She's the worst of the worst, but since she started her semi-retirement she get eclipsed by Broder and Russert.

The most atrocious piece of political commentary I ever saw was during the 2000 campaign when she and Sam Donaldson did a wannabe-humorous look at Al Gore talking about Dingell-Norwood healthcare bill in one of the debates. The blatant subtext was "Oh that Al Gore! thinking the rubes in flyoverland can understand policy!"

Look at who they surrounded rattled wee George with, to day.

George was afraid to bring on any commentators, such as Donna Brazile, that might actually take issue with George patting himself on the back for what a wonderful job he did handling the debate.

ABC trotted out three Old White Elite Washington Power Nipple Suckers, to cocoon poor Wee George from what he calls,”it comes with the territory. Really, Chicken Shit George; Then why did you surround yourself today with only your long term fellow travelers?

One of the most amazing feats of logical Jiu-Jitsu was voiced by Sam Donaldson:
Right after the panel was told that the polls show that a far greater percentage of Hillary supporters say they will not supporter Senator Obama if he is the nominee, than Obama supporters saying they will not support Hillary;

Donaldson said that he was amazed at the sense of entitlement among the Obama supporters, and how they say they will not support Hillary if she is the nominee.
He then told the Obama supporters: “grow up”.

Why is that illogical old clown allowed to pollute the airwaves.

More Hillary supporters say they will abandon the party in the fall, than Obama supporters say they will, and Donaldson tells the Obama supporters to “grow up”

This morning you saw Wee Quivering Georgy, cowering inside the Old White Establishment Cocoon of Will, Donaldson, and Texas Compound Hairdo Roberts, because Mr. “ask the tough questions” Stephanopoulos was too afraid to face the music.

Boycott ABC. For years their radio network has carried all the right wing ranters such as The Big Fat Pillbilly and Raw Insanity, with no Progressive voices on their airways. All their local programs are also staffed with Neo-Fascist bufoons.

Boycott ABC and all those who advertise with them.

"The Cokie Watch" By James Warren Deputy Managing Editor of the Chicago Tribune.

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/bullpen/james_warren/backgrounder/

His number one target however, was Cokie Roberts, an ABC News commentator and senior news analyst for NPR. Dubbing her as “a doyenne of Washington’s mediatocracy,” Warren chronicled Robert’s speechifying in his regular column, “Cokie Watch.”

“Cokie Roberts […] who in Washington is as close to social media aristocracy as one gets and also queen of the moonlighters, took twenty thousand dollars form one health-care association right smack in the middle of the very health-care debate she was covering as the network’s congressional reporter,” he wrote in one installment.

Back in the day when Cokie just worked for NPR, she reported on Congress and Washington goings-on. Because she was the daughter of the legendary Senator Hale Boggs and had spent all of her life at the highest levels of that society, she was very good at it.

When she moved to ABC, they wanted her to report on "The American People" a group completely foreign to her and far outside of her background and experience. That's why she is so clueless, we are a complete mystery to her.

She should go back to reporting on Congress. Its a world she knows.

I don't believe Cokie attempts analysis at all. She in a pure propagandist, forever passing off her own version of how things should be as explanations about how things actually are. She frequently employs toxic but really clever little techniques to get this end.

The trouble is, she is very good at presenting her own limited and very conservative and Catholic points of view as though they were the common sense outlooks of just about all right thinking people, which they surely are not.

Consequently, her observations, as reportage, are badly flawed. As a critic of public policy she is a shallow thinker. But, as a tongue- clucking propagandist, in that she is world class.

But most annoying, is the fact that her work is presented to us as astute political analysis.

Cokie just needs a little remedial training. First, she should be assigned to do a story on waterboarding, and "immerse" herself in the investigation by undergoing simulated waterboarding session. Then, she should spend a night alone in a high-crime area of her beloved Washington, DC. Finally, she should spend a week embedded with a family of Mexican migrant workers during a harvest, sharing in the work and the living conditions. Then bring her back on the air. That'll wipe the smug smile off her face.

Believe it or not, I used to be a Cokie fan, until she started being a shrill for the Right.

As a former journalist, this much I can tell you - we all bring baggage to the table (or microphone, or laptop). A good journalist does two things so that your reader/listener/viewer can decide on their own whether they can trust you -

1. Let others know what baggage you carry may appear to skew your coverage. When was the last time Cokie said anything about both her and Hillary going to Wellesley?

2. And even if we find ourselves in a situation where that mental baggage might intrude, we are under an obligation to subvert those feelings to report the facts as straight as possible. Good journalists, irregardless of medium, spend a lot of time and thought on that process.

For instance, in 2003 I was covering pro-war rallies around York County, PA. My own personal feelings at the time - and they have unfortunately proved correct since then - was I was horrified that no one - reporters nor citizens - was asking for any kind of proof on the supposed WMDs, and just anxious to follow the Government's rot about mushroom clouds, Saddam being linked to 9/11, etc. However, my job at the time was to show how rah-rah citizens were, not to question the leadership. That was the role of the reporters in Washington. That wasn't my role, especially as a stringer. So I subverted my feelings about the conflict so I could report on what was going on at the local level.

When the protests against the war rose, it was my role to report on that, again irregardless of my feelings.

It's a shame that those journalists who earn 50-100 times what I did can't bother to do that.

Russert, Cokie, Matthews, et al, attend the same churches, parties, graduations, weddings, christenings, vacation spots, etc. They have not been in touch with the working class for years. These overpaid dupes are quite comfortable reinforcing one another's views and like nothing more than rubbing elbows with the elites and powerbrokers. Does anyone seriously think for a moment that they want to upset the applecart? They have never had to worry their overstuffed heads about healthcare, gas prices,tuition, food prices, or pension funds. These are the same people who attended that dinner where Bush was looking under his desk for the WMD and they laughed along with him. Of course they will support the right wing agenda. Their portfolios and investments are getting thicker.

What exactly are you objecting to? She's entirely correct. There's a thinnish political class who follow policy, and everyone else votes either their instinct or for the party their father voted for.