A funny thing happened on the way home Friday. I left early and tuned in to hear Sean Hannity interview Mike Huckabee. The interview dealt with Huckabee’s role in the parole of Wayne Dumond, a convicted rapist. It seemed odd that Huckabee would attempt to defend his role on Hannity’s show, given that Hannity is pushing Rudy Giuliani’s candidacy very strongly.
Sure enough, it was nothing more than a Hannity setup, a blatant attempt to stop Huckabee’s momentum. Perhaps it works, perhaps it doesn’t but that wasn’t the real story. The real story, at least for me, came when a female caller came on the air.
She proceeded to rip Huckabee, saying he never met a tax he didn’t like, that he was “soft” on illegals and criminals and had no foreign policy experience, i.e., the usual distortions. Hannity was eating it up, telling her that he had serious questions in his mind about these issues in regards to Huckabee. So he was feeling pretty chipper.
He then asked the caller which of the other candidates she was for. She proceeded to tell him anyone but Rudy. On no! Hannity went ballistic, carrying on about how he’s the best on crime, talked about his handling of 9/11, etc. The caller interrupted him and told him that she could never vote for Giuliani because he has an alleged child molester on his staff.
Again Hannity exploded, telling her that he knew the priest was innocent. This got my attention. Yes, he “knows” the priest is innocent because….the priest, Fr. Alan Placa, was once his teacher.
So. Sean Hannity was a student under the priest and vouches for his veracity. Isn’t that special? Let’s revisit the grand jury testimony for a bit:
At one point, two victims complained to the schools’ rector, a priest, about Priest F. The complaint resulted from one boy’s suspicions, later confirmed to be correct, that Priest F was abusing another younger boy. The pair thought a complaint by two of them would have to be believed. It wasn’t.
Ironically, Priest F would later become instrumental in the development of Diocesan policy in response to allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.
It has been repeatedly reported in the media that Priest F is Fr. Alan Placa. But Sean says he “knows” he didn’t do it. Because he was his teacher.
It is rarely discussed but not only is Hannity playing up Giuliani on his TV and radio shows, he also headlined a fundraiser for him.
In a little noticed event this month, Hannity - co-host of Fox News’ “Hannity & Colmes” and host of a popular WABC radio show - introduced the Republican front-runner at a closed-door, $250-per-head fund-raiser Aug. 9 in Cincinnati, campaign officials acknowledge.
In so doing, some believe that Hannity - while clearly a commentator paid to express his opinions - crossed the line from punditry into financial rainmaking for a presidential candidate whose bottom line is now better for it.
But Fox says, hey, no problem, Hannity isn’t a journalist, he’s just a conservative commenter.
“Sean is not a journalist - Sean is a conservative commentator,” said Bill Shine, Fox’s senior vice president of programming. “Sean doesn’t hide, and never has hidden, his beliefs from anyone.”
Perhaps he doesn’t hide it but he surely didn’t mention it when he interviewed Rudy in October, two months after the fundraiser.
The question is, will Republicans begin to resist the political establishment’s and main stream media’s foisting of a candidate upon us that we don’t want? Or should we consider Hannity as just another Oprah, campaigning for her man?
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Latke-eating Liberal.
I think you take Shawn with a grain of salt. It’s been apparent for some time, he’s for Rudy. But, I think Gallagher tips that way too.
Are there any real journalists on Fox news?
gaddy, is that relevant?
He (Hannity), has always been a fan of Giuliani, I guesss it’s because they’re both New Yorkers? Hell, that’s a good enough reason not to vote for him, in of itself.
Disclaimer; If Giuliani gets the nomination, I’ll hold my nose and vote for him,…SIGH. I’m soo DAMN TARRED of Rhino’s!! If our next President is one of the Clowns from the other side, or Hitlery, it will be the fault of the RePukelican Party.
# 4 bigjolly, Well no it’s not relevant, there sure as he!! aren’t any on PMSCNBCABS!
That blond in the picture looks suspiciously like Lee J. Cobb in drag in “In Like Flint”.
It is relevant, Jolly as this kind of behavior from Fox news or one of it’s people should not surprise anyone. I have never thought of Fox as a serious news channel.
7 Mikey
Here it is:
http://www.geocities.com/swcomer/cloak_and_dagger/ilf2.jpg
Hmmmmmmm
Congratulations on your victory, by the way.
“Never thought of Fox as a serious news channel….” Oh, please… I guess you just don’t pay any mind at all to the way CNN manipulated those ridiculous “debates” do you? Don’t care at all that the Hildebeast plants most, if not all, of her questions? Nah, CNN is legit. Fox is not. Oh, brother. How do liberals manage to survive from day to day?
Let’s see #5…we will have had 16 years of a Prez from the “south”, track-records not withstanding…
I have to agree, NBC was not going to run a ” remember the troops” ad, CNN sabotaged the last republican debate. CBS ran the phony document story right before the election. Fox looks pure compated to these ” news” sources.
I wondered why Fox was supporting Giuliani since he’s really a Liberal. Now it all makes sense.
Huckabee is getting hammered by more than just Fox. Even Drudge is running hit pieces on him almost daily.
Giuliani is from the North East, that’s why the east coast crowd are hovering over him. They think they south, the fly-over country are dolts.
Re: the Fox/Giuliani love fest
Not to take away the massive thunder clap of truth of AW, there is also a prevailing thought of finding “the right person” that can beat Hillary while ignoring the fact that Rudy is just one step right of being a damn liberal.
The newsies would love to see a baseball type of rivalry between Rudillary. You know… Mets/Yankees.
I do not care for Huck but I wouold just love to see a strong showing from Romney Huck just to put a dent in Rudy’s plans and throw the MSM and Republican National Commitees stuff into the wind.
#15
LOL, well with this type of sentence construction I can see why
Rudy’s too liberal for me, and Romney’s too theocratic. I’m not sure about Huck yet, but if he goofs the way Romney did last week, he’s a goner.
I thought Romney’s speech was fantastic. If the parts where he quoted President Adams upset people. Too bad. Duncan Hunter is still my man.
I’m sure gadfly has no problem with Clinton sycophant George Snuffleupaguss in a supposedly ‘unbiased’ position at ABC. Hannity makes no claim to be unbiased.
No, but Fox does. And they’re not, top to bottom.
You know, Mr. Squawk, I disagree with you often but I too would like to see the “blessed” Rudy go down. In addition to one other “blessed” candidate. You know who.
Been looking into Rudy’s priest friends real estate transactions today. Very interesting.
K-Roger, I agree 100%.
#22
If Rudy wins, it will certify that a majority of Americans don’t care anymore about morals and values.
Hopefully a majority is not programmed enough to buy into the hype and bs that the media spoonfeeds them.
If Rudy wins the primary, he will not win the election there are enough electoral votes to assure his loss in the main event.
Sing along…
Well Hello Hilly, you’re looking swell Hilly, it’s so nice to see you back here again…
Northeasterners seem to think they are the center of the universe, even those who live west of the Hudson River. Of course the Old Guard maintains nothing important happens west of the Hudson, but I guess they must make an exception for an election. So it’s not unusual for them to want a Subway Series even if the game isn’t baseball.
After meeting him in person, I think Mitt is the best republican candidate.
When Tim Russert asked if Rudy would provide his next mistress with secret service protection
My wife and I thought - the very fact a question like this HAD to be asked is fueling governor Taxforthee’s campaign
misplaced my Houston invite, should have gone to College Station.
BigJolly
IMO the only thing thats going to derail Huckabee’s campaign is Huckabee.
Yi like that sugar shoe drop today.
#30,
Could be. That is far more likely than having his campaign derailed by people that go around lying and smearing him. IMO, of course.
Ghost Rider:
“Rudy’s too liberal for me, and Romney’s too theocratic.”
I’m not sure if you know what “theocratic” actually means. If you mean “govern according to ethical principles informed by my faith” then yes he is theocratic.
But, if by Theocracy you mean “… a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler.” (the actual definition) then his recent speech, and all of his actions as a governor prove you to be incorrect.
Hopefully Huckabee isn’t into the same Biblical prophecy as Bush and wants to continue this charade (err…crusade).
Michael Savage is right when he refers to Hnnity as the “wall banger”
Not referring to anyone here in particular, but I really don’t understand this irrational fear people have of FoxNews.
OK, I’m willing to concede FoxNews is biased to the right. Are you willing to concede that ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, MSNBC, NYT, Houston Chron, WashPo are biased to the (far) left? Do you think Fox News, all by its lonesome, ‘balances’ the others?
Hey Guys, Does this mean that we have a Catholic Conspiracy ( Is the bear Catholic?). Sean has his professional limitations. It is ODD though, that because someone is one’s teacher, that one would know anymore than anyone else. People have been fooled before. If Sean is going after Huck as a political hack, he deserves loss of Street Cred. I suppose all Candidates should do the ‘My Religion’ speech. The Clintons could do a combo of Agno-viro-hedenist-Asexual-theist.
Drudge is hitting Huck too? Gracious. Isn’t it suspicious to anyone else that no other candidate gets more hit-articles (excepting this blog which I think ran equal amounts of said articles on Giuliani and the Man Of Which We Do Not Speak) than Huck? Why is everyone so bent on blasting him to smithereens? I think it’s awful fun watching them because he is definitely an underdog and the Giuliani/Romney money machines seem to be unable to stop his momentum (so far). It’s almost like a movie plot. It will be exciting to see if Huckabee can upset the Republican elite and take the presidential nomination.
32
you mean those that coverup and gloss over everything?
Interesting. Thompson went down in flames. Now the board seems to be a bunch of Huck-a-bees…After he collapes what next?
So what Hannity is saying is that if Father Placa molested boys he’d know about it because he would have certainly been one of the boys selected to be molested? What a narcissist. Maybe he just wasn’t the priests type?
Is it me or does “Priest F” look a lot like Bill Clinton? Just sayin…..
Doesn’t that “priest” look suspiciously like Bill Clinton? Is someone having a little photoshop fun?