Monica Crowley

The McLaughlin Group

Please join us for another rollicking edition of "The McLaughlin Group" this weekend. Check your local listings for time and channel, or visit www.McLaughlin.com for more information.

Pelosi's Velvet Rope: Metal Fences

Today, Nancy Pelosi and the Gang of Lunatics who surround her unveiled a monstrous, 1,990 page health care "reform" bill. They did the deed on the west side of the Capitol, where presidents get sworn in, and which is usually open to the public. I say "usually," because it wasn't open to the public today. Today, it was closed off to you and me and our fellow Americans.

In order for Sister Pelosi to have her socialist government takeover ceremony uninterrupted by the unwashed masses, she had the Capitol Police put up metal fences.

I may be wrong about this, but I thought we still lived in a (relatively) free and open and democratic society, where input from the public was welcomed by those whom we hire (and pay) to represent us. They work for us...or do they?

It speaks volumes about this voluminous bill that when they announced it, the Democrats had to use METAL FENCES to keep us out. Metal fences are also used by Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, Kim Jong Il, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In order to get into the blessed event, you needed to be on a special "guest list."

Is this health care "reform" or a night out at Bungalow 8?

"I'll have 2000 pages of bureaucracy and a cosmo!"

But first, you'll have to get past the metal fences.

A Tale of Two VPs

Cheney vs. Biden. Who is winning that smackdown? Take a wild guess. And please read my column in today's "Washington Times:" http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/28/a-study-in-contrasts/

The O'Reilly Factor----TONIGHT!

Please join me on "The O'Reilly Factor" TONIGHT at 8pm and 11pm ET on the Fox News Channel. It's the most fun you'll have watching cable news.

The Obama White House: Brought to You by Titleist

Earlier today, President Obama spoke to a group of military servicemen and women in Jacksonville, Florida. With the impending decision on troop strength in Afghanistan at the forefront of everyone's mind, the Bama warned that he was still deciding when to decide. And then he transparently disguised his political stall as noble deliberation: "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way," he said.

No rush? No kidding.

Obama has been sitting on Afghanistan for nearly 10 months now, announcing "new strategies" in January, March, and June, appointing a new commander in early summer, and then blowing off that commander until he was outed on "60 Minutes." He continues to sit on Afghanistan under the pretense of awaiting the outcome of the November 7th Afghan presidential run-off election. But the real reason lies in elections closer to home; namely, the gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey. Announcing a major troop escalation before next week would certainly have steam coming out of Democratic voters' ears---and they just might stay home in protest.

So despite Obama's protestations that he's "not rushing" out of a sense of "solemnity," reports are that he's already made up his mind on the troop request and is sitting on it until after voters go to the polls next Tuesday.

What? you say. This White House has politicized a war decision? This Chicago-land White House has put politics above national security?

There's gambling in Casablanca?

Sometimes, late at night, Obama hears a distant sound. No, it's not his conscience. It's the siren call of the golf course. He must obey it.

The McLaughlin Group

Please join us for another freewheeling edition of "The McLaughlin Group" this weekend. Check your local listings for time and channel, or visit www.McLaughlin.com for more information.

Rolling Mr. Obama

Today comes word from Tehran that the Iranians are rejecting the much-touted plan of two weeks ago to ship their low-enriched uranium out of the country, primarily to Russia, to be highly enriched and then sent back to Iran to be used only for "peaceful purposes." When this tentative deal was announced, there was much ballyhooing: President Obama has done it! He's flipped an enemy into a deal-making partner!

The only one being flipped is the Bama. He's being flipped by our enemies like a pancake.

The Iranians have just said that upon second thought, they're not going to ship their uranium out. And they're not going to stop enriching uranium at all.

Nuclear weapons, here they come.

Meanwhile, after much premature celebrating about the Russians getting on board with new sanctions against Iran, they've now made clear that, upon second thought, they're not going to back sanctions after all.

The Russians and the Iranians are just not that into us.

Meanwhile, the Vice President (the current lame one, not the former, awesome one) turned to the Czech Prime Minister today and said, "You want some fruit?"

Ah, leadership.

Cheney Rides to the Rescue

What a difference a Vice President makes. We've gone from a brilliant and strong VP to a hapless, weak, buffoon of one.

Last night, former Vice President Dick Cheney blasted the flaccid and dangerous national security policies of the Obama-Biden administration. In typically candid and direct style, Cheney candy-coated nothing.

"Make no mistake. Signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries," he said, referring to Obama's Hamlet-like navel-gazing on Afghanistan.

He blistered Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who last weekend suggested that the Bush administration had left them with no strategy for Afghanistan and that they were "beginning from scratch."

Cheney said point-blank that they had undertaken their own review of the war before leaving office and presented their findings to Obama's transition team. "They asked us not to announce our findings publicly, and we agreed, giving them the benefit of our work and the benefit of the doubt." (Showing class: Team Bama might want to take a lesson or two on that.) Cheney also said that the "new strategy" Obama announced in March bore a "striking resemblance" to what their review had found and recommended.

Cheney also called for Obama to man up: "The White House must stop dithering while America's armed forces are in danger. It's time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity."

He also plastered Obama over canceling the Eastern European missile defense shield and leaving our allies to twist in the wind, and he accused Obama of "libel" against the CIA interrogators of the 9-11 terrorists.

Cheney's remarks come not a moment too soon. The current president is a wimp of epic proportions and our enemies are having him for lunch. It's only a matter of time before they have the rest of us for lunch too.

No one can say Cheney didn't warn us.

Somebody give that man a Nobel Peace prize!

White House Wars

Got an opinion that differs from the Obama Party Line? Look out! They're coming for you. Read all about it in my column in today's "Washington Times:" http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/21/white-house-offensive/

The O'Reilly Factor---TONIGHT!

I'll be a guest with Bill O'Reilly TONIGHT on "The O'Reilly Factor" at 8pm and 11pm ET on the Fox News Channel. Please tune in for all of the hijinks.