Politico.com:

The boycott of MSNBC might have ended, but RNC Chairman Reince Priebus says  the network is still on “probation.”

“In their professed world of tolerance, they’re sure hitting on all eight  cylinders of intolerance,” Priebus said Thursday of MSNBC while on Fox News’s  “Hannity.”

Following a tweet by MSNBC’s account late Wednesday suggesting the  Republican party hates interracial marriages, Priebus sent a letter Thursday to  MSNBC president Phil Griffin saying all staff members and surrogates would not appear on the network until there was an apology.

Griffin apologized Thursday calling the tweet “outrageous and  unacceptable,” to which the RNC accepted. Priebus called it a “first step” and  said he will continue to stand up for his party.

“Now we have to stay on top of it. So you know what? It’s sort of like being  on probation I guess. But the fact of the matter is, we’re here, we’re watching  them,” Priebus said.

Priebus praised Griffin, who he said acted “pretty quickly.” He noted that he  did not speak to Griffin before Thursday.

During the segment, Hannity played a number of clips from MSNBC programs,  including former host Martin Bashir attacking Sarah Palin.

I guess I didn’t know that MSNBC was on probation.  What does that mean?    I have been trying to figure out what Reince Priebus is talking about for 3 days.  Did Griffin make an unacceptable remark personally?   Didn’t think so.  Do Republicans hate inter-racial marriage?  That’s a real broadbrush for sure.

Do some Republicans hate inter-racial marriage?  Probably some do.  Moving on, Priebus is a whiner.  I get it now.  I listen to nasty things said about non-republicans daily on his favorite channel, Fox News.  Here’s a novel idea.  Both parties probably need to clean it up.   That’s  just not going to happen.

Sean Hannity is perhaps the biggest hypocrite in the world. No one on TV is any nastier than he is.  He just needs to SDASTFU.

Martin Bashir is gone.  I believe he was fired or forced to resign.  Why is he still a hot topic?  He was vulgar.  I don’t mind that he cut on Sarah Palin.  I mind that he grossed me out.

This story really has struggled to come to life.  Now it has been born, it is ready to gasp its last breath and go to that great boneyard in the sky, where all stories that amount to nothing go.

 

13 Thoughts to “Is Phil Griffin a wimp?”

  1. Scout

    I really don’t understand this one. The tweet (like virtually all tweets) was vacuous, but said nothing about the Republican Party or Priebus. Why did he take such strong exception to it?By reacting the way he did, it almost seems as if HE identifies the Republican Party with the “right wing” and that there might be some substance to the observation in the tweet. This says a lot more about Priebus and Republican loss of identity than it does anything else.

  2. Wolverine

    Looked to me to be pretty smart plays by both guys. Priebus, having much trouble with his right flank, saw an opportunity to be seen coming to their defense and achieved that. Griffin, for his part, still has residue from the Bashir, Baldwin, and other incidents and obviously saw a need to stop this one cold and put it in the history books, out of sight and eventually forgotten. Played tactically well by both, in my opinion.

    1. Maybe I have been preoccupied but I just don’t see it as much of a story. The news was somewhat slow…and I have been somewhat lazy…so I guess it shows.

      I am going to let you have the final word on it, Wolve. I don’t have any fight in me over it.

  3. Scout

    Perhaps, on a superficial level, Wolve. But doesn’t Priebus have to acquiesce in a possible intimation of the tweet that the “right wing” is the equivalent of the Republican Party?

  4. Wolverine

    I would say that Priebus is acknowledging that his right flank is still very much an important cog of the GOP and a cog with which he has to treat very diplomatically lest he turn away their money, active participation, and votes at election time. Looked like an easy call to me. MSNBC, a generally recognized liberal foe. A tweet which plays a silly race card against the right flank. Priebus steps in and scolds MSNBC, adding a plausible threat. The right flank sees and appreciates it. Griffin ends it quickly for his own reasons. Priebus collects an easy and very visible marker for himself and the committee. Smart, I would opine, especially with many on the right flank not very happy right now with the House GOP leadership over this or that issue.

  5. George S. Harris

    I’m glad I don’t watch this stuff. Saves me a lot of time by not having to fret about junk that doesn’t amount to a hill of very small beans.

    1. I was pretty desperate for coverage that wasn’t about Christie, the Olympics or the ill fated handling of 2 inches of snow. I never could see the horror in the story. The Cheerios commercial is cute and I know all sorts of people don’t like it and why. Why I was a kid, couples also all had twin bed and there were no commericials for feminine products, much less anything else ‘personal.’ Now we are subjected to commercials about personal lubricants, condoms, pills for erection dysfunction, and formulas for not just ED but ED on steroids….low testosterone. We even have to watch it being applied. Then there are commercials for adult diapers and even different problem that can go wrong with one’s prostate.

      Maybe the good old days weren’t so bad, afterall.

  6. Wolverine

    Who frets? Ask a question. Get an opinion back. Moon is right. The news has slowed down quite a bit. So have the blogs. It’s sort of like an old sailing ship in the mid-Atlantic horse latitudes. Almost reduced to reading about the Grammy awards. I said: “Almost.”

    1. You are right, Wolverine. I have been struggling just to get something up. Maybe it is post election, post Christmas or something.

      Almost, I hope I don’t have to stoop that low.

      What’s to say about the Super Bowl before it is played. BTW, I LOVED the bull commercial and hated the Bruno act. He is like Michael Jackson reincarnated. Now there are dancing AH’s on, without shirts.

      Does everyone have a tattoo? Why must *I* have to see it?

  7. Scout

    love the analogy to the horse latitudes, Wolve. Nicely done.

    1. What are horse lattitudes?

  8. Wolverine

    A place in the middle of the Atlantic north of the Equator where the winds are capricious and often left the old sailing ships becalmed in mid-ocean for periods longer than they would have liked. One of the most common sea stories is that the Spanish used to ship horses to the New World via that route. If their ships were becalmed, they could wind up with insufficent food and water for the horses and had to throw the dead or dying steeds overboard. Hence the “horse latitudes.” That’s only one story. There is another about a traditional ceremony the Spanish sailors held in mid-ocean using a “horse” made of straw. Anyway, in the horse latitudes things sometimes got very slooooooow.

  9. George S. Harris

    The straw horse part may come from a time when sailors could draw an advance on their pay, which was called a, “dead horse.” If they were sailing on long voyages, say from Europe to South America or such, the “dead horse” would get paid off in maybe a month and to celebrate they would make a horse of straw and throw it away or burn it.

    As to the Super Bowl half time show–apparently many who scribble on this blog, including this olde phart, our ship has sailed because the younger set were just raving about what a great show Bruno and the Red Hot Chili Peppers put on. I thought it and most of the commercials were terrible and to think advertisers paid about $1 million for a 30 second spot. I rarely ever watch sports, football or anything else, but the Super Bowl is always on my “to do” list. I felt sorry for Payton Manning–he seemed to keep looking around as if saying, “WTF happened?” And what was all the hype about Sherman? He didn’t do squat and finally got hurt and was forced to leave the game.

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