Progress Illinois

If you’ve been watching Fox News’ Sean Hannity recently, GOP Rep. Aaron Schock's comments on WIND yesterday may sound all too familiar. Listen:

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SCHOCK: [L]et’s not forget the stimulus package had quote-unquote no earmarks in it either. And I don’t think anyone would argue that the trillion dollars spent in that bill was any more responsible or less politicized. I mean you had $9 billion in there for Harry Reid’s train in his district, you had the money for the mouse in Nancy Pelosi’s district. I mean, you had a lot of pet projects in there.  But when you control the White House and Congress you don’t have to write it in in the form of an earmark because you control the whole process.

Hannity -- along with numerous other media figures -- has incessantly repeated this claim that the stimulus bill includes multi-million-dollar earmarks to save the “salt harvest mouse” in Pelosi’s district and build a high-speed rail line in Reid’s. Now Schock is giving him an assist in keeping the talking point alive. Nevermind that Michael Steel, the spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) who first circulated the mouse claim, has admitted that “[t]here is not specific language in the legislation for this project.”

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As we noted in the Early Bird, Rep. Mark Kirk is now expressing skepticism about John McCain's running mate. When asked if Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had the qualifications to become president, the North Shore Republican told the Tribune editorial board yesterday: "Quite frankly, I don't know." When pressed further, he told the assembled reporters "I would have picked someone different."

But one month ago, Kirk was signing a different tune.

Talking to the Tribune on September 1, he described himself as "encouraged" by the pick. In an September 2 interview on WLS' Don Wade And Roma In The Morning, Kirk praised the governor for her ethics crusading nature. Listen below:

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Conservative author and political commentator Dick Morris was dropping more idiot bombs on WIND's John and Cisco in the Morning yesterday. In the course of telling co-host Cisco Cotto why an Obama presidency would mean an end to life as we know it, Morris offered up some egregious distortions of the Democrat's tax plan -- distortions that he earlier peddled on Fox News, as Media Matters for America noted.

Here's what Morris had to say about Social Security:

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MORRIS: Obama says he' s not going to raise taxes on the average American -- that he's just going to raise them on the wealthy. But that's just not true. If you take a Chicago police officer whose married to a Chicago teacher, their income is about $120,000 a year together. Right now they pay Social Security taxes on the first hundred. Under Obama's plan they'd pay it on all $120,000. So the next $20,000 would suddenly be subject to tax for them, and that would be taxed at six-and-a-half percent or 6.2 percent for a total of $1,300 a year -- over $100 a month for extra taxes.

Media Matters easily debunked Morris' claims that Obama's plan would raise Social Security taxes on folks in that income bracket:

Obama's plan to raise the cap on income that is subject to Social Security taxes would include a "doughnut hole" that exempts income that is over the current cap of $102,000 but less than $250,000; Obama stated in a June 13 speech of his proposal that "[a]nybody under $250,000 would not be affected whatsoever. Ninety-seven percent of Americans will see absolutely no change in their taxes under my plan."

Then came Morris' second lie -- this time about the capital gains tax:

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MORRIS: Old people who rely on corporate dividends and utility bond interest would have their dividend tax doubled [by Obama]. And anyone who owns stock -- and 52 percent of Americans do -- would have to pay double the capital gains tax.

Here's Media Matters on the claim that Obama's capital gains proposal would affect all stockowners:

Obama has said he would not raise the capital gains tax rate on individuals with income of less than $250,000. Moreover, an increase in capital gains taxes would not in any event affect most distributions from 401(k) and IRA accounts, which are taxed as ordinary income

But Morris' distortions weren't limited to the arena of tax policy.

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Dick Morris isn't a doctor. He just plays one on morning talk radio.

A former Clinton operative, Morris broke ties with the president in 1996 and went on to make a career of bashing the Clintons as a conservative pundit. Earlier today on WIND's John & Cisco In The Morning, he stopped by to spread the love. Near the end of the interview, the issue of Bill Clinton's campaign behavior came up and Morris made some irresponsible claims that shouldn't go unchallenged.

Citing the former president's recent colorful criticism of Vanity Fair reporter Todd Purdum, co-host "Big John" Howell asked Morris whether Clinton was starting to "go around the bend." Morris responded by suggesting that Clinton's behavior may be the result of brain damage incurred during his quadruple bypass surgery in 2004. Specifically, he remarked that doctors "always say you come out of that [operation] with less IQ than you went into it."

Take a listen:

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Presumably Morris is picking up on Purdum's recent profile of Clinton in which Dr. Thomas Traill of John's Hopkins University is quoted saying that patients' moods can be altered by open heart surgery. (He compared it to postpartum depression.) But it's quite a far leap from Traill's comments about depression to Morris' completely unfounded suggestion of possible brain damage.

If you want a more nuanced, convincing, and even poignant analysis of Clinton's sometimes emotional outbursts on the campaign trail, check out this recent post by Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall. In a nutshell, Marshall paints Clinton as a once agile campaign operator who is way behind the times and unable to adapt to new media technology and our rapid-response political culture. It's a much better starting place to understanding the former president than Dick Morris' snake-tongued insinuations.

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