Mediaite Newsletter - 2/12/2012

	Paul Ryan Responds To Congress' 10% Approval Rating: Blame Senate For Not Passing Legislation by Josh Feldman Congressman Paul Ryan appeared on This Week today, and he responded to a recent poll brought up by George Stephanopoulos that the approval rating of Congress is currently at 10 percent, worse than Nixon's worst day during Watergate. Ryan's response to everyone who is dissatisfied with Washington is simple: the Republican House has been working tirelessly to get legislation passed, but the Senate keeps stonewalling everything and preventing anything from getting accomplished. Read More »
	Sarah Palin: 'I'm Not Convinced' Mitt Romney Is A Conservative by Josh Feldman After her fiery speech at CPAC yesterday, Sarah Palin continued to speak out on the Republican presidential race on Fox News Sunday today. She has still not officially endorsed a candidate, and has credited each of the four men for playing to their respective conservative strengths in the campaign. However, while she did have good things to say about Mitt Romney, Palin had some reservations about his conservative credentials, and hoped that he would govern on the side of conservatism as president. Read More »
	Palin Reacts To HBO Movie About 2008 Campaign: 'Based On A False Narrative' by Josh Feldman Sarah Palin appeared on Fox News Sunday today, and towards the end of her interview with Chris Wallace, the host confronted her with clips from the highly provocative movie Game Change, based on the bestselling book. Wallace played a portion of the movie's trailer, including the part where Woody Harrelson's character says the 2008 vice presidential candidate was "on the verge of a complete mental breakdown." Wallace acknowledged "the look on [Palin's] face" the second he brought up HBO, and as he teased the trailer, Palin asked, "Must we?" Read More »
	New Jersey Legislature To Vote On Gay Marriage This Week Despite Threat Of Christie Veto by Josh Feldman On the heels of last week's ruling by the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional and the state of Washington voting last week to legalize gay marriage, the national debate over gay equality shifts to New Jersey, with the state legislature expected to vote on a gay marriage bill tomorrow. Democratic State Senate President Stephen Sweeney predicts that it will pass both the Senate and State Assembly, but Governor Chris Christie will most likely veto it. Read More »
	Simon Cowell Remembers Whitney Houston: 'One Of The Greatest Superstars Of All Time' by Josh Feldman People all throughout the music industry have been speaking fondly of and sharing their memories of the late pop singer Whitney Houston, and on CNN last night, Simon Cowell said he would always remember where he was when he heard the news, expressing how painful the loss was for not just the industry, but the world. Cowell said he was "absolutely devastated" by the news, remembering her as "one of the greatest voices in our lifetime." Read More »
	After Second-Place Finish In Maine, Ron Paul Campaign Boasts Of 'Victory' In Press Release by Josh Feldman Presidential contender Ron Paul narrowly lost the Maine caucuses last night in a contest that some analysts noticed he had a realistic chance of winning. Paul's campaign was optimistic at their chances of placing ahead of Mitt Romney in the state, and reactions from his campaign at the narrow defeat were mixed. But with the Washington County caucus yet to vote and enough of a difference there for Paul to pull a last-second upset, the Texas congressman's campaign is spinning it as a victory. Read More »
	Watch Technology Hump On SNL - Ver. 2.0 by Sarah Devlin When Emma Stone hosted "Saturday Night Live" earlier this season, an oddball sketch called "We're Going To Make Technology Hump" aired right at the end of the episode. The premise was pretty simple, with Stone and Andy Samberg narrating a series of segments that featured various inanimate objects doing unspeakable things to each other. Read More »
	Watch SNL's Tribute To Whitney Houston by Sarah Devlin Read More »
	Nicolas Cage And Nicolas Cage Appear On SNL Simultaneously, Tearing Hole In Fabric Of The Universe by Sarah Devlin "Get In The Caaaaage!" This is one of my favorite recurring "Weekend Update" segments, and it was twice as good this week because there was twice as much Nicolas Cage! Read More »
	'Piers Morgan' Delivers The In Depth Super Bowl Halftime Analysis No One Asked For On SNL by Sarah Devlin "I'm Piers Morgan, and do be fooled by my British accent, because it's all I've got!" Taran Killam's Piers Morgan kicked off his show in fine self-deprecating form. This hour was all about the Superbowl, and he had several guests on to cover the highlights. Nasim Pedrad appeared as M.I.A., still in her halftime costume, to defend her decision to sing with Madonna "while there's all this injustice in the world" and also to give the finger to the stadium and the audience. Read More »
	Mitt Romney Appears On SNL To Reassure Voters That He's Doing Very Well by Sarah Devlin Oh, Mitt Romney. You are having such a hard time in the primaries, and also on Saturday Night Live! Jason Sudeikis reprised his role as the GOP frontrunner to deliver a message to voters, which he did standing next to an empty chair like a totally normal human being. He wanted to quell concerns that his campaign might be peaking too soon, as he got totally trounced in Missouri and Colorado by Rick Santorum. Not only that, but Newt Gingrich finished one or two percentage points behind him in each contest! How embarrassing! Read More »
	Whitney Houston Dead At 48 by James Crugnale Read More »
	Ron Paul On GOP Field: 'I Don't Think Any One Would Be A Lot Better' Than Obama On Important Issues by Nando Di Fino Shortly after finding out he had finished in second place in the Maine caucuses -- 194 votes behind Mitt Romney -- Ron Paul was a guest on CNN, and told Wolf Blitzer that, despite not finishing in first place, he felt he still, "had a pretty good day." Read More »
	Mitt Romney Wins Maine Caucus; Ron Paul Finishes In Close Second by Nando Di Fino Mitt Romney picked up a victory in the Maine caucuses Saturday to rounds of raucous applause, garnering 39% of the vote (2,190 votes). Ron Paul finished second, with 36% (1,996 votes). The Maine victory stems a state losing streak for Romney, who suffered three losses earlier in the week. Rick Santorum finished in third (18%), and Newt Gingrich was in fourth (6%). Read More »
	Samuel L. Jackson: 'I Voted For Barack Obama Because He Was Black' by James Crugnale In an interview with Ebony Magazine, actor Samuel L. Jackson spoke candidly about his support of President Obama in 2008, the New York Post reports. “I voted for Barack because he was black," Jackson revealed. "'Cuz that’s why other folks vote for other people — because they look like them." Read More »
	Sarah Palin's CPAC Keynote: 'Time To Drain The Jacuzzi And Throw The Bums Out With The Bathwater' by Frances Martel Sarah Palin took the stage tonight with plenty of anticipation preceding her-- after bowing out of a potential presidential run, Palin has taken something of a backseat to an increasingly unexpected series of characters at the helm of the Republican Party, and she returned in the rare form that made her a star in 2008. Shouting down Occupy protesters, making punchlines out of Obama Campaign slogans, and winning over a crowd that spent a year trying to warm up to Mitt Romney. Read More »
	Grover Norquist At CPAC: 'The Left Is Made Up... Of Competing Parasites' by Frances Martel Tax reduction crusader Grover Norquist took the helm at CPAC earlier this evening with a fiery speech reminding CPAC attendees to keep their eye on the ball in reducing taxes and giving them a game plan as to how to promote conservatism to the best of their ability. The plan included plenty of what one would expect: refusing to sit at the table with Democrats to increase taxes and going on a state by state plan to flip Democratic leadership in each of the "fifty of fifty-seven states, who's counting?" Read More »
	Mitt Romney Wins CPAC Straw Poll by Frances Martel For the past three years, the CPAC straw poll has been purely theoretical, with a presidential election actually far out of sight. Those three were won by Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Ron Paul, and Ron Paul. This year, to break the habit, Romney has won again, and what that means for the elections, as they are currently underway, is unclear, but it's a good way for Romney to end the week. Read More »
	The 'Rent Is Too Damn High' Guy Is Alive And Kicking - Crashes CPAC by Frances Martel Did you know that Jimmy McMillan, onetime New York gubernatorial candidate for the "Rent is Too Damn High Party," is also running for President this year, as a Republican apparently? Yes sir, he is, and he took his campaign all the way to the Conservative Political Action Convention today, crashing an event at a hotel conference room there to command everyone there to "renounce every Republican Presidential candidate" and just endorse him or he "will vote for Barack Obama." It gets better from there. Read More »
	Fox's Kirsten Powers: 'Liberal Catholics' Pushed The White House To Compromise On Birth Control by Frances Martel Garnering by far the most press attention this week this side of an actual election, the debate surrounding President Obama's birth control mandate opened this week's episode of Fox News Watch, with the panel looking more at the way the media approached the issue than how they would spin the news that President Obama reached a compromise with religious leaders. The panel seemed to agree that the left-wing media had decided to make the debate between Planned Parenthood and the Komen Foundation a bigger issue than the contraceptive issue with the White House, but had to make it a story because of the pushback. Read More »
	Mediaite's Tommy Christopher To Thom Hartmann: The Media Has Done A 'Terrible Job' On Birth Control Debate by Frances Martel This week has been marked mostly by a debate on how far the federal government can go in mandating some forms of health care. But beyond the actual controversy surrounding the birth control issue lies all the rhetoric surrounding it-- particularly some of the more incendiary comments Rick Santorum made this week that this sort of thinking led to dangers such as "what's left in France... the guillotine" (?). On The Big Picture this week, Mediaite's own Tommy Christopher sat down with host Thom Hartmann to discuss whether this is a religious issue or a health care one, and what the rhetoric surrounding it can say. Read More »
	Bill Maher Panel Delves Into Shouting Match Over Auto Bailouts, Eastwood Super Bowl Ad by Josh Feldman If you were looking for a sign of just how divisive American politics is, look no further than the widespread Republican distaste for Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl ad for Chrysler where the famously conservative anti-bailout Hollywood star may have covertly been endorsing President Obama's reelection. On Real Time tonight, Bill Maher and panel took on the ad and the whole issue of auto bailouts, as if this was 2009 all over again. Read More »
	DC Police Threaten And Detain Reporters At CPAC Occupy Protest by Tommy Christopher At Washington DC's Marriott Wardman Park Hotel last night, one of several Occupy DC protests escalated into a clash with Metro Police, as a group of more than a hundred protesters made their way onto the grounds of the hotel, the site of the Conservative Political Action Conference. The police, in part of a disturbing pattern, used force and threats of arrest to keep reporters away, and even detained at least one credentialed CPAC blogger. Read More »
	MSNBC's Chris Hayes Confronts His Daily Mail Alter Ego, 'GOP Strategist Chris Haynes' by Frances Martel Is the Daily Mail trying to tell us something about MSNBC host Chris Hayes? During this morning's Up, Hayes noted that he got a shoutout of sorts in the British paper-- or at least his photo was in the paper, accompanied by a bizarre caption. In an article about Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl ad, the Mail ran a screencap of an episode of The Rachel Maddow Show hosted by Hayes with the caption: "GOP strategist: Chris Haynes, guest hosting The Rachel Maddow Show on Monday night, charged that the ad was 'politically potent.'" Naturally, Hayes the progressive columnist found the idea of Haynes the GOP strategist hilarious. Read More »
	Dave Weigel: After This 'Horrible Week,' Romney 'Doesn't Look Like A Winner' At CPAC by Frances Martel Mitt Romney spent a good deal of his speech time at CPAC this week trying to convince voters that he was conservative. "Severely conservative," in fact. Whether that worked, however, is a topic of conjecture, and Rachel Maddow, in particular, doubts that it did. Speaking to guest Dave Weigel last night, both agreed that it appeared an uphill battle for Romney, with Weigel going further in that Tuesday's primaries coupled with CPAC (not exactly his home turf) doesn't make him "look like a winner." Read More »
	Tucker Carlson And Paul Begala's 'Boxing' Debate Is This Year's CPAC Must-See Event by Frances Martel Often when talk about the best or greatest things in pop culture arises, nostalgia tends to things that, in real time, were not nearly as resplendently wonderful as they seem years down the line. If anyone ever considered that this may be the case for the single greatest debate show in history, Crossfire, Tucker Carlson and Paul Begala blew those doubts away. In a three-round "boxing match," the two went over issues as varied as whether "America should kill all of its enemies everywhere" and word association games with "God" and "Newt Gingrich." Read More »
	Chuck Woolery Endorses GOP Hybrid 'Newmitt Paultorium' On Fox & Friends by Frances Martel I will be the first to admit that I did not see the sudden resurgence of Love Connection host Chuck Woolery coming. No, the host was a beloved apolitical memory for most of these years, and the Chuck Norris-esque conservative return caught me by surprise. Yet his appearance at CPAC has sparked something of a resurgence as the former host launches a campaign to install term limits in Congress-- a campaign that has endorsed the most conservative candidate in the race, "all of them." Read More »

This message was sent to dwyld.kwu.3ipad4apple@blogger.com.

Go here if you would like to be unsubscribed from this email:
http://www.mediaite.com/email-newsletter/?unsubscribe=dwyld.kwu.3ipad4apple%40blogger.com&confirm=1l8u4u8