Monica Crowley

Puffball Nation

I thought it couldn't get worse yesterday when I saw that People magazine had devoted a special section of its annual "Most Beautiful People" issue to "Barack's Beauties." There was the First Lady, Michelle, looking glam and perfectly at home among other "most beautiful" folks like George Clooney, Halle Berry, and the Jonas Brothers.

But Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel?? And Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner??

Oh yeah. They're so hot, I must have them. Now.

I can't believe they left David Axelrod off the list. Must have been an oversight. Heads are gonna roll.

I had barely recovered from that particular piece of media puffery when I heard President Obama call on a reporter from The New York Times during his primetime press conference last night.

Jeff Zeleny stood, took the microphone, and, heart pounding in his chest, dreamily asked his bromantic interest what his sign was.

What, he wanted to know from the leader of the free world facing multiple crises, has "enchanted" you about the office?

He also wanted to know what the president was doing later.

I desperately searched my memory for how Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan had answered the "what do you find enchanting about the presidency" question, but for some reason, I came up dry.

As the lamestream media continues to swoon Scarlett O'Hara-like over this president, we now know two things for sure: they're really cheap dates. Easy too.

The O'Reilly Factor TONIGHT

I'll be on with Bill O'Reilly live tonight to discuss Obama's "First 100 Daze" press conference. Please join us at a special time for O'Reilly tonight--- 9pm ET---on the Fox News Channel.

Take My Senator, Please!

Complete the following list:

1. Judas Iscariot. 2. Benedict Arnold. 3. ?

How could Number 3 be anybody except Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter?

In the pantheon of turncoats who stab others in the back in order to preserve themselves, Specter ranks right up there. He's flipped the Republican party (and all of those in it who supported and defended him, even when it was mighty hard to do) the bird and raced into the waiting arms of the taxaholics in the Democratic party.

Obviously, he looked at his poll numbers, showing him trailing former Congressman Pat Toomey by over 20 points in the GOP primary. Obviously, he saw a Democratic president with big Democratic majorities in the Congress and wanted to be on the winning side. And obviously, he wanted to stay in the cushy job-for-life he's got.

And therein lies a big problem.

For Specter and so many other politicians, their first job is not to serve us. It's to keep their job. So they embark on the constant campaign in order to guarantee permanent employment at the public trough.

This is not what the Founding Fathers intended. They envisioned public service as a temporary calling, where you would serve your country for a little while, and then return home to your real job as a country doctor, lawyer, farmer, teacher, or blacksmith. High public office was meant for those who wanted a relatively brief stint serving their nation, as part of a well-rounded adult life.

The Founders did not envision folks hanging out in Congress forever. They did not want Senators dropping dead on the Senate floor, after having given their 30,000th speech.

Many in Congress have perverted the Founders' original intent for public service. Specter has abused it big time. His own political ambition and job security is more important than principles, beliefs, his political party, and frankly, the nation. He'd rather cozily ensconce himself in the Senate for the rest of his days than stand for something bigger than himself.

Well, at least now we know that Specter plays for both teams. I guess that makes him bi-curious.

Pearls Before Swine

What the !@&%$* is this now? Swine flu? What's next? An unexpected return of the woolly mammoth?

The outbreak of the swine flu here in the United States, after originating in Mexico and spreading to us from across the border, raises two issues:

1. Why on God's green earth is that southern border still open? The September 11, 2001 attacks weren't enough to get Washington to close the border. The flood of illegal immigrants trampling the border states, committing crimes, and straining our public services weren't enough to close the border. The drug wars and gun-running weren't enough to close the border. And now, apparently, the spread of a viral nightmare won't be enough to close the border. No wonder Mexico loves bordering us: we're a handy recepticle into which all unsavory people, dangerous weapons, deadly narcotics, and weird viruses can be dumped.

2. This particular outbreak might be a strictly natural occurrence, but don't think our enemies aren't watching. We know that al Qaeda has been searching desperately for a biological or chemical weapon since the early 1990s. In January of this year, al Qaeda in Algeria was decimated by the leak of some unknown bug or chemical that wiped out at least 40 terrorists. What killed them? It's unclear, but it wasn't eating too many boxes of Thin Mints. This swine flu outbreak is a dress rehearsal for a bio-terror attack, and our enemies see a Commander-in-Chief on the golf course, a Vice President yukking it up on "60 Minutes," a Secretary of Homeland Security who is more interested in watching "domestic right-wing extremists," and a country without a Secretary of Health and Human Services, a Surgeon General, and a Director of the Centers for Disease Control. If this is one of the "tests" Biden spoke about, so far we're flunking.

For those unfortunate enough to contract the swine flu, they will be treated primarily with the Tamiflu vaccine. And who was wise and forward-thinking enough to begin stockpiling Tamiflu four years ago as a precaution for this kind of situation?

Thank you, President Bush.

The McLaughlin Group

Please join us for more freewheeling craziness and thoughtful discussion on this week's "McLaughlin Group." Check your local listings for time and channel, or visit www.McLaughlin.com for more information.

Where His Heart Is

Late last week, President Obama released CIA memos that detailed interrogation techniques used on top al Qaeda terrorists. It was the single most irresponsible act by a Commander-in-Chief in the middle of a war. Ever.

The current CIA Director, Leon Panetta, appointed directly by The Bama, warned him against releasing the documents, saying that the disclosure of sources and methods would gravely damage our ability to continue to hunt our enemies. The Bama released them anyway.

Three former CIA Directors agreed with Panetta. General Michael Hayden and Porter Goss, both of whom served under President Bush, have expressed extreme concern about the information the enemy is able to glean from the memos as well as the effect such disclosure will have on our agents in the field, who put life and limb on the line every day fighting that enemy. George Tenet, who served under both Presidents Clinton and Bush, agrees.

The Bama released them anyway. As a cherry on top, he opened the door to prosecutions of those who drafted the legal opinions on the interrogations. He campaigned on looking toward the future, but he's going after the past anyway.

Some have suggested that he was pummeled by the Far Left into the memo release and the possibility of prosecutions. I don't think he needed any pummeling at all. On the campaign trail, he called the interrogation methods "torture" and "illegal." This is what he believes. This is who he is.

None of this should come as any surprise. It's appalling, yes. It puts us at greater risk, yes. It's thoroughly irresponsible, yes. But a surprise? No.

Not from a man whose adult life has been marked by associations with such anti-American radicals as Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Louis Farrakhan, Jeremiah Wright, and the tutelage of "Rules for Radicals" author Saul Alinsky. They all despise the United States. Of course The Bama sympathizes with them or he wouldn't have hung out with them for decades.

Cutting the military budget, endangering American operatives, throwing the CIA under the bus, embracing dictators, apologizing for U.S. "evil" and "injustice": all of this makes Ayers, Wright, et al, proud. Take America down a notch or two. Force her "chickens to come home to roost."

This is where his heart is. This is who he is.

Prosecute This!

This past weekend, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that there will be no investigations or prosecutions of anyone involved with the enhanced interrogation techniques used on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zebaydah, or Ramzi Binalshibh. He said that the Obama White House had determined that while the techniques were "torture," those who drafted the legal opinions about their use and those who carried them out should be immune from prosecution.

That was then, this is now.

The Bama said today that he's open to allowing investigations and possible prosecutions of those who had a hand in the legal justifications for the interrogation methods. When asked if that might include former President Bush, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, said, "No one is above the law."

For the sitting President to even raise the prospect of criminal prosecution of a former president and his policymakers for acting in good faith during a war against a terrorist enemy is so appalling, it defies belief.

The Bama's current CIA Director, Leon Panetta, his predecessor, General Michael Hayden, and Clinton's and Bush's CIA Director George Tenet all counseled against this path: they warned the Bama not to release the CIA memos that detailed the techniques, for fear of revealing to the enemy our sources and methods. The Bama did it anyway. The tactics worked: the CIA and others have confirmed that they extracted critical, specific, and corroborated information from these terrorists that deterred imminent and future attacks and saved countless American lives. The Bama moved ahead with the memos' release anyway. There is a precedent against one president prosecuting a former president, and the Bama is going ahead with that, at least in some form.

He is so obsessed with being the anti-Bush that he is tearing down every Bush policy, especially those with a 100% perfect track record of keeping us safe from another attack.

He cares more about serving his masters on the far left and his image as "Mr. Apology Who Is Going to Make Things Right" that he's doing things that may get us all killed.

There's a reason the Founding Fathers listed "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" in that order. Because without life, you can't enjoy liberty and happiness.

Obama Does Dictators

"Adios, mi amigo!" Goodbye, my friend. So said the president of the United States to a sworn enemy of the United States, Venezuelan tyrant and Marxist extraordinaire, Hugo Chavez.

The "adios, mi amigo" came after Obama sat through a 50 minute speech by Nicaraguan tyrant and Marxist extraordinaire, Daniel Ortega, who plastered the United States every which way but loose.

Through it all, the president sat there like a church mouse. Actually, a church mouse would have been louder.

His country---our country---was roundly attacked, and the one guy who is supposed to protect and defend us sat still and didn't say a word. Not during the speech, and not after the speech. Not even a day later.

He also accepted a book from Chavez that blisters the United States, taking it in hand with a broad smile and some batting of the eyes.

I never thought I'd long for the day when a presidential book gift was Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

Apparently, there are no America-hating Marxists the Bama hasn't tried to reach out and touch. There's no tyrant that he hasn't sidled up to, smiled at, flirted with, courted, or tossed a come-hither glance at. No dictator he hasn't send flowers and candy to.

Of course Obama was all smiles with Chavez and Morales and da Silva and Ortega: he admires what they have done, particularly the Marxists among them. They have successfully squashed their private sectors and turned their economies into command economies. And that is precisely what the Bama is trying to do here. He believes in what they have done, and he's trying to emulate them.

No wonder Chavez and that motley gang of Latin American Marxists were all, "Viva Obama!" They see themselves in him, and vice versa.

A Word from Sam Adams

This week, we saw an astonishing thing: hundreds of thousands of Americans taking peacefully to the streets to ask for a return to the Constitution, the founding principles, and individual liberty unshackled from oppressive government.

We did some of our own community organizing.

Samuel Adams (the Founding Father, not the beer) said this:

"It does not take a majority to prevail...but rather an irate, tireless minority keen on setting brushfires of freedom and liberty in the minds of men."

We are irate and we are tireless. We have started the first 21st century brushfire of freedom and liberty.

Like the ones Sam Adams started, this one won't be extinguished until our grievances are redressed.

Dazed and "Confused"

Yesterday afternoon, while hundreds of thousands of Americans were protesting exploding government, higher taxes, huge deficits, and gluttonous bureaucracy, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill took to Twitter. She Twittered that she was "confused" by the tea parties. Apparently, she can't conceive of anyone who would protest trillions of taxpayer dollars in government waste.

The left-wing lamestream media was no better, diminishing the tea partiers whenever they could, mocking them and minimizing the parties' significance. They used the Department of Homeland Security report warning of "right-wing extremists" to smear us, to paint us as wild-eyed nuts who could burst into violence at any moment.

They just don't get it. And nothing we could ever do or say could make them get it.

Remember Joe Biden's point to Kate Snow before the election about higher taxes? "It's time to step up, Kate," he said. "Time to be patriotic." Time to pay higher taxes to a ravenous, out of control government. (Time to make the donuts, and the donuts, and the donuts---just to pay for that new tax hike on bottled water.)

The movement begun at the tea parties is not a one-shot deal or a minor event. It is a symptom of a deep and widespread feeling that this country is going down a very bad path, a path deliberately avoided by the Founding Fathers. This movement is visceral, and real.

I hope the liberals remain "confused" about it. Because the next time elections roll around, it will be they who are hopelessly out of touch, dazed and confused, and ready to be put out to pasture.