Tonight's Bill Maher Guest Gretchen Hamel

[rusty charly]

"A former Bush administration PR specialist has launched a new non-profit designed to raise the alarm about what it sees as "over-spending" in Washington -- but is staying mum on how the group is being funded.

Public Notice launched late last month with a column on the website of US News and World Report, in which executive director Gretchen Hamel argued that "backroom deals, trillion-dollar deficits, pork-laden spending bills, and multibillion-dollar bailouts have left many Americans wondering if Washington can be trusted with their money." The group's sophisticated-looking website, Bankrupting America, adds that "unprecedented government spending and debt, corporate welfare, higher taxes, and poorly designed bureaucratic red tape are undermining economic progress," and contends that the stimulus bill has been a failure.

Public Notice's funding source remains obscure. In an interview with TPMmuckraker, Hamel -- who served as the Bush administration's top spokesperson on trade issues, and as press secretary for the House Republican Conference -- said Public Notice had "dozens of donors across the U.S.," but declined to identify them. "We will not be disclosing our donors," she said. "We want to protect the anonymity of our donors," she added, noting that other organizations of all political stripes take a similar stance."

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/former_bush_admin_spox_launches_non-profit_to_comb.php#more

[blue neen]

1. Let's hope Bill Maher asks Gretchen to let us in on the source of her funding.

It wouldn't be a bit surprising to see the usual suspects: the Koch brothers, Richard Mellon Scaife, Big Oil, etc.

[rusty charly]

2. "Asked whether

she had raised concerns about over-spending while she was a Bush administration official, Hamel said that she had, but did not elaborate."

[EC]

3. Shit.

Bill Mahr never does his homework. This would be the show to have Rachel on to counter her. Oh well, at least she isn't going to change the minds of many watching...But, damn why does Bill keep having people on that are propagandists that he isn't capable of debating?


On edit: I remember him falling all over Breitbart and not calling him out at all.

[JHB]

4. Because he's a comedian, not a journalist.

Because he's Bill Mahr, not Bill Moyers.

[ellenfl]

5. she actually was not too ideological. she did not seem to be a rw nut. eom

[QED]

6. She reminded me of that awful Monica person on McLaughlin

but not quite as screechy or up on the talking points. She just giggled a lot, protested a little, and was only moderately annoying. Monica is putrid or was - I can't say since I haven't watched that program in ages.

[rusty charly]

7. And Bill skipped her bete-noire:

At one point he said he was going to discuss the deficit but he was running late and skipped to the next topic. That's where she would have participated. That's her big thing: Obama's spending, while she ignored Bush's when she worked for him. (She said she didn't but she's lying.)

Ross Douchehat wasn't even that unbearable.