S12.E19: Gina McCarthy, Krystal Ball, Richard A. Clarke, Carol Leifer, Tom Rogan

[attica]

A little bit better than last week's. At least there were fresh faces and voices on the panel.

 

Side note: somebody tell Rogan not to wear that suit jacket on teevee. I was getting a headache with the pinstripe/pixel war going on.

[opus]

Doesn't Krystal Ball sound like a stripper name?

[ganesh]

With a K even. Why? How can you be taken seriously? Go by your middle name.

 

I'm all for any panel that isn't yelling and bloviating six years six years six years. They all seemed to agree that Iraq was a mess and that it's just completely toxic. Though I disagree about throwing in the towel on Iram re: nuclear weapons. They have neutralized their 20% enriched uranium stockpile and that is not something to dismiss out of hand.

 

PBS covered the study about the difference between the conservatives/liberals and I agree if more people voted we'd have a way difference political climate. I tend to think that just the two-party system is part of the problem and if a ton more people voted I think a third party would have more representatives. Imagine if congress only had a plurality with the major parties. They'd each need to work with the third party to get anything passed. That opens up the normal republicans (I do think there are some but they never speak up because they are afraid of losing in the primary) to just cut out the tea party and ally with a third party to work on stuff like immigration. Although it's alarming that all the republican representatives are white christian men.

 

It's pitiful and somewhat laughable that tea party people won't even consider citizenship for someone with a 4.0 who serves in the military. There's no compromise from that point? It's nothing at all? 

[iMonrey]

I think I saw Gina McCarthy on The Daily Show once, and I was equally impressed with her there. I wish she'd run for president. I'd vote for her. I'm sort of dreading the inevitability of Hilary.

 

Tom Rogan is one of those passive aggressive pundits who says things like "Well there are studies that show .  . ." and "Well let's wait and see" but he's still implying what's happening in Iraq is Obama's fault and that's awfully nervy.

 

And yeah - Krystal Ball? What kind of sick sense of humor did her parents have?

[Maherjunkie]

She looked more like a fitness instructor than a pundit.   I liked Carol Leifer but I could swear she was married to a man not too long ago, yet she mentioned her partner of 18 years.  I always liked dick Clarke; I wondered how he could fit in with the Reagan administration when he embraces the word liberal.  I loved Bill's monologue when he pretends to be Cantor:  "I've been unreasonable..I've been ill-informed...mean spirited.."  Where did I go wrong?

[b2H]

I'd love to see Clarke as head of the Defense or State Departments, but he probably wouldn't take the job.

[trow125]

Carol Leifer was married to a man, but I think it was back in the "Seinfeld" era (she also dated Jerry Seinfeld briefly). She came out as a lesbian when she was around 40.

[maraleia]

EPA Head Gina McCarthy, MSNBC Co-Host Krystal Ball, Novelist Richard Clarke, Comedian Carol Leifer and Conservative Blogger Tom Rogan.