Here's the second part of the video which was taken down by Faux's purge yesterday.
---- --- ----
OLBERMANN: More fallout tonight from the Bachmann rally, to focus hatred and encourage Americans to harass Democratic members of Congress. The congresswoman herself today condemning the most hateful image to emerge from last week's protest on the steps of the Capitol-no, it's not this, it's the other pictures-still refusing to apologize however, for having enabled it.
The Minnesota Republican today releasing statement calling the anti-Semitic imagery at her rally, quote, "regrettable and inappropriate." Of this sign that equated health care reform to the Nazis, showing the horrific corpses from Dachau, she also called it sad that some individuals chose to marginalize tragic events in human history like the Holocaust.
You did not hear nor see the word "sorry," nor any conjugation of that verb to apologize in her statement.
As for her colleagues, House Minority Whip Cantor's spokesman had called the photograph inappropriate. Mr. Cantor said nothing. While Minority Leader Boehner's spokesman replied that Leader Boehner did not see any such sign, obviously, it would be appropriate, even though, of course, Boehner was 15 feet away from it. An explanation if not apology for how Mr. Boehner confused the Declaration of Independence for the Constitution at that event would have been nice, too.
Meanwhile, the excellent work of the "Daily Show" on Comedy Central revealing that FOX News showed file footage of the better-attended September 12th tea party protest in D.C., used it as if it were images from the Bachmann rally in order to give the false appearance that last Thursday's fake press conference on the Capitol steps had been much larger in attendance than it actually was.
On the left, this is how Sean Hannity covered the Bachmann rally last week. On the right, Glenn Beck's coverage of the September 12th protest two months ago. They look surprisingly similar giving lie to Hannity's utterly shameful deceit on this.
Lots to talk about, thus, with Clarence Page, "Chicago Tribune" editorial board member and Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist.
Clarence, good evening.
CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Hi there, Keith. Are you picking on Sean Hannity again, now?
OLBERMANN: Yes. It's a day that ends with "Y" in its name.
(LAUGHTER)
OLBERMANN: And it appears that in using her government-funded House Web site to organize that protest, the congresswoman from Minnesota may have broken federal House rules. Could-could she be forced to apologize just for that?
PAGE: Well, no, there's a reason why the House has these rules about Franken. You know, I know it seems really passe now in this era of email to talk about snail mail. But, you know, Americans care about things like how members of Congress use things like their stamps. Dan Rostenkowski, former chairman of House Ways and Means went to jail because of abuse of privileges like stamps up on Capitol Hill.
Nowadays, in the day of the e-mail and the Web site, these rules still matter, and that's why she now has been accused of having violated that rule by using her Web site to promote a rally, which she calls a media event.
OLBERMANN: And speaking of that definition, does this-this news here explain that charade of why the leadership was calling it a press conference, not a rally, because they knew using tax funds to sponsor a rally was illegal and they were doing everything they could not to get caught doing that?
PAGE: According to reports, yes, because, as you notice, this was a news conference where there was-there were no journalists allowed to ask any questions. This was not called in order to face the press. It was called in order to have a rally.
OLBERMANN: That's a Republican dream press conference, as it's also known. There was a lot of.
PAGE: Right.
OLBERMANN: There was a lot of faint outrage when the White House declared FOX News was not a news organization. In the wake of that videotape research that proved it swapped out one event for another, courtesy of the "Daily Show" folks, should the-should the White House be feeling vindicated tonight? Did they actually prove their point? Or did the-you know, Comedy Central proved it for them?
PAGE: Well, I got to say, that was a good got you. I mean, just look at that tape there, Keith, and you see, it starts out at Michele Bachmann's rally and the leaves on the trees are changing colors, because it's autumn, and then, suddenly, you go to these scenes where the trees are bright green like they were back in early November in the time-and September, the time of the Beck rally and-well, I call it the Beck rally. Beck insists it's not his rally, but everybody know it was, that 9/12 affair. And it's just so blatantly obvious. I mean, this is a real embarrassment to FOX, simply on-simply based on good journalism.
OLBERMANN: But then again, they don't-that's not journalism and they don't embarrass.
(CROSSTALK)
PAGE: Well, yes, that's what the White House was saying.
OLBERMANN: Yes.
This new Gallup Poll tonight that Howard made a slight illusion to some of these numbers that are coming in. Republicans have a slight edge over Democrats, 48-44 in that generic congressional ballot if the 2010 elections were held today. The poll in July, as we saw, the Democrats were ahead by six points.
Is there some reason to interpret this as that the Republican lies have gained traction, particularly on health care reform?
PAGE: Well, it's important to point out, first of all, of course, that generic polls don't necessarily tell you how any one individual member of Congress is appealing to their voters. But that said, it is significant after months-I think it's been years now-that Democrats have been ahead in these generic ballots. All of a sudden, now, they're slipping behind the Republicans.
This doesn't mean that Republicans have really gained that much, as far as their own popularity or approval is concerned, which has been running very low. But nevertheless, it's the kind of trend that Democratic leaders do not want to see happening. And I think it's because, lots of it because they themselves have had a real problem in selling their health care message to people who already have coverage.
OLBERMANN: Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist of "The Chicago Tribune"-as always, great thanks, Clarence.
PAGE: Thank you.
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