Think Progress

Does Hannity have the guts to partner with a ‘big-league liberal?’

hannity.gifEarlier this week, Alan Colmes announced that he would be relinquishing his role as co-host of Hannity & Colmes at the end of the year. The Chicago Tribune’s Eric Zorn observes, “Hannity is quicker, louder, angrier, funnier and more confrontational and self-assured than the comparatively mild, cerebral Colmes, therefore he’s the dominant and more compelling half of the team.” Asking the question, “Does Sean Hannity have the guts to partner with a big-league liberal?” Zorn suggests that Ed Schultz, Mike Malloy, Randi Rhodes, and Al Franken (if he loses) would be good replacement candidates to spar with Hannity on his show.

Update The answer is apparently not. According to the New York Times, Hannity is planning to “go it alone” as the sole host for the hour-long show.


58 Responses to “Does Hannity have the guts to partner with a ‘big-league liberal?’”

  1. stewarjt says:

    Short answer: NO!


  2. LibertyLover says:

    Longer answer: Not on his big fat paycheck!


  3. Curlew says:

    Wow. Any of those four, plus lets not forget Stephanie Miller, would be fantastic. I have often fantasized about watching Randi Rhodes in a debate with Hannity. It would be such poetic justice watching him be reduced to a puddle of protoplasm by her. But the reality is that Fixed Noise wouldn’t allow for someone of the caliber of any of those people mentioned to be pitted against Hannity. They’d make such fools of Hannity that even Fixed Noise viewers could figure out what was happening.


  4. rmwarnick says:

    OK, realistically, can you sign a contract with Faux News and still call yourself a “liberal”?


  5. Bilbo Hussein Baggins says:

    I would love to see Mike Malloy take on Hannity. He would spit him out in a hot minute.

    And this is the biggest bunch of BS I have read in a while:

    Hannity is quicker, louder, angrier, funnier and more confrontational and self-assured than the comparatively mild, cerebral Colmes, therefore he’s the dominant and more compelling half of the team.

    Hannity never gave Colmes a chance to talk, just like he rarely allows his guests to talk. He’s so full of himself he can’t have anyone who might outshine him. The only part of the quoted text above I agree with is that Hannity is louder and angrier. The rest is BS. He is not at all “self assured”, if he was he wouldn’t find it necessary to shout down his opponents.


  6. misshusseinmolly says:

    I doubt it. The entire role for Colmes has been to act as foil for Hannity. I doubt any self-respecting liberal would willingly take on the role of punching bag — and furthermore, most would have permanent teeth-marks in their tongue if they tried.

    But if a liberal was permitted to be him/herself and engage in serious debate on the issues with Hannity? Imagine, if you will, Hannity going up against — oh, say — Rachel Maddow every night.

    He’d implode.


  7. Bilbo Hussein Baggins says:

    misshusseinmolly Says:
    But if a liberal was permitted to be him/herself and engage in serious debate on the issues with Hannity? Imagine, if you will, Hannity going up against — oh, say — Rachel Maddow every night.

    He would implode just thinking about it. Imagine it, the Rhodes Scholar vs the High School drop out. It would be hilarious to watch Rachel fillet Hannity.


  8. bigeugene says:

    If we could clone Maddow or Olbermann and send them there…now that would be hilarious. Even Paul Begala would work.


  9. alphainfinityomega says:

    Hell no !! Hannity is a pussy bully.

    ¶ AIO


  10. jer3saw says:

    I would love to watch debates between Hannity and Malloy or Randi Rhodes. But, they would have to change the name of the show to “Hannity Gets His A** Kicked Everynight”.


  11. octamethyl says:

    If Al Franken were to take the job, I would actually watch FAUX news.


  12. Wayne says:

    No self respecting “liberal” pundit would even consider working for Faux, just saying……


  13. Perry logan says:

    I’m not a psychologist, but Hannity seems to suffer inordinately from a conditrion known as “pressure of speech,” i.e., the inability to shut one’s piehole long enough to let the other guy finish. Needless to say, this condition is pandemic amongst wingers.

    If they found a more aggressive liberal for Hannity’s show, it would devolve into two guys shouting at one another the whole time.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w12edTq2v7A


  14. jb says:

    Hannity=ideological masturbator.



  15. misshusseinmolly says:

    Where is Shana Alexander now that we we need her? She could hold her own quite nicely with James Kilpatrick, who was far more intelligent than Hannity could ever be.

    I miss “Point/Counterpoint”…


  16. kasinca says:

    Did Hannity have the courage to joint the military? Did Hannity complete college? Did Hannity complete Community College? The answer is NO to all of the above. Hannity is a phony, lying, coward.


  17. misshusseinmolly says:

    Perry logan Says
    November 26th, 2008 at 3:22 pm

    If they found a more aggressive liberal for Hannity’s show, it would devolve into two guys shouting at one another the whole time.
    __________________________________________________________

    “Hannity & Carville”?


  18. redshadow says:

    Hannity would take on all liberals and kick their butts
    as the TRUTH is on his side.


  19. jb says:

    I dare say there are any number of regular posters here that could clean Hannity’s clock on a daily basis. Misshusseinmilly, Buckieboy, Bilbo, the french guy, Nevar, Uncle Ho, the list goes on and on. Hannity is scared to face anybody, educated, informed and not intimidated by his bluster.



  20. Wayne says:

    redshadow Says:

    Hannity would take on all liberals and kick their butts
    as the TRUTH is on his side.

    Bwahahahahahahahahaha

    That was a funny joke.
    You were joking…. right?

    No one could be that utterly stupid to post something like that and be serious.


  21. LividLib says:

    “According to the New York Times, Hannity is planning to “go it alone” as the sole host for the hour-long show.”

    why not? a legend in his own mind!
    he probably masturbates in front of a mirror.


  22. JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin says:

    Hannity never gave Colmes a chance to talk, just like he rarely allows his guests to talk. He’s so full of himself he can’t have anyone who might outshine him. The only part of the quoted text above I agree with is that Hannity is louder and angrier. The rest is BS. He is not at all “self assured”, if he was he wouldn’t find it necessary to shout down his opponents.

    Perfect way of describing Hannity. He’s the equivalent of the obnoxious bore in high school, the one who was always making fun of the quieter, introspective, and he was being cheered on by everyone else. But he’s really a coward, with a fake macho bluster that fools superficial, easily fooled people, much like Hannity’s king, George Bush.


  23. jb says:

    Hannity is a shill for the Far Right Wing and wouldn’t know TRUTH if is bit him on a$$. Hopelessly lost in his own propaganda.


  24. Buckie Boy says:

    No, Hannity is the classic bully coward, anyone who would prove him to be a big gas bag blow hard would not be approved for the spot…

    …besides he is a closet gay and some one like Steph Miller would make him cry.


  25. wearechange says:

    perception management. would be nice to see media return “the golden age” of news/commentary…


  26. Buckie Boy says:

    redshadow Says:
    Hannity would take on all liberals and kick their butts
    as the TRUTH is on his side.

    (SNARK)

    There, fixed it for you.


  27. misshusseinmolly says:

    Without someone else on the set to yell at, Hannity is going to be seen as just a noisemaker. Of course, that won’t make any difference to the choir he preaches to.

    Meanwhile, in that same timeslot, Maddow is over on MSNBC. I look for Hannity’s numbers to shrink and Rachel’s to keep growing.


  28. gummitch says:

    There is a reason that Al Franken referred to the show in one of his books as HANNITY and colmes (in a teeny-tiny font). Sean Hannity needed a foil, a meek little half-ass liberal to make him look successful to the dittohead audience. He wouldn’t last five minutes with anyone off that list and he’d never consent to be on stage with them on an equal footing.

    I’m curious, though, why Colmes thinks he can have a career as anything but a Hannity Lamprey.


  29. EnnuiDivine says:

    Anyone else think Rhodes would (metaphorically) castrate Hannity on air every night?

    Viewership would explode


  30. Ms_Joanne says:

    Hannity doesn’t have the balls or the intellect to stand toe-to-toe with a liberal who can take an equally aggressive stand and call him on all his bullshit.

    Ed Schultz would be a good one. Actually, I would love to see Rachel Maddow take Hannity down. She has such a sweet way of shoving her enormous intellect and knowledge into the faces of a$$holes like Hannity. She has more knowledge in her pinky than than Hannity has in his whole bloated body!


  31. Jackie says:

    It’s always amazing to me that a bartender can fake it as a Journalist. Fox News has some group of idiots. Billo is insane, Berk is a drunk/druggie and now even Rev. Huck who likes to kill animals and does magic with the floating cross that only he sees. At lease the criminal Bush Administration will have a place that will hire them so they can afford their legal fees. Hannity was like a pig in mud when he got bimbo Sarah to interview. Yes Hannity too see’s Russia from Sarah’s window and yells for Putin to go home or else. No wonder Americans allowed our country to be invaded by the Bush Administration they were watching the Sean the Bartender Show.


  32. paleolib says:

    The only way pairing Insanity with a bona fide liberal would work would be if they cut Insanity’s mike while his cohost or guest spoke. Otherwise you would get the same incoherent shouting match that Crossfire routinely devolved into before John Stewart went on and pantsed the screamers so badly that CNN had to put the show out of our misery. Besides, the concept would never sell on Fox. Liberals won’t watch and wingers couldn’t stand to see their fake hero turned into a blubbering fool every night.


  33. Leftside Annie says:

    Does Hannity have the guts to partner with a ‘big-league liberal?

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

    Jebus! Ya talk about a rhetorical question!!!!


  34. dasm says:

    Hannity always did “go it alone.” He doesn’t care about any co-hosts or guests unless they agree with him. He’s a screaming, screeching lunatic.


  35. Clumberfeet says:

    The Hannity and Sock Puppet Show


  36. arleang says:

    What I don’t understand is why anyone who is even semi-thoughtful would be watching Hannity, O’Reilly or Fox in general. Why would I give them my vote in the ratings? Why would I want to listen to guests and/or ideas being attacked by those self-righteous arbiters of public policy.

    The answer: I don’t, I won’t. Don’t encourage them. Let them talk watch themselves in the mirror and wonder if anyone is watching or cares what they think.


  37. ctalk says:

    With the Obama era beginning I think Alan Colmes intentionally left the show to rot a slow death in the ratings. Good move Colmes.


  38. hivanh says:

    Really, now. Who the hell cares, anyway?


  39. a0d7fzz says:

    Hannity can’t find any meek, milquetoast moderates like Colmes to put up with his abuse. And of course, we all know that Faux News’s idea of balance is an uber-right winger and a center-right moderate (because the nation is center-right, after all).

    What tripe.


  40. EugeneDebs says:

    redshadow Says:

    Hannity would take on all liberals and kick their butts
    as the TRUTH is on his side.
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    Top notch satire. You should write for the onion. If you MEANT IT then you are insane and as stupid as Hannity who I always thought was the stupidest bipedal carbon based lifeform in existance. Not to mention that you wouldnt know the truth if it bit your sack


  41. havoklue77 says:

    Much love to Mike Malloy, but I think his brain would explode in that situation;) Howsabout Thom Hartmann? Now THAT would kill Hannity’s power in ONE segment. With dignity. The right-wing doesn’t have to present the facts. They just have to instill doubt & Hartmann can an does counter WITH facts. A lovely (I wish)….


  42. Dirty Hippie says:

    Hartmann would school him, but Hannity never shuts up long enough to allow anyone to make their point. Hannity is a pussy, and he’s totally irrelevant. Honk if you’d kick his ass given the opportunity.


  43. Arctic Ghetto says:

    How bold, Hannity won’t retain a doormat.


  44. Robert M. says:

    First off, who says Colmes is a liberal? And who believes that liberals are good, anyway?

    As far as I can tell Liberals tend to interpret the law to mean that those who have the money to spend liberally on gifts and junkets possess great wisdom and insights that deserve to be catered to in all matters legislative.

    So-called Liberal Democrats created a political environment back in the 1960’s and early 1970’s in which the likes of neo-conservative scum bags such as Ronald Regan were able to convince people there was a different, better way of doing things that would be good for the nation.

    Of course, they were lying through their teeth, and merely wanted the opportunity to cater to the whims of the wealthy class themselves.

    What we’ve got in Congress right now are liberal democrats bearing the names of Pelosi, and Reid, and Hoyer, and Wasserman-Schultz, etc. These are the people who failed to hold the bush administration accountable from the beginning. These are the people who are helping the neo-Cons loot the U.S. Treasury as they are on their way out the door.

    The U.S. Taxpayer is still paying interest on the debt generated by the Savings and Loan bailouts from 30 years ago. (Remember neil bush and Silverado Savings and Loan???) What do you imagine the interest payments on the Trillions of Dollars being given away to paulson’s and bernake’s friends is going to be? If you earn $50,000 per year, I’ll wager your share of the interest chages going to service this debt will about to $700 per year, for THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! And your grandchildren will have to pick up the burden when you leave the scene.

    I don’t have any problem with those government programs that were developed to assist people who lack the resources to meet their own personal needs. Our government was created to operate in order to benefit the “general welfare” of the entire population. But thanks to liberals and “conservatives” alike, what seems to happen is the government works to benefit the wealthy and influential, so that they can create a few jobs — thereby benefitting the masses.

    Type etymology into google and use one of those sites to type in some words that refer to government and society. For the latter I came up with this: (from the Latin “socius” meaning “companion”): Society refers to a group of people or companions. What do companions do? They take a journey together. And being together, that means they all share in the trials and rewards of that journey.

    In bush’s world, the “economy” was interpreted to mean the current rate of return the Wall Street investment crowd was taking in. It disregarded the growing unemployment, the diminishing manufacturing, and the growing indebtedness of most Americans. It also included the inflated figures provided by hedge fund derivatives that are currently crashing and the hundreds of billions of dollars being wasted on the illegal occupation of Iraq.

    Capitalism in America has collapsed. The capital has all been stolen, and what’s left in its place is bad commercial paper. The institutional structure of American capitalism are being held up by massive government grants, and no one is bothering to check out what’s happening with the cash that’s being shoveled out the door. We’ve replaced Capitalism with government handouts for the wealthy.

    Either we get away from the mistaken idea that it is important to maintain the activities and lifestyles of a certain class of people while the rest of us go broke and lose our homes, or we slip down the drain as the tub empties. Either we’re in this together, or we’ll be at each other’s throats this time next year.

    Have a happy Thanksgiving.


  45. keeploosingmypassword says:

    How will we be able to tell when Colmes is gone?


  46. EugeneDebs says:

    Robert M. Says:

    You seem to see liberals the same way the great Phil Ochs did in the 70’s. He describe them as ten degrees left of center at the best of times and ten degrees right of center when it effects them personally. He wrote a great song about it called Love me, I’m a liberal


  47. blue state bob says:

    Sean Hannity is an uneducated, willfully ignorant small minded loser of a man, but he’s smart enough to know that any of those liberals mentioned would eat his lunch daily. So no surprise he’s going it alone, because like all conservatives he’s also a coward.


  48. Tim43 says:

    Big league liberal? Is there such a thing? Liberal’s cannot even compete in talk radio. Everytime they try, they bring down the radio station’s audience to dismal numbers. As far as commentators on TV, name one liberal that even comes close to the conservative commentators in viewership numbers.

    So, I ask again, is there such a thing as a big league liberal? I mean one that is actually interesting enough to hold an audience of independent thinkers.

    Conservative commentators typically appeal to a broad base of conservatives and independents.

    Liberal commentators typically only appeal to a narrowly defined liberal base.


  49. SwedishSkinJer says:

    Tim43:

    I respectfully disagree. Conservative commentators offer only unsubstantiated, shameless bile that reasonable independents deplore. Hannity is spineless, generally disrespectful, and would never let Colmes have a respectable amount of time on air. If Olbermann or Maddow sat down with him, I trust that he wouldn’t smirk so often at the mention of a liberal or progressive again.


  50. misshusseinmolly says:

    Tim43 Says
    November 26th, 2008 at 11:00 pm

    Conservative commentators typically appeal to a broad base of conservatives and independents.

    Liberal commentators typically only appeal to a narrowly defined liberal base.
    _____________________________________________________________

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

    Is that how it really looks from the far right? You honestly think that windbags like Limbaugh appeal to a “broad base of conservatives and independents”?????

    Of the conservatives I know, only the ones farthest to the right will even admit listening to Rush, or watching Hannity or O’Reilly. And I have yet to find anyone who agrees with anything Ann Coulter has to say. This is hardly the “broad base” you describe.

    Of course, I admit that not all liberals plonk themselves down in front of Olbermann and Maddow. Not because they don’t fit into a “narrow” definition, but because most of them have better things to do than watch TV.

    You see — you were right when you described a liberal audience as being one of independent thinkers. Anyone — liberal or conservative — would have a hard time holding an audience of people who prefer to do their own thinking. Folks like Limbaugh, Savage, Beck, etc. don’t have that problem. Their audience is made up of people who can’t think for themselves and need somebody to tell them who to be mad at for their problems.


  51. blue state bob says:

    Tim:

    I will take our election success over your AM radio ratings any day, but cling to whatever sad positives you have, there aren’t many. Must suck to be you. Sorry, must suck more to be you, it always sucked to be you.


  52. EugeneDebs says:

    Tim43 Says:

    Well Timmeh YOU are stunningly stupid so I dont think any liberals would hold YOUR ADD attention span. Then again with the putrid oatmeal you have between your ears instead of a brain anyone giving ACTUAL an- ysis instead of just telling you what to think today WOULD seem boring. The business community buys advertising and owns the big media conglemerates and do not WANT liberals on. When Jim Hightower was KILLING in the ratings Disney bought his network and fired him. Liberals might be a bit to cerebral to go for the hateradio preach to the choir format you can HAVE AMoron radio. It doesnt matter. You for instance are really to STUPID for anything else.


  53. QuakerDave says:

    Alan who?

    It’s always been about Hannity. Why would he change now?


  54. Aanya says:

    There is only one person that could intice me to sit and watch Sean Hannity’s ugly, smug face. Match him up with Phil Donahue, and I’d never miss Hannity being slaughtered!


  55. Tanda says:

    Any of the high profile liberal personalities would not waste their time with Hannity. Furthermore, Hannity couldn’t handle the pressure of having to spar with a strong personality that had brains. Hate saying this about anyone, but he is a jerk and a bully.


  56. biggreenpea says:

    I was watching the documentary “Bigger, Faster, Stronger” about sports and steroids when, during a section on pro-wrestling, I realized this is what guys like Hannity and O’Reilly are doing. They are the hybrid of a news person/commentator and a wrestling personality. It all fell into place after that epiphany as I played back all the old clips of many right wingies and their sandbox bully stylings. Somebody realized if we mix the bluster and pseudo-manliness of the wrestler with a commentator we get a new type of news which shoves the viewer into their hind brain, non-thinking brain where they are truly the numb consumer Huxley would recognize. Add to that the canard to shout a lie as loud as you can and it will stick, mix it with some ear and eye of newt and you get a very toxic brew. Sean Hannity. Bill O’Reilly. Even Coulter plays the part…



Jump to Top

About Think Progress | Contact Us | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy (off-site) | RSS | Donate
© 2005-2009 Center for American Progress Action Fund
View Most Popular

Advertisement

What We're About

Featured

image
Subscribe to the Progress Report



imageTopic Cloud


Visit Our Affiliated Sites

image image
Reports


Got a hot tip?
Have a hot news tip? We'd love to hear from you. Use the form below to send us the latest.

Name:
Email:
Tip:
(required)


imageArchives


imageBlog Roll