Carlson praised Kinky Friedman, denounced Ford Jr., over religion-themed ads
SUMMARY: While discussing a new campaign ad by Rep. Harold
Ford Jr., in which Ford appears in a church, Tucker Carlson criticized Ford for
"drag[ging] religion into the political arena." He added that
"it's wrong, it's immoral, indeed, Democrats have argued, to
imply that God's on your side." But Carlson praised an ad by Kinky
Friedman, in which Friedman "quot[ed] Jesus from the Gospel of John." Carlson said, "I'm
for it."
On the October 26 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, while discussing a campaign ad from Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Harold Fold Jr., in which Ford appears in a church, host Tucker Carlson criticized Ford for betraying what Carlson said is a principle "Democrats have articulated" that "you ought not to drag religion into the political arena." He added that "it's wrong, it's immoral, indeed, Democrats have argued, to imply that God's on your side." Carlson then claimed that if a Republican had run a similar ad, "I would be the first one to say, yuck, get out of church, pal. This is a political ad." Yet, later in the same program, Carlson stated that Texas Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman took "the highest possible road with his ad" that "quot[ed] Jesus from the Gospel of John." Carlson claimed that despite being "one of the weirdest" campaign ads, he also said, "[I]t's one of the prettiest ads I've ever seen in my life," adding, "I'm for it."
Media Matters for America has previously documented similar instances of inconsistencies by Carlson in September. First, Carlson blasted critics of the ABC miniseries The Path to 9/11, which contained numerous outright falsehoods and distortions about the Clinton administration, for favoring "censorship," despite previously criticizing those who decried "censorship" in defending the 2003 CBS biopic The Reagans, which conservatives claimed portrayed former President Reagan in a negative light. Then, Carlson condemned the new children's book Why Mommy is a Democrat as "propaganda," adding that "[i]t doesn't matter what your politics happen to be. Kids ought to be immune from politics." However, in November 2005, Carlson hosted the author of Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed! (World Ahead Publishing, September 2005) and stated: "I thought I wasn't going to like it, but actually it's a clever book. ... I hope it sells."
From the October 26 edition of MSNBC's Tucker:
FORD [video clip]: I started church the old-fashioned way. I was forced to. And I'm better for it. I'm Harold Ford Jr., and here, I learned the difference between right and wrong. And now Mr. Corker's doing wrong.
CARLSON: That was a campaign ad from Harold Ford Jr. He's a candidate for the Senate from Tennessee and a Democrat. That's right, he's a Democrat. There was a time when you wouldn't expect to see a Democratic candidate shoot a campaign spot in a church, but times have changed. And now some Democrats are looking a lot like conservative Republicans. Is it a winning strategy?
Joining me now to answer that question, Democratic strategist Vic Kamber. He joins us from Washington. Vic thanks a lot for coming on.
[...]
CARLSON: And for many years, my whole lifetime, Democrats have articulated the following principle: You ought not to drag religion into the political arena, or vice versa, because both wind up sullied. And it's wrong, it's immoral, indeed, Democrats have argued, to imply that God's on your side. It's wrong. Now, here, Harold Ford is doing just that.
KAMBER: I didn't hear him say God's on his side.
CARLSON: Oh, come on.
KAMBER: I heard him say he's on God's side, which is a vast, big difference. Remember, we've had a priest, [former Rep.] Father [Robert] Drinan [D-MA], we've had a nun in the Congress before. I mean, religion has always played a part -- [former Sen.] Reverend [John] Danforth, who's a Republican from Missouri. We've had a number of ordained ministers of both parties. Religion has always played a part in American politics. All I heard Harold Ford say is, he's on God's side, not God's on his side.
CARLSON: If there was -- if there was a Republican running an ad, standing in church denouncing his opponent, I would be the first one to say, yuck, get out of church, pal. This is a political ad.
[...]
CARLSON: Well, still to come, in a year of negative campaign ads, a couple from Rick Santorum really stand out. Does his opponent really conduct staff meetings from prison? You'd think so, if you watched one of the ads.
And then there's Kinky Friedman, who takes the highest possible road with his ad.
[...]
FRIEDMAN [video clip]: Folks, I heard an old-time preacher read from the Book of John the other day; he said the good shepherd knows and recognizes his own, and his own know and recognize him. And when the wolves come, the hired hands flee, but the good shepherd stays. Folks, we don't need a politician as governor anymore, we need a good shepherd. I want to be your good shepherd. I'm Kinky Friedman and that's why I'm running for governor of Texas.
CARLSON: God, that ad just gets me. I mean, there's just something about that. I think it's one of the prettiest ads I've ever seen in my life, but also one of the weirdest, Rich [Masters, Democratic strategist], if you think about it. Here is a self-described Jewish cowboy quoting Jesus from the Gospel of John. Literally, that's an extended Jesus quote -- saying how he wants to be the good shepherd, which is, of course, Jesus's name for himself. What the hell is that? I mean, not that I'm against it, I'm for it, but I've never seen anything weirder.
Religion has no place in politics?
Where I live I'm subjected to TV ads in the Ford/Corker race, and I hate that Ford ad where he's sitting in the church pew. If a candidate is religious, or not religious, that's his business. He doesn't need to flaunt his chosen faith lifestyle. It's tacky.
I agree. I like Harold Ford and there are definitely many issues I agree with him on, but he is far MORE conservative than me and most of the Democrats I know in MD. I think this may be pretty typical for Democrats that reside in very conservative states, just like most Republicans in Liberal MD are pretty moderate. (Michael "Dollar Bill" Steele being the exception)
Where I live I'm subjected to TV ads in the Ford/Corker race, and I hate that Ford ad where he's sitting in the church pew. If a candidate is religious, or not religious, that's his business. He doesn't need to flaunt his chosen faith lifestyle.
I get blitzed with the same ad-traffic where I live, and I certainly agree with your comments. To be fair, though, Ford creates ads like that because of the Republican campaign against him, which portrays him as the Great Other. Ford is a conservative, but the Republicans have consistently chosen to describe him as "the most liberal" member of congress from Tennessee, and they've shown no hesitation in making up whatever nonsense they like to support the charge. The portrait of Ford coming from the other side is that he's some sort of radical hedonistic pimp-daddy whose conservatism is just a lot of smooth jive. "Slick Talk, Hollywood Values," go the ads. He ends up in places like that church pew just trying to prove he's a human being. I don't like it, but it's a campaign in the South, and those are just the facts of life here at the moment.
The campaign, for all its sound and fury in Tennessee, hasn't gotten the kind of national coverage it deserves. The overtly racist attacks on Ford have been very extreme (even Republican laughing-boy Dick Morris calls it one of the dirtiest he's ever seen), and it really show what the Republican party is made of, and what they appeal to. At the same time, however, Ford has taken the low road himself on various occasions, making a big show of his opposition to illegal immigration, which is a HUGE Republican issue this year, and is just as nakedly racist as the attacks on Ford. There's no one with entirely clean hands in TN this year.
People in non-Southern states would probably think Ford is a Republican if all they had to go on were his ads. Lately he's been going on about how opposed he is to gay marriage. Yep, that's some liberal!
It's not as bad as Alabama or Georgia, but it's pretty backward. There's a State Constitutional amendment on the ballot this time to ban Gay Marriage. It will pass in a landslide, of course, because even some of my staunchly Democratic-Bush-hating friends get the vapors when they think about gays getting married. Ford has to play to these ignoramouses to even have a prayer of getting elected.
That's political reality in the Bible Humping South.
I live in Mississippi. We passed our anti-gay-marriage amendment in 2004, just to be absolutely sure that gay Mississippians do not make the mistake of thinking they aren't second-class citizens.
I live in New Jersey. My marriage is now under attack. My home life will never be the same. I want to be out there defending marriage, but I have no idea how to do it. My wife and I are afraid to leave the house. Can anyone help?
Maybe I should call O'Reilly.
Puddinhead George is coming to the rescue of Marriage once again. He's added references to "activist judges" and "marriage under assault" in his stupid...I mean stump speeches. I'm afraid that the New Jersey ruling has come at a bad time. It will awaken the sleeping Troglodyte hoards who will descend on the polling places like locusts to defend that holiest of institutions from barfidious usurpation by them Satanic homosexual agenders.
Praise Jeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzuuuuuuussssssss.
You mean they'll be going after the oil companies and the banks?
Tennessee is Troglodyte country... It's not as bad as Alabama or Georgia, but it's pretty backward.
I'm from Georgia, and my impression is that TN is much worse, in that respect, than GA. Georgia was actually the leader of the New South for about 20 years, and was probably as progressive a state as existed in the South. The last 12 or 13 years have seen a severe rollback of this progress, but it hasn't been eliminated altogether. The current governor Sonny Perdue, who ran his first successful election campaign on an almost single-issue platform of--I kid you not--keeping the confederate battle-flag on the state flag, is, this year, running as something like a liberal (he even abandoned that battle-flag nonsense).
However one weighs GA or TN on the troglodyte scale, though, they're both vastly superior to Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana, which are reactionary hell-holes--swamps of ignorance and hatred for which there is little hope.
One thing Tennessee has over Georgia...at least we can buy beer on Sunday!
So that would make you a Mosul? Most Southern Liberal? I feel for you Southern liberals, I know there are a lot of them but it must seem like you are embattled. I am in a red state. Arizona but we border California so its like they KNOW liberals are a force in this part of the world. I dont think its really the same thing.
You're from Ga?
Hard to believe, isn't it?
So that would make you a Mosul? Most Southern Liberal?
Most definitely.
I feel for you Southern liberals, I know there are a lot of them but it must seem like you are embattled. I am in a red state. Arizona but we border California so its like they KNOW liberals are a force in this part of the world. I dont think its really the same thing.
Not at all. Here, it's like living in a foreign nation where you don't speak the language. Georgia hasn't been as bad as the rest of the South, though, as I said before, but it's true that, in certain respects, that's like saying gangrene isn't as bad as cancer.
People in non-Southern states would probably think Ford is a Republican if all they had to go on were his ads.
His record is straightforward Republican as well. In TN, only the color of his skin has allowed his opponent--a minor, obscure corrupt former mayor--to make a fight of it.
In order to hold public office, by law you have to believe in a higher power. My uber-religious brother and kids told me this and I told them I believe I am a higher power, therefore I can be elected.
They did not laugh.
The constitution says directly that there can be no religious test to hold public office. The wording is probably a thinly veiled attempt to circumvent that but I dont believe it would survive a court challenge.
The Texas Constitution requires that religious test. I don't know if the ban on religious tests in the federal constitution has ever been incorporated in a way that would allow for any sort of challenge like that, but I suspect it hasn't (though there are lots of other ways it could be challenged).
Sitting in church is more religious than quoting the Bible?
Bill Frist's family company (HCA) defrauding the government of millions in medicare payments?
that the Ford family is corrupt, they can't even approach the corruption of the pack of jackals occupying the White House right now.
Whats your obsession with Senator Byrd? I know he isnt the best human being in the Senate but are you are starting to sound like the "What Foley did was bad but what about Barney Frank and Gary Studds crowd".
You cant defend the Republicans so you attack.
I don't have a problem with candidates talking about religion or being in church for commercials.
I have a problem when they get elected and insert religon into their politics and political agenda.
Go to church, sing in the choir for all I care, but don't try to sell me on legislation from the pulpit.
I think that is exactly the line I draw.
The "Proverbial Frat Boy” has an opinion about religion in politics? The hypocrite for his generation with a bow tie should flog Republican Values and defend Pat Robertson’s comments like we should assassinate Hugo Chavez, and the like should now voice how they own the religious angle and don’t tread on our turf.
I would not to presume to speak for the Christian Democrats of America, but they are in the majority, and I dare say they don’t think sending America to War for votes makes for a Christian Value.
I’m agnostic, thus confused about the supernatural, or arguments that are meant to paint people into a corner, and do nothing to address the problems of the day.
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
always has an opinion about everything and a clue about nothing.
THANK YOU. njguy93@yahoo.com
Well said. Tucker Carlson is fast becoming the most annoying man on television.
I saw this exchange. Kamber made Tucky look dumber than usual. Tucky tried his laugh as loudly as you can routine in hopes of drowning out the reasonable Kamber. He tried his chuckle and nod and treat your guest as if you're humoring your trainable but not educable uncle. That failed. When all was said and done, Tucker had no choice but to agree with Kamber. I email MSNBC daily and suggest that they not renew this feather weight pundit. He is beyond silly. He is nothing more than an overgrown prep school boy of privilege. Send him packing.
Guys,
Carlson said that if a Republican had shown up in a church doing a political ad, he would have said something like, "Hey, get out of there. That's a church." He also calls Friedman's ad "weird."
I think he was a bit less inconsistent than your blurb would make him appear.