See Ya, Dick

Well when you're wrong, you're wrong. And not only was Dick Morris (way) wrong about the 2012 Presidential election, I was wrong about how he had nothing to lose by being a pandering assclown.

My blogpost on October 31, 2012, titled Horserace Handicappers: Double Standard Edition misread the election prediction business. Not completely, I was right that Nate Silver's reputation was on the line and that his models were based on science and almost certainly correct. But I also said that Dick Morris had nothing to lose by forecasting a Romney landslide, that he'd be back at the same racket.

Lo and behold there were consequences, Dick Morris was exiled from Fox News shortly after the election. Even the author of Here Come The Black Helicopters was too outlandish for the demographic.

Last night's video montage of Morris's greatest hits on The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell diminishes the significance of the move by FNC. With the ousting of Morris and Sarah Palin, Fox will be looking (theoretically) for a more moderate approach.

Lets look who's out there:

Even though Scott Brown is kind of a dolt, he has some appeal and isn't off the rails. His popularity is reasonably high, especially higher than if he were to lose a special election this spring.

I think the cable news outlets should be in a bidding war for Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian candidate for President. His views are conservative and small-government enough to reflect the will of the audience, or to offer contrast. Yet, he still will go off the party line on a number of issues. He's got a mind of his own, which makes for good TV.

Then there's Chris Christie. Maybe his ambition hasn't allowed him to step aside to be a 7-figure talking head, but it's clear he can opine in any forum. It would be easy for him to step aside as Governor of NJ (think something innocuous like "health reasons"). He is capable of throwing bombs at either party if that's what Fox is now going for.

But let's not forget that Morris's second career begins this evening on Piers Morgan Tonight, when the Columbia grad and former Clinton advisor becomes the most refined guest on that show since every gun nut came out of the woodwork after Newtown.

Let's see if Morris tries a new approach, or continues to spout senselessness. I'm sure there's a contract waiting for him somewhere.

The Right To Colbert Arms

I try not to post about The Colbert Report too often because practically every single episode is worthy of a page-long retweet. But the episode from Monday January 14 is one for the time capsule.

At Eleven Dark Thirty, Colbert emerged from his bunker to take up the case of every right wing survivalist and gun nut out there with Stephen Colbert's Double Barrel Blam-O-Rama.

He of course sung the songs of the persecuted and their guns: Alex Jones, Larry Ward, Ted Nugent, and viral You Tube sensation James Yeager.

"I'm not gonna let anyone take my guns. If it goes one inch further, I'm gonna start killing people."

Colbert obviously surmised "Now why would you want to take this guy's guns?" and showed Yeager's contrite follow-up from the next day.

"I probably let my mouth overrun my logic. But I don't retract any or my statements...I don't condone any kind of felonies up to aggravated assaults or murders. Unless it's necessary."

Colbert says you can't blame the guns themselves, the civil rights victims of our time. And it's not just a coincidence that most of them are black. Or that Gun Appreciation Day falls within the same weekend as Martin Luther King Day. And after all, Ted Nugent compared gun-owners to Rosa Parks.

The interview appropriately enough was Piers Morgan, who has become a lightning rod for the fringe. Colbert pressed Morgan on Britain's draconian gun policies, and repeatedly handed him pocket-sized copies of the Constitution. The right to have guns is to keep the government from taking our guns.

It was a classic episode of what the show is all about. And whether we have armed insurrection, a military police state, nuclear winter, or a zombie apocalypse, this 30-minute block will survive in my DVR.