Democratic Dissidents

Campbell Brown and Kirsten Powers take on the leftist establishment

Democrats are known for many things, but chief among them is the relentless determination to maintain a rigid progressive orthodoxy within their ranks. Bucking that orthodoxy requires character and conviction because those who do can expect a certain level of contempt directed their way from their oh-so-tolerant brethren. Campbell Brown and Kirsten Powers are two women who have demonstrated a willingness to take positions decidedly at odds with the progressive establishment.

Brown’s Democratic roots can be traced back to her father, Louisiana Democratic State Senator and Secretary of State James H. Brown Jr. Although James Brown is Presbyterian, Campbell was raised as a Roman Catholic, which she remained until converting to Judaism following hermarriage to Republican strategist and Fox News analyst, Dan Senor.

Brown worked her way up through the ranks of television reporting, winning an Emmy award for her reporting on Hurricane Katrina while working at NBC. She followed an 11 year career at that network with a stint at CNN. She began in 2008 as an anchor for CNN’s “Election Center,” renamed “Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull” and ultimately “Campbell Brown.” 

During the 2008 election cycle, she engaged in a controversial interview with John McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, questioning Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin’s executive bona fides. That interview earned her accusations of bias from the McCain campaign, who accused her of going “over the line.” In 2010 CNN released her from her contract due to low ratings.

Brown moved on to writing opinion pieces that indicated such bias was a figment of John McCain’s imagination. In 2012 she penned two pieces for the New York Times. In one, she insisted a “paternalistic” Barack Obama should stop “condescending to women.” In the other she criticizedPlanned Parenthood’s self-destructive strategy of embracing “blind partisanship” that was costing the organization supporters. In 2013 she urged Daily Beast readers to keep the shooting in Newton, CT off the “culture war battlefield. Yet it was a piece for the Wall Street Journal that same year indicating where she was going with her post-TV career: Brown began challenging the left’s cherished nexus between the Democratic Party and the unionized education establishment, taking the New York City teachers unions to task for protecting sexual predators.

Via: Canada Free Press

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[VIDEO] Kirsten Powers: The Left's War On Fox Women

One of the worst aspects of the illiberal left is its heinous sexism against women with whom they disagree.

Megyn Kelly, a former lawyer, is a serious and highly successful television journalist. When her contract was up for renewal in 2013, the New York Timesreported that both CNN and NBC wanted to hire her away from Fox, a strange thing to desire if Fox News is not a “legitimate” news outlet.

But to the illiberal left, Megyn Kelly is not a reporter or a commentator or a woman to be respected for her achievements. She is a Fox “babe” to be characterized by her looks.

The Huffington Post linked to a New York Times story about Kelly adding the headline, “Megyn Kelly, ‘Attractive-Looking Blond’ Anchorwoman, Leads the Pack at Fox News,” twisting a flattering quote from the story to make it seem as if the only positive attribute she possessed were her looks.

Via: Fox News

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Kirsten Powers: I'm Tired of 'Having to Defend This President' and ObamaCare

KIRSTEN POWERS: Well, I think his explanation is probably the true explanation, that they need to do this, but at the same time, it's now gotten to the point where it seems like there's an exemption made for pretty much everybody except for individuals. A lot of people who have really been screwed over by the law, you know, who are left without insurance or with extremely expensive insurance. So, I think that Ron Fournier of The National Journal wrote something that ran today about --

BRET BAIER: This was after he expressed himself last night on the panel.

POWERS: The headline is why I'm getting tired of defending Obamacare. And I'm going to say amen, brother, because it's exactly how I feel. People who have supported the law, who support universal health care, are constantly put in the position of having to defend this president, who has really incompetently put this together, rolled it out, and that's why he has to do this. It's why he has to keep doing this, because it's not working.

Via: Fox News

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Kirsten Powers to Fox Panel: Dems Already Conceded on Budget, So ‘What’s the Negotiation?’

Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers and guest Tony Sayegh sparred over the past and future of the debt ceiling on Fox News Monday morning, with Sayegh and host Martha MacCallum arguing that the threat of default was the perfect spur for President Barack Obama and Congress to negotiate new spending practices, and Powers arguing that budget concessions had already been made and that the Republicans were negotiating in bad faith.

“Democrats have agreed to stay at sequestraition levels, which is something that was not popular,” Powers said. “This is not the budget they want, and this is not popular in the Democratic caucus. It’s something Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had to bring them around to agree to. So I wouldn’t say there aren’t any concessions going on. In terms of the negotiations, I think the president will end up negotiating over the debt ceiling. I think what he’s trying to stop is this brinksmanship of every time the debt debate comes up, it feels like the government is being held hostage.”

“But if you don’t have that discussion,” MacCallum said, “then you’re going 17, 18, 19, 20 where’s the end of the trillion dollars of debt? When this question comes up, it’s an important time to think about how much you’re spending, is it not?”

“The idea that there’s some middle ground the Republicans are trying to reach, there’s some negotiation that they’ve offering up—I haven’t seen it,” Powers replied. “What’s the negotiation? Even over the government shutdown: the big negotiation is, ‘We’re going to defund ObamaCare.’ That’s not a negotiation.”

“The president’s position not to negotiation is indefensible,” Sayegh said. “There’s one thing both side agree on. Default would be devastating. So let’s take it off the table. The president gets enough revenue into the federal treasury to pay our interest payment. That is the only way you default, is by not paying that. Which is why you had Republicans after the 2011 debt ceiling showdown pass the Full Faith and Credit Act in the House, that mandates the president pay that payment, and allows the executive branch to prioritize other payments. Democrats refused to take it up in the Senate, and the president even threatened a veto if it passed Congress.”

“If that’s true, why did Ronald Reagan say there was a prospect of default if they didn’t raise the debt ceiling?” Powers responded.

“Ronald Reagan negotiated, Kirsten,” Sayegh said. “We agree that default is disruptive and should not be on the table. The reality is the debt problems are much more long term. These are structural problems with our entitlements and other spending programs we have in this country, that’s driving our debt and deficit. Those are going to take some time to hammer out, which is why in 2011 you saw the two sides try to do a grand bargain. The president won. He got his way on the fiscal cliff, he got his way on sequestration. This time the can can’t be kicked down any further. John Boehner (R-OH) has said if we are going to solve this problem, let’s do it comprehensively, let’s at least get both people at the table, talking. The president refused to do so.”

Watch the full clip below, via Fox News:

Via: Mediate.com

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