Ah, how I like the sound of a Repuglican smear-attack dog whining.
Here, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs gives the Republican TV channel FOX News' journalist Sean Hannity a healthy dose of the Republicans' own medicine: When Hannity tries the latest Right-wing guilt-by-association smear on Gibbs, Gibbs counters by attacking Hannity for giving air time to a well-known anti-Semite a few days earlier, driving Hannity into the defense. See or read for yourself:
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SEAN HANNITY: Why would you sit on a board -- would you sit on a board with a guy who bombed the Pentagon [William Ayers] and wasn't sorry about it?
ROBERT GIBBS: He sat on a charitable board and a board that funded by a conservative Republican and a friend of Ronald Reagan.
HANNITY: Was that poor judgment?
GIBBS: That was Walter Annenberg.
HANNITY: I didn't ask you -- was that poor judgment on Obama's part?
GIBBS: I don't think that was poor judgment at all. I think what Barack Obama has done throughout his career is talk about the big issues that are important to him --
HANNITY: All right, you're giving me spin now. I'm asking you --GIBBS: Okay -- let me ask you one question.
HANNITY: All right. You ask me a question.
GIBBS: Okay. Are you anti-Semitic?
HANNITY: Not at all.
GIBBS: Okay. On your show on Sunday --
HANNITY: Uh-huh --
GIBBS: You -- the show that is named after you, right? The show with -- the centerpiece of that show was a guy named Andy Martin -- right?
HANNITY: No -- I know you're reading your talking points regarding --
GIBBS: No, no --
HANNITY: When I interviewed -- hang on one second. Let me answer your question.
GIBBS: No, no. I don't have talking points --
HANNITY: When I interviewed Malik Shabazz; when I interviewed Al Sharpton --
GIBBS: Right.
HANNITY: When I interviewed all of these controversial figures -- you see on Fox, we actually interview people of all points of view, whether we agree or disagree.
GIBBS: So --
HANNITY: I -- the statement you're about to read --
GIBBS: Yeah, Andy Martin --
HANNITY: I -- I totally, completely --
GIBBS: Called a judge a crooked, slimy Jew, who has a history of lying and theiving -- comments (unintelligible) --
HANNITY: Here's my answer to you --
GIBBS: Martin went on to write that he understood better why -- better why the Holocaust took place, given that Jews [sic] survivors are operating as a wolf pack (unintelligible) --
HANNITY: Here's my answer to you. I find those comments despicable. But wait a minute --
GIBBS: You put him on your show!
HANNITY: We put Malik Shabazz on the show --
GIBBS: It's the Hannity -- it's the Hannity show!
HANNITY: I put Khalid Muhammad on my show. I put --
GIBSS: Why am I not to believe that you're anti-Semitic?
HANNITY: Let me -- here's the answer --
GIBBS: Why am I not to believe that everyone who works for the network is anti-Semitic --
HANNITY: Here's the -- here's the --
GIBBS: Because Sean Hannity gave a platform to a man who thinks -- who thinks Jews are slimy?
HANNITY: Mr. Gibbs -- Mr. Gibbs -- Mr. Gibbs -- I's a journalist who interviews people that I disagree with all of the time, that give their opinion. Fox has all points of view. We're allowing you on the program, and I do not agree with hardly anything that Obama says.
GIBBS: (Laughs) Well --
HANNITY: So let me answer -- no, no, no --
GIBBS: How can you give a platform to virulent anti-Semites --
HANNITY: Here's -- I will tell you this --
GIBBS: who can't even get a law license in Illinois?
HANNITY: That I -- I'll make a deal with you. If Barack Obama admits that what he did by sitting on a board with -- giving speeches with -- having Ayers -- going over to Ayers' house --
GIBBS: You'll admit you're anti-Semitic?
HANNITY: No, no. I'll admit to you that -- I will tell you that Barack Obama wants to be president. It's poor judgment. It is irresponsible --
GIBBS: (Laughs) Well --
HANNITY: And it's reckless to -- no, let me finish -- to be friends with a guy that bombed our Pentagon, was at war with our country, whose motto was to kill our children and kill your parents.
GIBBS: Well, I think it's deplorable that you had some on TV that's anti-Semitic --
HANNITY: And it's deplorable that your candidate for president has not been honest with the American people.
GIBBS: That calls Jews slimy, and understands the Holocaust better because of the way he views --
HANNITY: I'm explaining --
COLMES: (unintelligible) We have a short time here --
HANNITY: Let me finish first. Let me finish (to Alan Colmes). I'm explaining to you --
GIBBS: I can't believe you would give a platform --
HANNITY: So you do not want to want me to interview anybody I agree, dis[agree] -- I can only -- I can only interview people you disagree with?
GIBBS: You put the whole show around him, Sean!
HANNITY: Barack Obama --
GIBBS: You had to believe only that you agree with each and everything that Andy Martin says.
HANNITY: Listen -- Barack Obama, the president [sic] sat in the pew of Jeremiah Wright for 20 years, a guy who hates America.
GIBBS: I think -- I think you're changing the subject -- will you do me a favor?
HANNITY: Barack Obama -- Barack Obama is friends with William [sic] Pfleger --
GIBBS: Will you do me a favor?
HANNITY: I have one last question.
(Crosstalk)
HANNITY: Did Barack Obama ever sit and meet with Louis Farrakhan? Has he ever met with Louis Farrakhan?
GIBBS: I don't -- I don't know the answer to that.
HANNITY: Will you give us an answer by tomorrow?
GIBBS: Will you get back to me on whether you're anti-Semitic?
HANNITY: Ah, I'm not anti-Semitic. I am the biggest supporter of Israel.
COLMES: (unintelligible)
HANNITY: Benjamin Netanyahu blurbed my book.
GIBBS: Let me tell you -- I don't think -- I don't think your Jewish viewers are going to take it very well when you had someone like that on your show.
HANNITY: Excuse me. Excuse me. I am the biggest supporter of Israel --
GIBBS: I think it's bad that you gave him a platform.
HANNITY: And I've got a 30 year history of -- on the record of it.
GIBBS: Well, ask them and their friends about what Andy Martin said. You used that guest --
HANNITY: And listen -- I am not friends with a guy that bombed the Pentagon. I'm not friends with a guy that bombed the Capitol --
GIBBS: Here, you take this (hands Hannity a card) -- take that.
COLMES: Well, let me jump in for a second, Robert.
HANNITY: Your candidate is friends with him, not me.
GIBBS: You're friends with someone who is a virulent anti-Semite. Ask someone -- ask Benjamin Netanyahu about that!
HANNITY: Your candidate is friends with a terrorist!
GIBBS: That's not true.
COLMES: Hey guys --
HANNITY: He sits on a board with a terrorist.
COLMES: Guys, stop it. First of all, he's not anti-Semitic.
HANNITY: Thank you very much.
GIBBS: Well, well --
COLMES: This game of guilt by association I disagree with, on all fronts. I will defend Sean against anti-Semitism, he's not anti-Semitic. But I also deplore this game of guilt by association.
GIBBS: Sure!
COLMES: The people who've sat on this board were also republicans; on one of these boards there was the former president of North-Western University; Walter Annenberg was a Reagan ambassador who gave his money --
GIBBS: Friend of Ronald Reagan --
COLMES: So this game of guilt by association is ridiculous!
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