Reply #19: 2007 since joining MSNBC Todd only good things about the GOP- Bad things Democratic

[Ichingcarpenter]

Since Chuck Todd assumed duty as NBC News political director on March 12, he has made numerous appearances on the network in which he spoke positively about Republicans, making broad, unsupported, and, in some cases, rebuttable assertions, while making negative, equally unsupported comments about Democrats.

For example:

On March 12, Todd asserted that former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) is "one of these people that can probably keep the entire conservative coalition together, the social conservatives, the economic conservatives, and the religious conservatives." Approximately two weeks after that comment, prominent social conservative James C. Dobson, Focus on the Family founder and chairman, said of Thompson, "I don't think he's a Christian; at least that's my impression," and added that "such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party's conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination."

On March 28, Todd asserted that "t would be easy for" Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) "to criticize the war. The maverick thing to do is to actually take the unpopular stand." In saying this, Todd suggested that McCain's position on the war is one of a "maverick," despite the fact that other leading contenders for the Republican nomination also support President Bush's Iraq policy. As NBC News chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell noted during the same segment, "McCain's chief rivals for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, also oppose a timeline for withdrawal and support a surge of U.S. troop strength." In addition, McCain voted with the vast majority of Senate Republicans to remove a redeployment goal from the Senate's Iraq funding bill, as Media Matters noted. And, contrary to Todd's suggestion that McCain has taken the politically unpopular approach of not criticizing the war, McCain has described himself as the "greatest critic of the way the war was being conducted."

On March 30, NBC News congressional correspondent Chip Reid noted that "some political analysts" say that President Bush's veto of an Iraq spending bill that includes a timeline for withdrawal "could strengthen Bush's hand." Reid then aired a clip in which Todd asserted that a veto would allow Bush "to look like the commander in chief," "stand up to the congressional Democrats," and "potentially put Democrats in a position of not funding the troops." Todd did not indicate why "stand up to the congressional Democrats" on a timeline for withdrawal might help Bush politically. A March 23-25 USA Today/Gallup poll found that 60 percent of respondents favored Congress "setting a time-table for withdrawing all U.S. troops from Iraq no later than the fall of 2008." Moreover, it is unclear why Bush's veto would put Democrats "in a position of not funding the troops." It could also be said, as Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) did on the March 29 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, "if Bush vetoes this bill, he's the one that's cutting off the money to the troops."

While Todd has repeatedly praised Republicans during these appearances, his comments about Democrats have been largely critical:

On March 21, discussing the possibility that former Vice President Al Gore might run for president, Todd said: "I think Al Gore doesn't sit well in a long period of time with the American people."

On March 22, Todd said of the congressional investigation into the Bush administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys: "This is the danger for the Democrats, of looking like they're not doing the job that they were elected to do. They're not talking about Iraq, and instead they're picking a political fight." Since Todd's assertion of political "danger," polls have shown majorities or pluralities of Americans support Congress' investigation into the U.S. attorney dismissals. As Media Matters noted, the March 23-25 USA Today/Gallup poll found that 72 percent of respondents said "Congress should ... investigate the involvement of White House officials in this matter" and that 48 percent of respondents said "Democrats in Congress" were spending the "right amount" or "not ... enough" time on the matter, compared with 40 percent of respondents who said Democrats were spending "too much" time on the matter. Similarly, a March 16-19 Pew Research Center for the People and the Press poll found that 60 percent of respondents said Congress was spending "too little, or the right amount of time conducting investigations of possible government wrongdoing," while 31 percent of respondents said Congress was spending "too much" time.


More of Todd's anti democratic party opinions here, But you get the picture.


http://mediamatters.org/research/200703300009


More of Chuck Todd's Right Wing Slant and they go on for years and pages of documentation

http://clips.mediamatters.org/search/tag/chuck_todd