MIA or AWOL?

by digby

I’ve mentioned several times over the past few days that the Democrats have no presence on the news networks defending the stimulus plan or their president. And since the Republicans are dominating the debate, their lies and misrepresentations are reverberating through the beltway echo chamber.

Think Progress ran the numbers which show that I’m not hallucinating. This is ridiculous:

On Sunday, conservatives began an all-out assault on President Obama’s economic recovery plan, with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) both announcing that they would vote against the plan as it stood. Despite Obama’s efforts at good faith outreach, congressional conservatives have continued to attack the stimulus plan with a series of false and disingenuous arguments.

The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week:

The Republicans obviously have a media strategy. Why don’t the Democrats?

Update: Barney Frank was on Larry King (hosted by John King)and was effective. Perhaps he could write up some simple talking points for his colleagues.

Update: On a related issue, here’s Dana Milbank trying very, very hard to be as bitchy, shallow and sophomoric as Maureen Dowd. I’m afraid he fails even by those low standards. Dowd actually has a clever way with words, however destructive and mean they may be, and assassinates characaters with her own original cruelty. Milbank is just a sad wallflower, desperately trying to be one of the popular girls but destined to be the object of their derision and the butt of their jokes.

I’ll look forward to Somerby’s thorough takedown of this tired and bizarrely anachronistic column.

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