John Kerry Had Lunch With Bashar al-Assad In 2009, Now Compares Him To 'Hitler'

Remember all the noise the liberal press made about former President George W. Bush holding hands with Prince Abdullah of Saudia Arabia? Well, as current Sec. of State and noted former failed presidential candidate and leftwing senator John Kerry goes around making the case for bombing Syria, let's see how much noise the liberal press makes about this sudden revelation:

An astonishing photograph of John Kerry having a cozy and intimate dinner with Bashar al-Assad has emerged at the moment the U.S Secretary of State is making the case to bomb the Syrian dictator's country and remove him from power.

Kerry, who compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein yesterday, is pictured around a small table with his wife Teresa Heinz and the Assads in 2009.

Assad and Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator, lean in towards each other and appear deep in conversation as their spouses look on. 

A waiter is pictured at their side with a tray of green drinks, believed to be lemon and crushed mint.

The picture was likely taken in February 2009 in the Naranj restaurant in Damascus, when Kerry led a delegation to Syria to discuss finding a way forward for peace in the region.

While President Barack Obama has softened his military threat against Syria by putting the question to Congress and guaranteeing at least a week's delay, Kerry remains outspoken about the dangers posed by the Syrian regime.

He said that Assad 'has now joined the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein' in deploying chemical weapons against his own people.

Kerry said Sunday that the U.S. now has evidence that sarin nerve gas was used in Syria and that 'the case gets stronger by the day' for a military attack.

RELATED: Video: John Kerry’s not good, very bad day with Chris Wallace

Chris Wallace Calls Out Brian Williams For ‘Biased’ Death Penalty Question At Debate

Mediaite.com:

Chris Wallace appeared on Friday’s Fox and Friends and assailed NBC’s Brian Williams over his question to Rick Perry about whether he ever struggled to sleep at night over the potential innocence of one of his many executed inmates, calling it an example of a “liberal bias.”


“Would you ask a liberal politician about sleeping at night if they favored abortion or choice? ” Wallace argued. “It is so built into the drinking water, if you will, in some of these liberal outlets that they don’t even understand it happens.”


Anchor Steve Doocy set up the question with a critique by conservative media critic Bernie Goldberg who said that Williams shouldn’t have asked the question, which Wallace agreed with “100%”.


“There were a bunch of questions that I thought that there was a left-wing bias,” Wallace opined. “That’s the only way you can describe it.”


“If you watch that debate, it’s just a different set of questions than they would’ve asked Democratic candidates…I just think there is a bias against conservatives in the mainstream media. I absolutely agree with Bernie Goldberg.”

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Chris Wallace: Why Is It Legal To Shoot Unarmed Bin Laden In The Face, Yet We Cannot Waterboard?

Great question and again proves why FOX remains, by far, No. 1:

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon a rather interesting question related to the capture and shooting death of terrorist leader Osama din Laden: Why is it legal and “proper” to shoot an unarmed man in the face, while enhanced interrogation methods, such as waterboarding, are deemed improper? You might recall, in fact, that waterboarding was banned by President Barack Obama back in January of 2009.


Donilon initially responded by driving home the danger posed by bin Laden, and the power he yielded within Al Qaeda, prompting Wallace to interrupt him and clarify that he wasn’t looking for justification as to why bin Laden was shot down by U.S. troops but, rather, a reason why doing so is permissible when using often dangerous, but not necessarily lethal, methods of interrogation in order to bring such a dangerous man to justice are not.


Donilon said such methods are not only unnecessary, but are also consistent with America’s values. Wallace didn’t miss a beat, immediately asking whether shooting an armed man in the face is consistent with those same values. Well, Donilion pointed out, we are at war.

Chris Wallace To Newt Gingrich: If You Live In A Glass House Maybe You Shouldn’t Throw Stones?

Gee, for a network that's supposedly nothing but an arm for the GOP, here we find another Republican getting grilled on FOX. Again, it's why they're consistently No. 1. Of course, since Bill Clinton wasn't impeached for cheating on his wife, but for lying under oath, Newt did a pretty good job here:

In addition to being frustrated with the White House, Chris Wallace interviewed likely Republican candidate for President Newt Gingrich and showed no mercy. Suggesting the excuse that Gingrich previously provided for his marital problems was “kinda lame,” Wallace asked, “you love your country and you’re working hard and so you strayed. That wouldn’t work with my wife?”


Gingrich recovers somewhat smoothly, saying that he hopes voters will realize he has matured and that instead they focus on who best could solve America’s problems. Yet Wallace persists, wondering how it could not have been hypocrisy for Gingrich to lead the charge for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, when he himself was having an affair at the same time? With the interview growing more tense by the moment, Gingrich insists his actions were not hypocritical since Clinton perjured himself in federal court, and that no leader should be above the law.


Wallace, not yet satisfied with the answer, concludes by questioning Gingrich “man to man” about whether he ever stopped to think “I’m living in a really glass house, maybe I shouldn’t be throwing stones?” Yet Gingrich thinks, regardless of what material his house is made of, if he didn’t call for Clinton’s impeachment, then he should have resigned for not being able to do his job properly. Gingrich argues that he is not perfect, but that one doesn’t need to be perfect to be a good leader and that he is willing to take a “tough beating” from Wallace and others in order for the potential opportunity to be a leader again.

Bill O'Reilly Strikes Back At Sarah Palin: ‘Interviewers Who Want Answers Must Interrupt’

Glad O'Reilly finally decided to get back at Palin on what was clearly a diss last time he tried to interview her. Not that the woman will see this as constructive criticism, more reason to see what happens if Palin ever comes back on "The O'Reilly Factor":

Bill O’Reilly has what one would, generously, call a combative interviewing style. He gets straight to the point and refuses to waste time on answers that don’t directly refer to his question. And he owns this with pride, calling out the “left wing loons” on Friday that criticized him for interrupting President Obama during his Superbowl interview, and expressing frustration at how hard it is to get Sarah Palin to give a straight answer.


“TV interviewers who want answers must– must– interrupt their guests,” O’Reilly argued, welcoming guest and fellow interviewer Chris Wallace to talk about their interview style. But before giving Wallace the word, O’Reilly took a moment or two to address the art of conversing with Sarah Palin. “I don’t want to have to interrupt Sarah Palin or Barack Obama or anything. I asked Sarah Palin a direct question,” he noted. “She didn’t answer.” Not only did she not answer, O’Reilly continued, “the governor wanted to give a speech she has given literally fifty times before.”


With that off his chest, Wallace got his turn, agreeing that the dynamic with a political interviewee is often that “they view your question as a departure to the answer” they have been trained to give. When they are forced to leave their talking points, he continued, it makes for a far more fascinating interview. On this point, both Wallace and O’Reilly agreed, though Wallace believed there was a serious political element to how the audience reacts to an interview. “If you’re interrupting someone they don’t like,” he posited, “they’re all for it. If you’re interrupting someone they like, they get ticked off at you.” O’Reilly seemed skeptical that it was so purely political though, and reiterated that he didn’t “want my time wasted on propaganda.”

Chris Wallace Takes On Westboro Baptist Church Member

While I agree with SCOTUS's decision to protect their rights to free speech, these people really are sick:

Mediaite.com:

As a result of the recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church and their recognized First Amendment right to stage anti-gay protests near military funerals, Chris Wallace interviewed Margie Phelps, the church’s attorney and daughter of founder Rev. Fred Phelps. Although happy with the Court’s decision, Phelps still thought it likely that the nine Supreme Court Justices were going to hell, and was confident that President Obama would be going there as well.

Phelps rattled off one crazy statement after another, including that American soldiers are worse than Al Qaeda terrorists and that “the president is going to be king of the world before this is all said and done, and he is most likely the beast spoken of in the Revelation.” Wallace’s technique of just asking questions rather than demonstrating any anger was actually effective in allowing viewers to develop their own increasing outrage at Phleps’ responses. Phelps repeatedly concluded that any positive event was “God’s will,” while events she viewed less favorably were a “curse.” Therefore, it’s hard to conclude, from her perspective, how she would categorize her portrayal in this interview.

Chris Wallace Drills Speaker Boehner for Crying, Smoking

Despite what some far-Right pundits might think, Wallace wasn't being "mean" at all. As Bill O'Reilly noted the other day (and Wallace here), when some of Boehner's own backers are questioning his crying so much it's not a partisan question. Bottom line if it's on most Americans minds, it's the responsibility of a good journalist to ask about it.

Rod Blagojevich Gets Grilled On Fox News Sunday: Not Ruling A ‘Political Comeback’ Out

Mediaite.com:

Disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevitch made his Sunday morning debut today following this week’s mistrial in Chicago…and boy he did not disappoint. An irritated-sounding Chris Wallace started the interview by revealing that at the last minute Blago had skipped a scheduled trip to D.C., presumably to appear on the show in person, so he could attend the Comic-Con convention and “pose with superheroes.” Priceless.


Actually, Blago apparently did put a price on himself: $50 for a photograph and $80 for a photo. Said Wallace: “Is there anything you won’t do for a buck these days?”



Said Blago in response: “Well I didn’t really get any money for any of the photos I took because I probably took hundreds of them an couldn’t be bothered to ask everyone for money.” Also, he wanted to get out among the people.
The interview was a longish one and not lacking for Blago soundbites, nor do I think it was necessarily a bad decision for Blago to remain in Illinois since there were a few moments when Chris Wallace looked like his might like to throttle him. The main takeaway, however, appears to be that politics has not seen the last of Blago! Something he reiterated this morning:

“[I]f you’re asking me, do I believe there is a potential political comeback in the future? When I’m vindicated in this case, absolutely I do. Because people will see that I was willing all by myself almost … to fight the power of the federal government and correct this imbalance. There is something very dangerous in America today where you can have prosecutors with that power…I’m not ruling myself out as coming back, because I will be vindicated in this case. I’m significantly closer to vindication than I ever was.”

He seems to have no problem with being the butt of the joke, but he can do some real damage to democrats come the Fall.

Howard Dean Admits He Doesn't Care About Facts, Smears FOX News As "Racist"

HotAir.com:

Via Mediaite. Sure, it’s technically true that Fox didn’t air Breitbart’s Sherrod video until after she’d resigned, but Dean-o’s after Larger Truths here. A mystery: If he’s intent on pushing this line in order to score a few points on the enemy in the last few hours of this week’s Sherrod news cycle, why on earth would he do it on Fox? CNN would have let him get away with it and MSNBC would have cheered him on. Instead, by trying it on Wallace, he walks into a rhetorical doorknob.

Another question per his insistence that what Fox did with the tape was “absolutely racist”: Is Dean suggesting that O’Reilly and Hannity wouldn’t have aired an embarrassing excerpt from a speech delivered by a white liberal? I recall Glenn Beck having a field day with that clip of the very white Anita Dunn talking about Mao. The liberal line on Fox, I thought, is that they’ll use any weapon to hand to attack the left and Obama, not just lefty minorities. This one’s more effective, I guess, however true or untrue it may be.

Chris Wallace Wants To Know Why GOP Supports Bush Tax Cuts But Not Unemployment Benefits

Mediaite.com:

On Fox News Sunday yesterday Chris Wallace demonstrated once again that is not willing to jump on board the Republican talking points wagon all willy nilly. Wallace pressed Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) yesterday on why the GOP seems so adamant about keeping President Obama from extending unemployment benefits without being able to pay for it first, but they want to extend the Bush tax cuts for free, as it were.

Pence essentially side-stepped the issue eventually saying, after Wallace wouldn’t let the topic slide, that the tax cuts encourage people to spend and therefore are good for the economy.

It's times like this, when we see Republicans showing blatant hypocrisy on key issues, that the "Party of No" label takes on some credibility.

RELATED: Obama Calls For Extension Of Jobless Benefits, Criticizes Republicans

Chris Wallace Calls Obama Administration "A Bunch Of Crybabies"

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