There's no "liberal media" on the Republican-friendly Sunday talk-show circuit

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Our friend Steve Benen performs yet another valuable service in identifying who made the most appearances on the major Sunday talk shows in 2013:

You'll note the obvious, and if you've been paying attention you'll see confirmed what you saw this past year:

The general impression is rooted in fact: the Sunday shows love Republicans. "Meet the Press," "Face the Nation," "This Week," "State of the Union," and "Fox News Sunday," hoping to reflect and help shape the conventional wisdom for the political world, collectively favor GOP guests over Democratic guests every year, but who were the big winners in 2013?

The above chart shows every political figure who made 10 or more Sunday show appearances this year, with red columns representing Republicans and blue columns representing Democrats. For 2013, the race wasn't especially close – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) easily came out on top, making 27 appearances this year.

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In all, 10 of the top 13 are Republicans, as are six of the top seven.

I actually had no idea that Rogers had made that many appearances (though it makes sense that the media would favor him, given his intelligence role, just like McCaul with his homeland security role), but otherwise it's the usual suspects, the right-wing darlings who command the media attention in Washington, notably McCain, Gingrich (who of course doesn't even hold office), Graham, Paul, and King.

Sure, there are a few Democrats on the list, but they're of the establishment variety (Durbin, Schumer) or otherwise on the right wing of the party (Manchin, likely there in large measure for his bipartisan efforts to enact pro-gun gun control after Newtown). And while there are a number of far-right Republicans on the list (Cruz, Corker, Paul), there are no genuine progressives at all.

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The next Republican ploy to take down Susan Rice

By Mustang Bobby

Now that the attempt to turn the attack on Benghazi into the next Watergate has gone up like a popcorn fart, the Republicans who aren't yelling at Susan Rice to get off their lawn are now demanding that the next secretary of state be "independent." Huh?

I heard Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) make such a demand the other day on NPR. He thinks Ms. Rice is too much of a "loyal soldier" to the Obama administration to be effective in the job as Secretary of State. The Los Angeles Times picks up the story:

Corker, who will be the ranking Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the new congressional term, implied that he considered Rice too much of a partisan and urged Obama to pick a more "independent" person as chief diplomat.

"All of us here hold the secretary of State to a different standard than most Cabinet members," he said. "We want somebody of independence."

He implied that Rice, who is close to the president, was, instead, a "loyal soldier." Corker also seemed to contrast Rice and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, with whom he said he has had a positive and "transparent" relationship "from day one."

Collins said that after a 75-minute session with Rice she still had many unanswered questions and remains "troubled" that on the Benghazi issue Rice played "a political role at the height of a contentious presidential election campaign."

This is really very pure bullshit, the kind you can only get from the finest kind of partisan wingnut.

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