It's David Gregory's dumb luck that I drew the "Meet the Press" straw this morning, because I really feel compelled to highlight what a toxic presence this man is to the six decades-long institution that was "Meet the Press".
I can't decide if it's willful ignorance, partisanship or a concerted plan to turn every issue into "he said/she said" between the Democrats and Republicans without bringing in any context. But in speaking to Leon Panetta, David Gregory let fly the mother of false equivalencies:
As you hear all of this, I want to come back to this one hundred percent point. Is part of the real problem in Washington that you have two sides, who are not interested in really negotiating, but really digging in and saying, look this is truly, a hundred percent the other side’s fault?
No, no, no....the real problem in Washington are hacks like David Gregory who pose questions like this, without any information, without any context, without any facts.
Let me quote Steve Benen, whom David Gregory could potentially run into in the halls of NBC News:
It's been nearly two weeks since congressional Republicans shut down the government, and we're just days from a debt-ceiling calamity, suggesting policymakers should theoretically be working towards some kind of resolution. But while there was a flurry of activity yesterday, it was largely a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.
House Republicans, for example, thought they'd presented the White House with a credible offer: Congress would temporarily raise the debt ceiling, the government would remain closed, Democrats would accept Medicare and/or Social Security cuts, and the severity of the sequestration cuts that neither party likes would be eased. President Obama declared this a joke, told House GOP leaders he could probably get a better offer from Senate Republicans, and so dejected House members promptly left Capitol Hill yesterday.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), meanwhile, thought she too had come up with a solution: Congress would reopen the government for six months and raise the debt limit for a year. Democrats would have to accept sequestration levels and throw in a two-year delay of the medical-device tax in the Affordable Care Act, and in exchange, Republicans would concede nothing. Yesterday, Democrats rejected this as wholly unacceptable, too.
And as a practical matter, it doesn't much matter that Dems didn't like it, since House Republicans said they'd refuse to even vote on the Collins plan -- a plan in which Republicans give up nothing except temporary hold on some hostages -- even if the Senate approved it and even if House GOP leaders could tolerate it.
Tell me again, you vomitous excuse for a journalist, just who is digging in their heels?
David Gregory is actively hurting this country just as much as the Republicans are by framing this debate as recalcitrance between parties both acting in good faith.
