Top 8 Moments From Sunday Talk Shows

Cokie Roberts says Roman Polanski should be taken out and shot, Lindsey Graham blasts Glenn Beck (figuratively), and Rachel Maddow has some choice words for Sarah Palin’s ghost writer. That and more in our weekly roundup.

Cokie on Roman Polanksi: “Take Him Out and Shoot Him”

Now to be fair, Cokie Roberts probably only meant that Roman Polanski should metaphorically shot. Probably. Because she sounds quite emphatic in this segment of “The Green Room” on This Week With George Stephanopoulos. Side note: If you’re not sure whether Roberts’ claim that Polanski “raped and drugged and raped and sodomized a child” is accurate, check out Kate Harding’s influential piece from Salon, and Marcia Clark’s analysis of his courtroom guilty plea in The Daily Beast. For a counterpoint, click here to read the petition for Polanski’s release.

Sen. Lindsey Graham Slams Glenn Beck… Again

And the Glenn Beck bashing continues. Sen. Lindsey Graham made headlines this week with his jab at the Fox News host, calling him a cynic and saying “only in America can you make that much money crying.” The Republican from South Carolina took another swipe on Beck’s own channel, telling Fox News Sunday’s Bret Baier that Beck "doesn't represent the Republican party" and while he isn’t necessarily bad for America, “at the end of the day it’s not the kind of political analysis I buy into."

Carville Piles on Beck, Wife Stares in Dismay

James Carville skewering Glenn Beck doubtless has less credibility that Lindsay Graham doing the same, but it is an indication of how angry the left is becoming at a man it pretty much ignored till a few months ago. Has Carville been this animated since the days of Ken Starr? Carville calls the Fox talker “nuts,” a “hypocrite,” and, bizarrely, a man who doesn’t “know the difference between a football bat and a hockey court.”

Shock Video: Buchanan Defends Obama Bid for Chicago Olympics

Leave it to an old political hand to explain the realpolitik of why Obama spent so much political capital on a doomed pitch for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics. If Obama didn’t go, Buchanan argues, Mayor Daly and Obama’s base in Chicago would have blamed him for the loss. But by going—and in a most perfunctory way, for only a few hours—Obama realized looking like a failed salesman was the lesser evil of appearing to have abandoned his hometown.

General Jones Strikes Back at McCain

White House National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones was not too pleased last week to hear his friend Sen. John McCain accuse him of playing politics with his assessment of the situation in Afghanistan. On State of the Union, Jones adamantly denied McCain’s claim that he doesn’t “want to alienate the left base” of the Democrats, and says he takes “exception to that remark.” Touché!

Rachel Maddow: Palin Chooses to Associate with White Supremacists

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow thinks that for GOP to recharge, it needs to do some self-reflecting, and a good place to start is with former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin—“the biggest brand name in Republican politics.” On Meet the Press, Maddow points out that Palin’s new book, Going Rogue, was coauthored by Lynn Vincent, who previously co-authored a book called Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party with Robert Stacy McCain, whom she—and some others— consider to be a white supremacist. According to Maddow, this is not guilt by association, but guilt by choice, and not a smart move for either Palin or her party.

Kristol: President Obama a 'Bully'

It's no a surprise that Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol isn't upset over President Barack Obama's failure to convince the world to award the 2016 Olympics to Chicago. In fact he is "amused" by the whole ordeal, and on Fox News Sunday he says he thinks Obama should have rooted for Rio all along.

Greenspan as Grim Reaper: Unemployment to Rise Past 10 Percent

If you think the latest unemployment data was bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet, according to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. On This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Greenspan predicts that the jobless rate will not only exceed 10 percent, but it will remain that high for some time before getting better. Let’s hope this is a case of irrational pessimism on Greenspan’s part.

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