NEWS: Tim Russert: Super Douche

POLITICS: Tim Russert: Super Douche

I was trying to focus on how much I don’t like Hillary Clinton during Tuesday night’s debate, but some asshole kept distracting me. The asshole's name was Tim Russert. Russert’s “job” on Tuesday was to be a moderator. Instead, he wanted to be the star of the debate and decided the best way to achieve his goal was acting like a twunt. He was argumentative, bossy and, most important, asked really stupid questions. Until we get rid of douche bags like Russert, we’re never going to have a decent debate in this country. He exemplifies everything wrong with politics and Washington, DC.

At one point during his spectacular effort, Timmy decided to just make shit up.

Timmy, reality is when something actually occurs. You have created fiction. I know this because it has not happened. I actually applaud Hillary for shutting this asshole down and not answering his bullshit question.

The moment that caused me to lose it was when he let loose with 90 Farrakhan questions. Because, with all that is going on in America, what we really need to know about is what Obama thinks about what someone never said about something Louis Farrakhan said. Seriously, that’s what his question amounted to.



Nicely done. Never mind that Russert had the facts totally wrong. Jeremiah Wright is no longer head of Trinity UCC. Dude is retired. And he NEVER SAID THOSE WORDS. They were printed in a magazine, which written by Wright's daughter. The magazine that printed this statement wasn’t even under the control of Trinity UCC at the time. The magazine hasn’t been associated with the church since 2005. So, Obama has to reject Farrakhan because a guy he knows has a daughter who printed something nice about Farrakhan. Fucking amazing. Russert brought this up because Obama is black and those other black dudes are not saying nice things. And all black people know each other. And it’s a one-way street because we’ve seen a train full of white politicians over the years connected to ministers who have said some horrible fucking things with not a question raised.

Did Huckabee ever get a question from Timmy about his James Dobson endorsement? Or about something Dobson's daughter wrote? What about the many of the lunatics who endorsed Bush? Did any of their nephews ever draw a weird picture? Feel free to watch future debates on MSNBC. Let me know if Russert will goes after McCain for the endorsement he received from anti-gay, Armageddon loving Pastor John C. Hagee. I won’t hold my breath. (Because I would die.)

Oh, and “Trinity United Church.” Hey, Timmy, it’s called the Trinity United Church of Christ. Try nailing down the name of the fucking church before you blather this nonsense out of your pie hole.

The most amazing thing about the Farrakhan exchange was that even after Obama said he “denounced” Farrakhan’s statements, Russert kept going and actually used quotes. What is it about the word “denounce” that you don’t understand Timmy? Oh, and why would anybody care about this subject?

That was the first time Obama has had to deal with the simplistic thug-like questioning of Russert. Hillary has had to deal with this moron for years. When she was running for the Senate in New York, Russert revealed himself to be a Clinton-hating douche bag.

During one debate, he actually asked Hillary if she would apologize for “branding your husband's accusers as part of a right-wing conspiracy.” Uh, no. Mainly because it was a right-wing conspiracy. We know that because ONE OF THE DUDES INVOLVED IN IT SAID IT WAS. But the truth was not enough for Russet and he kept going.

I don't know. Do you regret not knowing what the word "irony" means?

How the fuck does this clown have a job? As a moderator, his job is to be impartial. He is far from it. Later he was interviewed about his moronic debate moment.

Sure, as in, “I have no professional ethics.”

It has gone on and on with Russert. Throughout this campaign, he has been attacking Clinton during each debate he moderated. In September....

And, in October...

“Arguably her third toughest opponent.” What a douche bag. Expect more of this from Russet when it’s down to McCain and Obama.

What politicians and Washington pundits can’t seem to get through their idiotic skulls is we don’t want this shit anymore. They are cheapening the process. We’d like the bickering to stop. We’d like the one team against the other team at all costs to vanish. All of the “gotcha” questions by tools like Russert only cheapen an already cheap process even more. We’d like to know how the politicians are going to deal with our problems, not what one thinks about what a guy said about Louis Farrakhan. We don’t need to know if Hillary produced a photo of Obama in a Kenyan outfit. Russert is an example of everything wrong with America. Please burn him.

I've never liked Russert and this is another reason to strongly dislike him.

If he's medling this much in the debates, why is he continually allowed to keep "moderating"?

Simple. Because he is a "Name." No network is going to let "Marge and Bruno Nobody" moderate a debate.

They're really a lovely couple. He breeds salamanders, and she runs the local House of Socks.

Bill Moyers is a name too though. And he's a great reporter, at least from what I've seen. Russert is kind of like putting one of those Fox pundits in.

The fact of the matter is that Russert can't be impartial on the issues, and on Meet The Press this often works to his advantage. Hell, the man has one finely-tuned bullshit detector and he's great as a host of that kind of program. However, I agree that he doesn't belong in the moderator's chair if he can't set aside his shtick/grudges and do it properly - he's simply the wrong man for the job.

Personally, (and I'm backing Obama) I thought he was clearly going after Hillary like he ALWAYS does. Yes, he was also unfair to Obama, but he was out for blood when it came to Hillary. I look forward to his McCain asskissing.

the whole time i was watching the debate the only thing i could think of was how bullshit the questions were. way to go, russert.

I thought Russert did a good job, and asked questions that needed to be asked.

I also thought the questions about Farrakhan were completely out of line.. That definitely went to far, especially when he tried to quote the guy on the Jewish religion. In this case FTR makes perfect sense.

However, the questions about Iraq were spot on. No it's not reality yet, but you had better have a plan in case it does happen. Don't you wish he had asked these kind of questions to W before the invasion?

I am tired of journalists treading lighter and lighter with our leaders. In the never ending push to get ratings, they know they can't ask tough questions or they won't get good interviews anymore. Have you seen what's been going on at CNN? When was the last time Blitzer asked an intelligent question? CNN, MSNBC, Fox, all full of prime time pundits, either on one side or the other. What ever happened to the fucking NEWS.

So yes, I'm glad he was a dick. We must demand better answers from our politicians, not lay back and take them at their word. Good job Russert.

Russert is only concerned with the bullshit ephemera of politics, and not the issues. Sure, he scores occasional good points when calling out liars. But as this article makes clear, he will waste precious media time asking desperately thin "gotcha" questions.

You will never hear TR ask these candidates how, for instance, they plan to deal with our 40 trillion dollar combined debt to the Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid funds. I mean, that would be boring, right?

my browser hung and posted twice. huh.

Tough questions are good, as is keeping a candidate from dodging a question, but how he phrases his questions are almost as important as what he asks. A moderator's job is to ask questions in a neutral way, let the candidates respond and let the voter decide. Russert is far too used to talking heads on morning debate shows.

I actually really enjoyed this debate. There's no doubt that Russert was being a jackass with some of the questions but it was amusing to see them squirm a bit, I just wish he'd of made them squirm with actual tough questions. I thought he nailed Clinton on the tax/first lady schedule thing and rightly so. But he was unfair to both Clinton and Obama on some of the questions, more Clinton than Obama.

I think people want to see tougher questions asked and hold a tighter reign on the candidates when they try to squirm out of a question and start in on a stump speech. But it would certainly do us all good if he made them answer actual substantive questions rather than hypothetical and dumb ass 'gotcha' tactics.

Rather than discarding Russert as a moderator I think we should just throw a shock collar on him and have a moderator for Russert, so whenever he gets out of line his moderator just drops him with a good shock. Eventually we can train him to be a great moderator.

The ratings would go way up if that happened. I know I'd pay to see that.

He let Rumsfeld off the hook when he pretty much said he had noidea where the WMD's are and since then I have no respect for Russert.

How you can callously joke about the likely, and quite imminent, cave-dwelling goblin invasion is beyond me...

Shame on you, Reaper.

"twunt" may be my new favorite word.......

This is true. I apologize.

Right.

Minutes spent on Farrakhan - 7
MInutes spent on Iraq - 4
Minutes spent on education - 0

Super job.

This one question asked during that debate just galled the shit out of me.

The whole basic premise is fucked up, it is a concession that now presidents decide when to go to war. This has never been a part of our history. It has always been a Congressional decision to go to war. This whole idea that presidents "reserve the right to invade" is just sickening.

I could give a list of items not covered as well.

Then he should have asked about that. "Have you considered the various possible outcomes of a total withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, and do you have contingent plans to deal with those?" That is a real, valid question; it's not a wildly biased, wholly invented hypothetical with a question mark at the end of it.

It shouldn't be that difficult to see the distinction between the question I phrased and what Russert said.

Douche was retired in 2007. But 2008 could be the year of the twunt.

You should do that, since it undermines your point that Russert did a good job.

Well if we're are asking questions that aren't reality yet, Iraq is just the icing on the cake. What about the possibility of future attacks on our soil, what about our failing infrastructure, overcrowded prisons, underfunded and overpopulated schools, school shootings, the list goes on.

My last concern is a re-invasion of Iraq. I am pretty sure that after this last diabolical blunder of an invasion, i would like to think that the president and congress would double, if not triple think going back there.

I would of liked to hear something about this, because those numbers are scary big, and growing larger.

What about the fact that we can't even vote right?

Or the fact that the president now has an unprecedented amount of power?