joe watkins can still blow me

back in april, i made this suggestion regarding political talker joe watkins. just to be clear: the offer still stands.

watkins is again on msnbc this afternoon, fumbling and bumbling and not answering david shuster's questions about mccain's flub last night (in milwaukee) saying that "we've drawn down to pre-surge levels" in iraq (pre-surge would be less that 130,000 soldiers -- by august the number is expected to be 140,000, i.e. we have not drawn down to pre-surge levels, nor will we by august.)

when asked directly about this, watkins begins bloviating about how obama hasn't been to iraq. moments later, when asked about it again, watkins bloviates about mccain's service to this country in vietnam. he never once answered the question.

dear joe: this might work when you're standing in front of your 85 parishioners in philadelphia, but when millions are watching, there's at least a few of us who know you're full of crap.

joe watkins can blow me

joe watkins (pastor of the christ evangelical lutheran church in philadelphia; a key non-lawyer member of the government relations practice at buchanan ingersoll, a major national law firm; former associate director in the office of public liaison at the white house under president george h. w. bush; former assistant state director for u.s. senator dan quayle) is on msnbc blathering on and on about rev. jeremiah wright, and how wright shouldn't be giving news conferences -- this is hurting barack obama -- wright is at the least divisive and at the worst offensive -- if i'm a white working class voter and i see this guy on t.v. i will never...

woah, hold on.

first of all, joe, you're NOT a white, working class voter. you don't really know what it's like to be one, just like i will never know what it's like to be at the same time pastor of an african american church AND a republican strategist. i'm not sure how you have time to be a pastor, joe, since you're constantly on television in your republican strategist role. you criticize jeremiah wright for his politics, saying a pastor's job is to preach the gospel of jesus christ, but that's not what are you doing on television. what do your parishioners think about that? maybe we should ask them. all 85 of them. (about as many people read this blog on a regular basis.)

joe, whatever you think of rev. wright and his past sermons (or the endless youtube clips of them) he's on television speaking to bill moyers, addressing the detroit NAACP, and giving a "news conference" this morning because people like you can't stop talking about him. if you were talking about me that much I'D BE GIVING A NEWS CONFERENCE. why don't you tell msnbc that we should be talking about the poor, or talking about health care, or talking about war...oh wait. you're perfectly happy to talk about this because you're a republican.

here's my two cents: if the voters actually listen to wright's speech at the NAACP and at the national press club conference this morning they might find they actually AGREE with much of what he has to say. and in the end (i'm gonna go out on a limb here) i bet that his speaking out is actually gonna HELP obama. why? all the pundits on cable news (including blowhard watkins) are sniping about how wright's re-appearance is absolutely going to hurt him. and we all know how right those pundits always are.

(btw - thanks to my friend jeff for the post title)