Another Journal disciple is Fox News kingpin, Bill O’Reilly. O’Reilly referenced the Journal’s story in his talking points memo and concluded that…<\/p>\n
“Evidence shows that MN Secretary of State Mark Ritchie is not honest enough to run a clean election.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nOf course there was no such evidence in the Journal piece or elsewhere. The attack on Ritchie’s honesty was O’Reilly’s own invention and a trademark of his brand of personal assault commentary. But, as usual, he saved his finest vitriol for Franken himself. It’s classic O’Reilly:<\/p>\n
\n- “You don’t get any lower than that man, Franken.”<\/em>
\n– So, Charles Manson would be a step up?<\/li>\n- “That’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in American politics – is this man maybe becoming a senator.”<\/em>
\n– Really? Worse than Joe McCarthy? Or Watergate? Or Monica Lewinski?<\/li>\n- “It’s personal with me. He’s lied about me. He’s slandered me.”<\/em>
\n– Ah…Now we’re getting to the heart of the matter. He’s told the truth about you.<\/li>\n- “The fact that he was even competitive […] depresses me about America.”<\/em>
\n– So it’s America’s fault?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nO’Reilly is fond of hyperbole, so it isn’t surprising that he would blast Franken as the lowest and the worst of whatever delusion in which he is presently immersed. However, he is also fond of bashing what he’d call the “blame America first crowd,”<\/em> so it is a little surprising to see him throw that sucker punch at America – but only a little. It is very much like O’Reilly to be a major league hypocrite. And it is similarly like him to turn against anyone he perceives as opposing his dementia.<\/p>\nO’Reilly has given up on America. They opposed the war in Iraq. They favor universal healthcare. They elected Barack Obama president. And now they have put his nemesis in the United States Senate. So O’Reilly’s message to the nation as Al Franken prepares to take his seat is, “Screw you, America. You make me sad.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a meticulous and prolonged recount, Al Franken has prevailed and will be Minnesota’s new senator. Although the defeated incumbent, Norm Coleman, is still threatening legal action to retain his seat, most observers give him little chance of succeeding. His legal arguments wouldn’t even produce enough votes to alter the outcome if he prevailed on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[152,1,16],"tags":[179,26,33,34],"class_list":["post-1167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","category-wankery","tag-al-franken","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-fox-news","tag-wall-street-journal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-iP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1325,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1325","url_meta":{"origin":1167,"position":0},"title":"A Sad Day For Bill O’Reilly – Courtesy Of Senator Franken","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/6\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"O'Reilly: \"In a sad day for America, Al Franken is now a U.S. Senator.\" It's not sad for the majority of Minnesotans who voted for him, and the millions of Americans who believe in Democracy. O'Reilly: \"Franken is a blatantly dishonest individual, a far-left zealot, who is not qualified to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1234,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1234","url_meta":{"origin":1167,"position":1},"title":"David Letterman And The Goon: Bill O’Reilly","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/1\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The latest installment of the ongoing episodic series, Letterman and the Goon, aired last night, and the madcap misadventures of this odd couple didn't fail to entertain. The program began with David Letterman revealing how the show got it's name when he told Bill O'Reilly that... \"I've always thought of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Free Press"","block_context":{"text":"Free Press","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=14"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1108,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1108","url_meta":{"origin":1167,"position":2},"title":"Not That It Matters: O’Reilly vs Franken","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/28\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night Bill O'Reilly couldn't hold back any longer. He had to let loose on his arch-nemesis, Al Franken, and he did. Not that it matters. I'm just posting this as a bit of comic relief. A far-left extremist, Franken's tenure on the Air America Radio network was punctuated by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1318,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1318","url_meta":{"origin":1167,"position":3},"title":"Al Franken Wins Senate – Fox Nation Throws Tantrum","author":"Mark NC","date":"6\/30\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Minnesota Supreme Court finally handed down its ruling today that Al Franken was the winner in last November's senate election. The court's decision was unanimous with all five justices ruling in Franken's favor: \"...we affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=303","url_meta":{"origin":1167,"position":4},"title":"O’Reilly’s No-Spin Green Zone Holiday Tour","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/17\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"From the official web site of the Multi-National Force - Iraq, comes this nausea inducing press release: Camp Striker dining facility becomes 'No-Spin Zone' \"In a war that has perhaps been even hotter in debates than it is on the streets of Baghdad, the one constant in the media has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":110,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=110","url_meta":{"origin":1167,"position":5},"title":"What Exactly Are They Fighting For?","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/8\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Friends of Wonkette discovered that, while it's OK to fight for freedom, it's not OK to practice it. Here is a list of the responses received when our soldiers attempted to access the following web sites: Wonkette (http:\/\/www.wonkette.com\/) - \"Forbidden, this page is categorized as: Forum\/Bulletin Boards, Politics\/Opinion.\" Bill O'Reilly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}