CON GAMES 24/7: The Schochet Effect, The Cries That Bind

May 29th, 2008 at 04:10pm Michael Conniff 2

Barry Schochet, the ultimate Washington insider, returns to "Con Games with Michael Conniff" in a heated discussion about former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan, John McCain's medical records, and what happens when the clock strikes midnight in the Democratic race. Also: the Con Man closes with his weekly sermon on why what we have in common is far more powerful than what drives us apart.

Click here for the complete "Con Games with Michael Conniff" for Friday May 30, 2008.

Entry Filed under: Politics, Con Games

7 Comments Add your own

1. Hugh520 | May 30th, 2008 at 5:02 pm

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest Chuck Hagel as a possible running mate for Barak Obama.

He's parted ways so many times with the Bush administration on the war and method of governing that he's standing on the center line. He owes nothing to either party. Check out his foreign affairs resume, and note that he was a highly decorated infantryman in Vietnam. This effectively shuts this door for McCain. He owned and operated a successful cellular start-up which made him wealthy -- another door closed on McCain. He was Deputy Director the VA for a year under Reagan, but quit when the Director Robert Nimmo started a budget cutting there and labeled Vets as "greedy" and Agent Orange as a problem akin to teenage Acne. I'm surprised Hagel didn't knock him on his ass on the way out the door.

He's retiring from the Senate in January as he promised to do when elected for his first term. Oh, and he was elected for his second term by 83% of Nebraska's voters. That's telling us something, No?
2. Hugh520 | May 31st, 2008 at 11:57 am

...And here's why Hillary will never make it on an Obama ticket: She used ridicule and mockery as a campaign tool. She mocked the Senator from Illinois for his soaring speeches, speeches I might add whose heights She couldn't reach if she had a step ladder. All of which means, she doesn't get the seismic cultural and political shift that has taken place in the last eight years, which Senator Obama embodies, and does not stray from.

Her ad hominen attacks are from Carl Roves' play book. Going on Fox to exploit "Pastorgate" shows her unbridled ambition for what it is: a hollow, shameless, win at all costs scorched earth power grab.

After Tuesday, she'll be consigned to an "also ran." And I sincerely hope that the only place after that I ever hear her voice again will be because I turned on C-Span at the wrong time.
3. Hugh520 | May 31st, 2008 at 6:29 pm

...conversations with myself.

A book. A book called "What Happened." With barely 7months left. You can no longer see over the stack of books held in your arms about this administration's gross, appalling, unprecedented, history-warping crimes and misdemeanors.

Sure Scott's got to make a living and support his family. Whistle-blowing is a serious matter. But in this case the stakes were higher -- much, much higher. Like 4100 KIA and 30,000+ casualties higher, not to mention 300,000- 600,000 Iraqi dead higher and 2.3 million lives shattered like sticks in the wind higher. This would of course have been unforeseen at the time. But "shock and awe" means dead people, most of them innocents.

You were in "the bubble" and needed time to figure out whether lying was in fact lying, but you knew that this White House was in "permanent campaign mode." This fact apparently did penetrate, only now there were lives in the balance. Clearly you weren't a boy scout Scott, or you would have taken your flag lapel pin and popped on out where the sun shines and the truth sets us free.

You use the word propaganda, but you stop short of using the word lie in your book. That is a sticky wicket. If I'm 6'0" and I tell someone I'm 6'2" is that propaganda or is it a lie. I'd call it a lie, not a big one mind you but a lie all the same. The difference between propaganda, which is intentionally and systematically deployed to convey an idea or a set of ideas having the purposeful effect (in this instance) of fostering a false and heightened sense of fear and or immanent attack and a lie, is that there is no difference.

Scott, I've worked in corporations too, and we both know that everyone talks, and everyone knows what's going on at any given moment. My assistant knew more than me. Why? Because she had an army of other assistants who all knew what was up with their bosses.

You surely would have scuttled your Republican career with an early whistle-blowing exit, but you might have become a hero for the ages. My God, just thinking about it, like the 2000 election makes me nuts.

So in the end Scott, your bosses put you out front of a ton of "propaganda." Just don't expect me to settle for the word or to think of it as a fair substitute for the harsher truth as you have, or to believe you didn't know (bubble encased) that you were lying for your bosses.
4. Star Eagle | June 1st, 2008 at 2:31 pm

Your starting to smell that big-assed gorilla Hugh. Wait till you see him.

As far as Hagel goes, I agree. He is by far the "enlightened" Republican.
5. Hugh520 | June 1st, 2008 at 2:56 pm

Star, color me obtuse, I need help with the primate reference.
6. Hugh520 | June 1st, 2008 at 3:13 pm

...reaching across the aisle to someone like (Hagel) is all important. He's already indicated that he'd consider a VP candidacy with a Democratic president. Then Obama should stuff his cabinet with several other Hagel Republicans.

Then, I'd obliterate the absurd party seating in congress and insist on an odd-couple arrangement in both houses.
7. Star Eagle | June 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm

Hugh,

Here is a link to the kingpin event that started it all, 9/11. The lying didn't begin with Iraq.

http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=147

But then the lie didn't start with 9/11 either. It started much earlier. This will help you see how big this ape really is.

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/JFK2.htm

If you watch these two you realize Scott was-is pretty much just a boy scout alright.