Geez Louise. What in the hell does Lou Dobbs have to do next before CNN decides to reign him in or can him? Apparently Dobbs didn't take too kindly to Karen Finney calling him out as using hate speech for the comments he made about her former boss, Howard Dean on his radio show. Our friends at Media Matters posted that one: Dobbs on Howard Dean: "[H]e's a bloodsucking leftist -- I mean, you gotta put a stake through his heart to stop this guy".
DOBBS: Do you think they are also evil mongers? Is that the latest from Senator Reid? We've gone from un-American now to evil mongers.
FINNEY: Our American values say that we believe in free speech. We believe in --
DOBBS: Then why is everybody trying to constrain expression?
FINNEY: Because what we're seeing is, I believe that tyranny is when you organize for the purpose of being disruptive, or when you use hate speech like "I want to drive a stake through Howard Dean's heart."
DOBBS: Really? Did I say I wanted to do that through Howard Dean's heart?
FINNEY: I heart that on your radio program.
DOBBS: You heard me make a reference to Bram Stoker, an allusion to Howard Dean and, as a matter of fact, I was --
FINNEY: That is a convenient correction, Mr. Dobbs. But you called him a blood sucking liberal.
(CROSSTALK)
FINNEY: But how does your saying things like that --
DOBBS: Excuse me. Excuse me. If you will permit me, I called him a blood sucking leftist because of the approach he took.
(CROSSTALK)
FINNEY: Oh, excuse me, leftist, not liberal.
As Finney pointed out, the "leftist" vs "liberal" part wasn't exactly the portion of his comments that concerned her the most. So what does Dobbs do? He plays this from Ed Schultz as some sort of defense that there is hate talk from the left as well.
SHULTZ: Sometimes I think they want Obama to get shot. I do. I really think that there are conservative broadcasters in this country who would love to see Obama taken out. They fear socialism. They fear Marxism. They fear that the United States of America won't be the United States of America anymore.
So there's your left wing hate speech in Dobbs' world folks. Pointing out the obvious. And what does Dobbs finish the segment with? Attacking Finney again, and defending the idiot who brought a gun to a town hall. Wow.
Full transcript below the fold from CNN. Apparently they decided to leave out some of the ugliness with "(CROSSTALK).
DOBBS: These polls are showing that independents are deserting the president both in terms of approval rating, in terms of health care. And we're seeing independents side with the protesters in these town hall by a two to one margin. What's that about?
FINNEY: I think it's a little hyperbolic to say that they are abandoning the president. And to say that you, sympathize with the protestors --
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: It's 65 percent of the unaffiliated -- I'm sorry. I used shorthand and said independent.
FINNEY: Well, again, speaking to what we're seeing at the town halls, I think that some people believe -- I believe people should have the right to go and speak out and ask questions.
But that's not what we've been seeing. What we're seeing is people organizing against letting the questions asked and asked. And I wonder if we'd ask that question if we're talking about, when they say they sympathize with the protestors, are they sympathizing with the people who are asking the questions, or are they sympathizing with the people who are actually creating -- causing violence and hate speech, which I think is the absolutely destructive to the process and un-American.
DOBBS: Do you think they are also evil mongers? Is that the latest from Senator Reid? We've gone from un-American now to evil mongers.
FINNEY: Our American values say that we believe in free speech. We believe in --
DOBBS: Then why is everybody trying to constrain expression?
FINNEY: Because what we're seeing is, I believe that tyranny is when you organize for the purpose of being disruptive, or when you use hate speech like "I want to drive a stake through Howard Dean's heart."
DOBBS: Really? Did I say I wanted to do that through Howard Dean's heart?
FINNEY: I heart that on your radio program.
DOBBS: You heard me make a reference to Bram Stoker, an allusion to Howard Dean and, as a matter of fact, I was --
FINNEY: That is a convenient correction, Mr. Dobbs. But you called him a blood sucking liberal.
(CROSSTALK)
FINNEY: But how does your saying things like that --
DOBBS: Excuse me. Excuse me. If you will permit me, I called him a blood sucking leftist because of the approach he took.
(CROSSTALK)
FINNEY: Oh, excuse me, leftist, not liberal.
DOBBS: I don't see where in the constitution that you have a right not to be offended.
FINNEY: My question to you...
DOBBS: I'm sorry, you do have a right not to be offended?
FINNEY: My question to you though is --
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: Evil mongers, un-American. You want to worry about language? Let's hear about Ed Shultz today. Roll what Ed Shultz had to say today. Are you familiar?
FINNEY: Yes, I am.
DOBBS: Actually, he said it Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHULTZ: Sometimes I think they want Obama to get shot. I do. I really think that there are conservative broadcasters in this country who would love to see Obama taken out. They fear socialism. They fear Marxism. They fear that the United States of America won't be the United States of America anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FINNEY: I don't totally agree with everything that Ed said. I'm not as far to the left as Ed is.
DOBBS: No. But you are an ideologue.
FINNEY: I am not.
DOBBS: You are pursuing an agenda.
FINNEY: Absolutely not.
DOBBS: And you're being rude.
DOBBS: Let's go to Errol and get your thoughts.
(CROSSTALK)
LOUIS: Let me say that my friend Ed Shultz has put his finger on something that is important, which is that there is a lot -- day in and day out --
DOBBS: He's put his finger on something important?
LOUIS: Yes. There are people, Lou, and I don't want to call any names, but there are broadcasters out there who have been saying day after day after day that White House is preparing is concentration camps, that there are death panels s.
DOBBS: If anyone is saying that, we should be saying their names. Who are they?
LOUIS: Michael savage. You hear similar kind of talk from Rush Limbaugh.
DOBBS: Not similar. You used very specific language. Who used that language?
LOUIS: Death panels, all over the place. All over the place. I mean all over the place. Seriously. On your station, Lou.
DOBBS: You said concentration camps.
LOUIS: They have described them in detail, that order is going to come.
DOBBS: Answer the question.
LOUIS: And when you see somebody show up --
DOBBS: Has anyone done what Ed Shultz said? Has anyone done that? This is beyond the pale of ideology.
LOUIS: I think there are people who are doing the exact equivalent, or the radio, the media equivalent of fulminating, sowing discord, and in effect placing almost, metaphorically, a loaded gun on the table and then walking out of the room.
DOBBS: My god, to even use that metaphor. I have to be honest with you, you and I have known each other for a long time. That is a patently ideological --
LOUIS: Lou, wait.
DOBBS: Go ahead, Chris, I don't -- we don't want to leave Chris out of this debate.
STIREWALT: I think what is illustrated here is that --
(CROSSTALK)
STIREWALT: No. The only thing I see here is nobody is talking about health care anymore. We are talking about the mob. We're talking about the president.
DOBBS: The Congress wasn't either, Chris, in all honesty.
STIREWALT: Exactly. But I think the point here is that White House has lost control of this discussion. Congress has lost control of the discussion.
They didn't put any -- they didn't put a final idea forward, a proposal to the American people, which is understandable. The president wanted one done by August so there would be something to talk about. They failed in that goal and right now people are understandably upset.
The anger, the discussion, the outrage that we hear, I think, is illustrative of the fact that the Democratic majority has done a good job of selling this thing to the American people and now they're attacking the people who are upset about it.
FINNEY: I obviously take issue with that. We're not attacking people that are upset. We're suggesting that at these town halls --
DOBBS: You take exception to what?
FINNEY: People that come to the town halls --
DOBBS: We don't care what you're taking exception to.
FINNEY: Then why are you having me on the show to talk about health care reform?
DOBBS: I'd love to hear you talk about it. But you started talking to me about something I said on radio about Howard Dean. What's that got to do with it?
FINNEY: That's exactly my point, Lou. What does that have to do with it?
DOBBS: We appreciate you bringing up those points to us. Errol, thank you very much.
(CROSSTALK)
LOUIS: When people are bringing guns to town hall meetings, and it's happened more than once, that is a problem.
FINNEY: You think it's appropriate to bring guns to town hall meetings?
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: You are doing everything can you to absolutely distort an event that occurred that was absolutely benign. A man was making a point. He happens to live in a state in which guns are permitted to be carried. It's open carry. It's a constitutional right.
Now you not only went to constrain freedom of speech and freedom of expression, you want to attack the Second Amendment and distort it into something sinister when you're sitting here talking in language that I frankly, Errol, I think is highly irresponsible.
(CROSSTALK)
DOBBS: We'll be right back.
