Pat Buchanan: "For the last week, she’s been a victim"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

During an impromptu reunion of CNN's "Crossfire" Friday, Pat Buchanan told his old sparring partner Bill Press, "You’ve got to get beyond being a fringe talk show host."

In the middle of a very heated debate on MSNBC's "The Ed Show," Buchanan strongly cautioned the host and his liberal guest, "I think this last week, there’s been a climate of hatred built up against who did nothing and I tell you, if she does run for president of the United States, I pray to the lord she’s given secret service protection from day one" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/01/15/pat-buchanan-smacks-down-bill-press-you-ve-got-get-beyond-being-fring

PAT BUCHANAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that for the last week, she’s been a victim, Ed, in one the saddest smears that I’ve seen in a long, long time. From the very moment, they picked up those wounded and dead at that incident, she’s been charged with moral complicity in a crime which she had no responsibility whatsoever. It is been day and night. Day and night. Until finally, the president of the United States went out there and did a magnificent job I think in Arizona and said, put a stop to it, incivility is not responsible for this tragedy and let’s not uses it as what means to start up the wars, one against another again.

[malaise]

1. I heard him live

GE wants it so.

[yourout]

2. They are way overplaying the "Palin is a victim" card.

I know quite a few people who do not like her and not a one would ever wish harm on her.

I wish I could say the same for President Obama. The tidy rightys I know routinely talk about not minding if some harm should come to him.

The "Left is violent also" equivalency is total bullshit.

[Liberal Veteran]

3. Poor Oppressed Minority Sarah Palin....someone carry her to the fainting couch!

And find the smelling salts!

[jobycom]

4. Ever hear a Republican say "Wow, we screwed up?"

No matter how directly a result is the consequence of their actions, it is always someone else's fault. If they call for a hit and the hit happens, it was still the hitman's fault. If they held the gun and pulled the trigger, they'd blame the gun. Tom DeLay still says he did nothing wrong, despite the entire legal system saying otherwise. Condeleeza Rice couldn't imagine planes flying into buildings even though it was a topic of movies, novels, and TV shows for years and she had intelligence briefings telling her it could happen. Brownie did a heckuva job. Bush couldn't control the weather in New Orleans so it wasn't his fault that he couldn't get water to a city with open freeways for over a week--despite getting himself there in a couple of days.

Being Republican means never having to say you're sorry.

[EFerrari]

6. They all sound like active addicts. n/t

[EFerrari]

5. If Palin needs the Secret Service to deal with criticism, she's not presidential material.

Thanks for the tip, Pat.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. The Passion of the Palin will continue to next week

mark my words. We are just on the third station folks.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

10. As the funeral services end and Rep. Giffords heals...

...the Arizona tragedy will also fade from the front pages, and with it, the controversy surrounding Palin.

So we already know the shape this is going to take. She is going to milk the victim card for all it's worth, and when that's no longer an option, she'll just stir the pot again and yell "fire in the hole" and step back as the endless cycle repeats itself.

The woman, in my opinion, needs professional help, not a shot at winning the Oval Office.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Oh the Passion will end this week...

short of actual crucifixion. Interestingly it is not us doing it. It is the right.

All this is full of code to the base.

Amerigo this is part of the eschatology and her being chosen, and the persecuted church at the end of days.

What is funny is that Buchanan is doing it... he is not perfected... and sadly I am not kidding.

[Liberal Veteran]

8. Someone should have said, "Gosh, Pat, you're right!......

....she's practically lying in a hospital bed fighting for her life!"

[Duwamish]

13. That would have been the perfect comeback.

I envy people who can think on their feet and come up with these. I'm way way too slow!

[NuclearDem]

9. She brought it on herself

I have no sympathy for her.

I would've considered cutting her a little slack if her speech about Tuscon hadn't been, you know, totally inappropriate, but she's earned every last bit of criticism coming her way.

Can't deal with it? Boo fucking hoo.

[gratuitous]

12. That show-off Giffords just took a bullet to the head

But let's not forget the real victim in all this, and thank the good lord above (or below) that Pat Buchanan is here to keep the record straight for all of us who are diverted by who got shot, and who got killed, when the true victim in Tucson wasn't even there!

[somone]

14. Well, he blamed Poland for starting World War II

so he's consistent

[deacon]

15. Oh cry me a river. Palin is ignorant arrogant asshole who incites violence. n/t

[Raschel]

16. Yes Pat, NOBODY should talk about the unusual connection of Palin's crosshairs map and the shooting.

[niyad]

17. did I miss something here? was she shot? injured in some way? in the hospital??

did he have anything to say about the people who WERE killed, shot, in the hospital? if not, bubu--then I strongly request that you SHUT UP

[Urban Prairie]

18. Buchanan is obviously a Palin apologist.

If his heroine can't stand the political heat that she has brought upon herself, maybe she should have never been in its kitchen to begin with.

She intentionally left that controversial cross-hairs map up, LONG after the elections were over. She alone proved that she desired and then drew the public's attention to herself by uploading it to begin with, then by removing it a few hours after Loughner's rampage, she tacitly admitted her guilt, that it in fact incites and promotes violence and violent acts.

There are innocent victims, like Giffords, but there are also false martyrs, like Palin.


The angry public backlash Sarah received was deserved, and even the most stupid trolls on the internet know what they are to expect, when they post or reply with inflammatory or violence-provoking images and/or words directly to someone, or indirectly at everyone.

[Major Hogwash]

19. He's spinning like a top, out of control.

Always has, always will.

[Cyrano]

20. Buchanan has always found ways to apologize for the worst of the worst.

He has spent most of his life as an "apologist" for Hitler. (Go to Google and type in Pat Buchanan Hitler.) He was also one of Nixon's speech writers and still thinks that Dick was a great guy.

So why should we be surprised when he sits there painting the best possible face on Sarah?

I've never understood people like Buchanan and never will. His values, beliefs and world view are so at odds with reality (and sanity?)as to make him a totally incomprehensible person to me. Many wingnuts spew the crap they spew because it pays well. Their true beliefs (if any) are set aside. Buchanan, on the other hand, truly believes that every turd he piles on the platter is a grain of "truth."

I wonder if there's a cure for people like him.

On edit: Buchanan gave a "culture wars" speech at the 1992 Republican Presidential Convention that was insane by the standards of the day. The late, great columnist, Molly Ivins, nailed him by quipping, "It sounded better in the original German."