece of folderal

Quoted from and linked to at:
RACHEL MADDOW: CRACK WHORE?

The Vegas Art Guy said...

How about some proof to back up that accusation? You have some proof Repack? Opinion or not, you shouldn't be able to level a charge like that and not have something to back it up with. And you've obviously never seen 'Special Report' if you think she is the best there is. Brit Hume, Juan Williams and Chris Wallace would wipe the floor with her.