Smackdown: Frank in the O’Reilly Fox Den [Update]
By Matthew Weaver on October 3, 2008 at 11:30 PM in Current Affairs
You thought last night’s must-see TV was between Alaska Hocky Mom (aka Supermom) Palin and “I’m Being Shot At” Biden in St. Louis? Nope, that was an October Surprise worthy of a whole month but the real fireworks for the evening was the warm-up bout “Frank in the O’Reilly Fox Den”. Yep, Barney took on O’Reilly on the nation’s financial mess. The only mess left was Barney in the Senate studio.
And the winner is …
Wait a minute. It is two fools yelling at one another…. Here, we have two gladiators. Only they choose to do this, they’re overweight, and both completely hapless.
Score for O’Reilly: he’s correct on the facts.
Score for Frank: O’Reilly looks like a jerk. — Amos Wright, New York Examiner.
Okay, Bill O’Reilly of FOX’s O’Reilly Factor and Barney Frank have a history together. Just last week Bill laid into Barney,
I don’t even want to talk about the far left. Barney Frank, DISGUSTING, POINTING FINGERS! It’s YOU, you big fat toad! YOU, Frank, YOU, Dodd. Sitting there (mumbled parroting voice) [...] It’s YOU, Dodd! YOU, you knew!
I swear to God if they were in this room right now, I would hit them. Dodd and Frank, the House finance, the Senate finance. THEY KNEW, DON’T POINT A FINGER AT ANYBODY ELSE OR I’LL BREAK THAT FINGER OFF.
SO, YOU GOT CORRUPTION ON THE RIGHT AND YOU GOT CORRUPTION ON THE LEFT, and who gets it? YOU GET IT? You, the hard working person. The next politician that gets up there and points a finger, I’m going to go after them myself!
SHUT UP! FIX IT! THESE ARE PEOPLE’S LIVES! I got enough money in the bank, okay?
Unless a bank fails, I’m fine. But you’re probably NOT fine. I’m lucky, and I’m tired of these charlatans on both sides lying to you because they’re ideological Kool-Aid drinkers or corrupt toads.
And I’m talking to you, Barney Frank. Who’s the guy that was ‘OH, if you don’t lend money to poor people, you’re a bigot!’ Who was saying that, Barney?
Man, I gotta take a break. (From Radio Equalizer)
Fastforward back to last night. As Michael Calderone wrote at Politico, “Now’s his chance! But will O’Reilly go through with striking Frank when he comes on “The Factor” tonight? Also, Frank’s pretty good with comebacks, but how does he respond to the “big, fat toad” slight?”
You’ve just watched the video, right? Amos seems okay in his conclusion, right? Any guess as to what color of glasses Jed Lewison at Huffington Post was wearing to write:
Barney Frank just demolished Falafel Bill O’Reilly on “The Factor.”
It was a thing of beauty from the start, and peaked when Frank told O’Reilly that O’Reilly’s “stupidity gets in the way of rational discussion.” Frank even used the L-word, telling O’Reilly that he was “lying.”
O’Reilly had invited Frank on the show to sandbag him, but in the end, Frank thoroughly ruined O’Reilly’s plans.
By the way, for a bit of history, Gateway Pundit points to Tax Foundation talking [quoting statement by Congressman Barney Frank in September 2003] about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae:
That is, in my view, the two government sponsored enterprises we are talking about here, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not in a crisis. We have recently had an accounting problem with Freddie Mac that has led to people being dismissed, as appears to be appropriate. I do not think at this point there is a problem with a threat to the Treasury.
I must say we have an interesting example of self-fulfilling prophecy. Some of the critics of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac say that the problem is that the Federal Government is obligated to bail out people who might lose money in connection with them. I do not believe that we have any such obligation. And as I said, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy by some people.
So let me make it clear, I am a strong supporter of the role that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play in housing, but nobody who invests in them should come looking to me for a nickel–nor anybody else in the Federal Government.
Boy, how times change.
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