Mika Brzezinski asked if McCain is"the perfect candidate"without disclosing that her brother advises

[CGowen]

him


Summary: On Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski asked presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin: "(A)t this moment in history, isn't John McCain the perfect candidate to deal with what challenges we face as a country, and given the presidency that is just coming to a close right now?" At no point during the segment, however, did Brzezinski disclose that her brother is a McCain adviser.


On the February 7 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, co-host Mika Brzezinski asked presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin: "(A)t this moment in history, isn't (Sen.) John McCain (R-AZ) the perfect candidate to deal with what challenges we face as a country, and given the presidency that is just coming to a close right now?" At no point during the segment, however, did Brzezinski disclose that her brother is a McCain adviser.

Brzezinski has previously informed viewers that her brother Ian works for the McCain campaign and that her father, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, and another brother, Mark, advise Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (IL). On the January 3 edition of Morning Joe, after co-host Joe Scarborough said, "And by the way, your dad involved, once again, very much so, in the Obama campaign," Brzezinski responded, "And my other brother an adviser to McCain. I feel like I need to say that." On December 21, 2007, after an appearance on Morning Joe by Obama, Brzezinski said, "I just always have to point out when we have Senator Barack Obama on that my father and my brother advise him on foreign policy. And for the record, I have another brother who works for McCain."



....

http://mediamatters.org/items/200802070004

[dkf]

1. Goodness. I had no idea who her family was.

I'm surprised.

[CGowen]

5. I don't watch the show.

I caught it twice during the primaries and I'm not sure if she just calls herself Mika or if her full name is on TV.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Disappointed in Mika--playing right into the RW meme. Since when

is a shuffling, mumbling nutty old man the "perfect candidate" anyway?

[CGowen]

3. He sounds a bit like Zbigniew Brzezinski in his Russia rhetoric, despite being advised by his son.

Maybe the family likes it...

McCain would exclude Russia from G8 nations

...

"We need a new Western approach to this revanchist Russia," McCain wrote in a Foreign Affairs magazine article outlining his views on foreign policy looking ahead to the November 2008 election.

The Group of Eight, known as the G8, includes the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Japan and Russia. Their leaders gather each year in one of their countries to discuss major economic and political challenges facing the globe.

Russia is a fairly recent entry into the group, joining the Group of Seven in 1997, and President Vladimir Putin played host to the annual G8 summit in St. Petersburg in 2006.

McCain, an Arizona senator who frequently denigrates Putin, said the G8 should again become "a club of leading market democracies: It should include Brazil and India but exclude Russia."
...
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1536962020071015?feedType=RSS&feedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true

A Partner For Dealing With Iran?
The Lessons of U.S.-China Cooperation on Pyongyang

By Zbigniew Brzezinski
Friday, November 30, 2007; Page A23

...

Russia's uncertain role should be noted. Russia has been in talks with Iran and professes strongly that it desires a peaceful solution. These affirmations should not be dismissed out of hand. A conflict in the Persian Gulf might adversely affect Russia's interests, but its negative effects on Russia are inherently speculative. Any serious conflict will have international ripple effects, and Russian leaders have to assess that eventuality with prudence.

Nonetheless, Russia is an increasingly revisionist state, more and more openly positioning itself to attempt at least a partial reversal of the geopolitical losses it suffered in the early 1990s. Cutting off direct U.S. access to Caspian and Central Asian oil is high on the Kremlin's list. Moreover, longer-term geopolitical threats are seen by Moscow's elite as involving potential Chinese encroachments on Russia's empty but mineral-rich eastern areas and American political encroachments on the populated western areas of Russia's recently lost imperial domain.

In that context, the outbreak of a political conflict in the Persian Gulf may not be viewed by all Moscow strategists as a one-sided evil. The dramatic spike in oil prices would harm China and America while unleashing a further wave of anti-American hostility. In that context, Europe might distance itself from America while both Europe and China would become more dependent on Russia's energy supplies. Russia would clearly be the financial and geopolitical beneficiary.
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/29/AR2007112901876.html

Ian J. Brzezinski

Ian J. Brzezinski has been the deputy assistant secretary of defense for NATO and European policy since November 2001. Before that he worked for seven years as a senior staff member in the United States Senate, first for Delaware Senator William Roth, and then on the Foreign Relations Committee. He was also an director of international security policy at the Council of Advisers to the Parliament of Ukraine, 1993-94.


http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itps/0604/ijpe/bio.htm#brzezinski

[russian33]

4. and Zbigniew is advising Obama

fun

[CGowen]

6. Is he infamous in Russia, do people know who he is? n/t

[russian33]

7. honestly, no idea

when i do go visit (last time in 2005), that topic never comes up in conversations :)

[TalkAgain]

8. Simple: NO!