MSNBC's Carlson called Gore a "religious zealot," after previously labeling him a "wild-eyed religious nut"
On MSNBC, Tucker Carlson said, "[I]t's fair to say that Al Gore is a religious zealot." Carlson previously called Gore a "wild-eyed religious nut" whose "religion is the environment."
On the August 8 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, host Tucker Carlson said, "[I]t's fair to say that [former Vice President] Al Gore is a religious zealot." Carlson previously called Gore a "wild-eyed religious nut" whose "religion is the environment," as Media Matters for America noted.
Carlson made the comment while discussing an exchange on the August 3 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes -- highlighted by Media Matters -- during which co-host Alan Colmes noted that Rev. Pat Robertson, host of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club and founder of the Christian Coalition of America, had announced that the recent heat wave in the United States "is making a convert out of me" on global warming. In response, co-host Sean Hannity called Al Gore "unhinged" for his long-standing position on the threat posed by global warming. Hannity went on to say that Robertson is "dead wrong on this one," but nonetheless "sane."
After playing a clip of the segment, Carlson took issue with Hannity's defense of Robertson's sanity, calling the evangelical leader "crazy" and a "nutcake." But Carlson said of Gore, "I think it's fair to say that Al Gore is a religious zealot, because he is."
From the August 8 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:
CARLSON: Time now for "Beat the Press." First up, Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes of the Fox News Channel. During a debate over global warming, Hannity bristled when Colmes tried to compare Al Gore to Pat Robertson. Listen.
[begin video clip]
HANNITY: If you look at the history of temperatures, there's a natural ebb and flow to all of this.
COLMES: Yeah.
HANNITY: And I think Al Gore is unhinged.
COLMES: What does that have to do with what we're talking about? You use it as an excuse to take a shot at Al Gore.
HANNITY: Absolutely. Unhinged.
COLMES: And now it turns out -- it just turns out that Pat Robertson is going to be in the next Al Gore film based on what we just saw.
HANNITY: Listen. Well, I'll tell you this: Pat's a good man, but he's dead wrong on this one.
COLMES: All right. Is he unhinged?
HANNITY: No. He's sane.
COLMES: All right.
[end video clip]
CARLSON: I see -- I see Hannity's point. I see his desire to defend evangelicals -- a group that takes a lot of crap unfairly from the mainstream media. And I think it's fair to say that Al Gore is a religious zealot, because he is.
On the other hand, just because Al Gore is a bad guy, just because evangelicals are unfairly attacked by the left, does not mean Pat Robertson isn't crazy. He is. This is a man who blamed the United States for 9-11. Two days after 9-11, he said, quote, "The Almighty has lifted his protection from this country." When you blame the U.S. for the attacks on the World Trade Center, you, my friend, are a nutcake. In other words, you can be for civil rights and not be for [Rev.] Jesse Jackson. You can be for evangelicals and not be for Pat Robertson. Just to make that totally clear. The guy's a nut.
Fake balance--in order for Carlson to avoid the conservatvie guilt associated for attacking Robertson all by himself, he has to baselessly and puzzlingly slander Al Gore. As part of his nonsensical rant.
Notice there is no argument being made at all here. It was just a gratuitous, ad hominem slap.
I wouldn't mind it so much if these guys would actually provide a complete argument I can respond to.
"Al Gore is a zealot because he is." --TC
How wonderfully elliptical of you, Tucker.
"On the other hand, just because Al Gore is a bad guy, just because evangelicals are unfairly attacked by the left, does not mean Pat Robertson isn't crazy." --TC
Can anyone explain this part to me? I don't speak nutjob.
Tucker's bow tie is very tight during most of the day. This causes the blood supply to be cut off killing massive amounts of brain cells. Towards the end of the show he takes off the bow tie and the rush of blood back to the brain cause what he feels is new found clarity. Of course we all know it really just like he stood up to fast.
Actually that explains a lot. Thanks.
I like the transcriptions, they're similar to the testimony in a Court proceeding: They tell all.
This transcription has the witness all over the place.
The witness ("the bowtie kid") first offers up video of two other guys talking, one of whom calls the former Vice President "unhinged", and then compounds that diagnosis by calling one of those TV preachers "sane".
(You know those TV preachers, the ones who, all made-up with powder and rouge, sit or stand before lights and camera, and upon que of "action", go to closing their eyes and speaking to God... right there before lights and TV camera; and should there be any unforseen technical mishap, then the director says "cut", whereupon the guy opens his eyes and snarls at the director, and they fix the mishap, and then say "Alright, take two... ready lights, camera... action!", and the TV preacher goes at it again, eyes closed and starts talking to God, right there before TV cameras: "Sane".)
The witness then desists with the hear-say, and offers his own diagnosis of the principals:
"I think it's fair to say that Al Gore is a religious zealot, because he is."
"Al Gore is a bad guy"
"just because Al Gore is a bad guy, just because evangelicals are unfairly attacked by the left, does not mean Pat Robertson isn't crazy. He is."
[That's two "he is": AG is a "religious zealot", and PR is "crazy". The witness concludes his testimony, as far as the transcription is concerned, with a definitive diagnosis of PR...]
"The guy's a nut."
So we have folks being called "religious zealot" and "crazy" and "nut" by the witness; but the reasons for such characterizations are vague.
The witness mentions that PR called the attacks of September 11, 2001 a willful lapse in God's defense of our Nation, specifically "The Almighty has lifted his protection from this country."
I don't know if what the TV preacher says is "sane"; no more than I know whether what he does (as described above) is "sane".
But as regards the attacks of September 11, 2001, I think his words are wrong. I think the defense of this country that day was in the hands of the bush administration, not God's...
I think the attacks that day were the will of the president's "good friends", the saudi "royal family", not God's.
It can be difficult to decipher the words of TV preachers, "sane" or not, and the words of cable tv "media" hacks also; but the transciptions help.
They tell all, however confusedly.
Wait I thought all liberals were "Godless". Which way is it?
I find it funny that Robertson now believes in global warming because of one heatwave. All the scientific evidence did no good. But a week of 90+ made him a believer. These people are wrong even when they are right. Ugh!!!
Why not have the environment held in the highest regard. It supports our life, and without it what?
if gore is a religious zealot on the environment, at least he's doing fifty times more good than these phony bible humpers cheating granma out of her last two dollars cause they need a new rolls. and according to carlson, gore is not merely mistaken or misguided. he's a "bad guy". he's the better man and the better american, bowtie boy. at least he hasn't sold his soul to the corporate media to the detriment of the environment.
Why is this ill informed clown taking up space on this channel?
He is also taking up precious oxygen that could be used to stimulate actual brain cells
I believe he's somebody's kid; I recall vaguely that it's his mom who's somehow politically connected, but I don't care enough to research it and know for sure.
There's a lot of that today. There's the kid who's sometimes cited at this website, he writes a column for the LA Times, he's the same thing; his mom is somebody in the GOP; for all I know it might be the same mom, and he and this bowtie kid are brothers or half-brothers.
It kind of reminds me of the the Estate Tax: Those who have such large estates are made more powerful in life, the less those estates are taxed upon their passing.
The power of course is over the recipient (the inheritor, the beneficiary, the "kid"); the greater the estate, the greater the power; and the estate is made greater, as the the estate tax is made lesser.
It seems a similar thing when the capital is political; the political capital is passed on from the mom (or dad) to the son; it's a way for the shriveled and dying to retain as much potency as their greedy minds can scheme out, while their bodies decay to nothing.
So tucker and that kid at the LA Times got their jobs as "media" hacks from their moms, and do the old bitches bidding in return... it makes sense; they all have their rewards, they all inherit something or other; they all get paid.
I understand o'reilly gets about ten million a year for what he does; rush gets even more (for more time in service, I guess). I don't know who's kids they are, nor do I care to find out.
Great Patriotic Americans I'm sure; just like their spawn.
No wonder people's heads are spinning... up is down, right is left, godless is a zealot...
If you distill all of this nonsense that bubbles and boils at the cable 'news' networks... there really is no purpose to these news channels.
Tucker Carlson is the twin of Ann Coulter. His comments never make much sense. He is always against anyone who believes in the Democratic Party. He probably doesn't even know why he believes what he says he believes.
(phone rings)
Tucker: Hello?
Joe: Hey, Carlson, amigo! It's Joe from Scarborough Country! What's happening, bow-tie boy?
Tucker: Hey, Joe! Staying out of trouble?
Joe: Well, nobody's died in my office today! (Laughs)
Tucker: Yeah, well it's still early. Hey, have you seen Olbermann's numbers for this quarter?
Joe: Yeah, that's why I'm calling. What's going on here? I mean, the guy looks like Groucho Marx without the moustache, but he's kicking butt in the ratings! And the two of us barely make a Nielsen blip! How do we get some of his action?
Tucker: Well, he's not at Phil Donahue's ratings yet, but he's on his way! Of course, at this network, getting high ratings while talking from the left gets you fired!
(Both laugh)
Tucker: But maybe we've got to go to the left - after all, all the wing-nuts are watching O'Reilly and Hannity. Who's gonna look at a couple of poodles like us when they can watch a pit bull eat raw flesh on Fox?
Joe: Tucker, you need to loosen your collar and get some blood back into your brain! I was one of Newt's class of '94 - no one's gonna believe I'm suddenly rational! And Jon Stewart nailed you - you're a bigger partisan hack than Novak! Who's gonna think you suddenly care about anything but Republican spin points?
Tucker: Joe, we've got no choice! Bush has screwed things up so bad his father looks like a genius by comparison. We've got to get some distance from the neo-cons here and try to hone in on some of Olbermann's action.
Joe: All right, let's try this: we're conservative, but we're GOOD conservatives! See, we don't think Bush is a REAL conservative, even though he's done everything that we conservatives wanted him to do - cut taxes to the wealthy, get "tough" with Saddam, ignore the environment, etc. So we can criticize him, AND we can still criticize the Democrats!
Tucker: Interesting idea! I'll try it tonight - I'll say that Al Gore (a guy who was right about BOTH Iraq wars, was right about the Internet, and is right about global warming) is as crazy as Pat Robertson (a guy who blamed gays for 9/11). But do you think that Keith's audience will stayed tuned for that?
Joe: Well, it's easier than actually reporting the news!
(Both laugh hysterically)
It's hard to preserve your sense of humor in these political times, but it's essential.
KO manages it well; JS just keeps getting better (I've thought I noticed him sometimes to let the stuff wear him down a tad, but he bounces back quick; that is, if there's anything really to what I've thought I noticed)...
And SC is unequaled! He makes the leading edge; I can never anticipate where he's going, which is truly what makes the humorist funny; what makes us laugh...
Last night, he got the Rep. from CA into a bind, by pointing out the inconsistency of wishing U.S. Troops brought home from Iraq, with wishing gays be allowed to remain in the military, to the effect of...
"So should gay soldiers be dismissed from the military and sent home, or should they remain in Iraq? Which is it Rep., you can't have it both ways."
And then at some point the Rep. protested SC's argument by saying his point was moot, to which he responded his trademark "I accept your apology", to which of course the Rep. retorted "I didn't apologize for anything!"...
And SC looks befuddled, and says "Isn't that what the word moot means, to apologize?"
Which if that's not as good a way to win a debate as any (defining the words however you like), he then throws down the hammer as always, with "I'll let you off the hook, you're obviously uncomfortable with this; let's move on..."
I could never think of such stuff on my own, nor anticipate it in a humorist, but can easily appreciate it when it's offered.
There is not one person in the public political eye, who approaches these things the way SC does. He's unequaled, in addition to being hilarious.
Welcomed relief, always.
Without my dose of Daily Show and the Colbert Report and Olbermann, politics would rarely give me pause to crack a smile or bust a gut. They make me feel sane in a world of absurdity.
and Pat Robertson in the same paragraph is offensive to Gore. Robertson's Operation Blessing was the #2 listing on the government's website for donations after Katrina hit. Investigation showed half of all money donated to OB went into Pat's pocket. Robertson, like Bush, is not even close to sanity. Both Pat and George should steer clear of lightning bolts.
Gore's just an idiot and will do whatever it takes to get his name back in the media. Does the man really have any credibility left?
i think you meant to type bush. he's been wrong about every single thing he has done or predicted since the start of his administration.
Than you AFTER a lobotomy. In a COMA he would have more credibility than most of the right
More precious "insight" from Shannon. How refreshing.
insightful and mean as rattle-snake.
we still have the troll here. The poster claims to be a woman, but actually uses the same phrases and techniques as earlier trolls. Nothing new here.
i agree. one time "she"used the term "your nuts caught in a sling". i asked if that was usual language for a god fearing mom. "she" explained that she picked that up from spending time around men at work. i am aware that some of these posters are trolls and trying to disrupt these threads. that's why i just gave it a quick "bush is the incompetent" answer. you will also notice that there is a constant stream of "new" conservative posters who make the same points and then disappear. there's conjecture about whether some are paid. would not surprise me, but i can't say for sure. what is for sure is that they attempt to disrupt these threads by coming in here with the same "you libs are intolerant" rant.
That good old MotherTucker sure is strapping young man, isn't he? Virile, brave, fearless. So, like, why isn't his crack in Iraq? Why isn't he fighting over there so we don't have to listen to his cowardly whining over here?
to "religious zealot." Carlson seems to be softening up on Gore. Carlson having the enviroment as your religion is better than have money as your God and Rove as your "saviour".
Carlson is an absolute moron in just about everything he covers. He comes across as someone who is not only not knowledgeable but as willful child who whines and says anything he feels like it. I guess that is fairly typical of MSNBC's cast of characters...good competion for FOX news. They belong in the same category...tabloid right wing ranting platforms.