Well, It's a Beginning

Two related stories this morning, that I hope point to a trend. First, via C&L, John Kerry ripping Mitch McConnell a new one:

I would say to my friend from Kentucky: Just because you say it, doesn’t make it true. Our friends on the other side of the aisle have a habit of repeating things that have been completely refuted by every fact there is. … The facts are that this treaty is not being rushed.

This treaty has been delayed at the request of Republicans. It was delayed 13 times… to have more time to deal with the modernization issue, which the administration has completely, totally, thoroughly dealt with in good faith. I’d like to know where the good faith comes from on the other side. They [the administration] put extra money in, they sat and negotiated, they sent people to Arizona to brief Senator Kyl personally. For weeks we delayed the process of moving forward on this treaty in order accommodate our friends on the other side of the aisle. And now fully accommodated, with their requests entirely met, they come back and say ‘oh its being rushed.’ Well Mr. President today marks our sixth day of debate on the New START treaty. That’s a fact. … I mean is there no shame.

I was debating whether to include this video, but it's a good speech. It's a really good speech:



And, from TPM, Fox News's Shep Smith naming names:

"We called a lot of Republicans today who are in office at the moment," he said Monday afternoon. "These are the ones who told us 'no': Senators Alexander, Barrasso, Cornyn, Crapo, DeMint, Enzi, Grassley, Kyl, McConnell, Sessions, Baucus, Gregg, and Inhofe. No response from Bunning, Coburn, Ensign, Graham, Hatch, and McCain."

"Why does no one want to talk about this?" Smith asked.

These are just two late examples of something that I've been seeing more and more of lately -- here's another from Fox News -- well, the local affiliate:

AFTAH's website currently hosts content denouncing gays in the military, gay marriage and civil unions, and gay parenting. It suggests that there are links between homosexuality and pedophilia, and even presents an argument that gay airport security screeners be banned from frisking passengers of the same sex, complete with a fake, photo-shopped image of gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) "patting down" a would-be traveler.

SPLC's Potok said such messages are "false, demonizing propaganda."

It's a good report -- and LaBarbera sounds like a real snake-oil salesman.

Let's hope it's a trend.