CNN’s Rick Sanchez calls out DeMint’s vapid talking point: ‘What the hell does that mean?’
By on Apr 28th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
CNN’s Rick Sanchez calls out DeMint’s vapid talking point: ‘What the hell does that mean?’
Today, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) appeared on CNN to talk about Sen. Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democratic party. Host Rick Sanchez asked DeMint about Specter’s statement that the Republican party is becoming more narrowly focused on the far right. DeMint replied, “Quite the opposite. We’re seeing across the country right now that the biggest tent of all is the tent of freedom.” Sanchez then stopped DeMint, demanding, “What the hell does that mean? The ‘biggest tent’ is ‘freedom’? Freedom? You’ve got to do better than that!” Watch it:
As part of this “big tent,” DeMint cited the people who came out for the anti-Obama tea parties.
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We’ve been asking the GOP that for years…
April 28th, 2009 at 3:40 pmHmmm…it appears DeMint’s random buzzword generator needs to be recalibrated.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:41 pmhey demint,
April 28th, 2009 at 3:41 pmhow did that “freedom tent” work out for you clowns in iraq?
::::::::::::BOOM::::::::::::::::
“We’re seeing across the country right now that the biggest tent of all is the tent of freedom.”
Excuse me, may I have some of what he’s been drinking, please?
April 28th, 2009 at 3:42 pmThe look of incredulity on Sanchez’s face says it all. As does his exsasperation at DeMints clueless answer.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:45 pmFreedom’s just another word for… whatever the hell we want it to mean today.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:45 pmWhat about the Oort Cloud? Surely that’s a much larger tent than freedom.
And it’s got comets!
April 28th, 2009 at 3:45 pm“As part of this “big tent,” DeMint cited the people who came out for the anti-Obama tea parties.”
What a load of bullshyte! DeMint, is thankfully the last of a dying breed and a dying GOP! I
April 28th, 2009 at 3:45 pmI suppose by “Big Tent” DeMint is referring to the number of circus freaks his party has attracted.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:49 pmFreedom of health care, except for those poor who can’t afford it. They can die.
Idiot.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pmYep, as we saw during the Bush administration, the Republicans are all about “freedom”; freedom from the oppression of the US Constitution, freedom to lie ourselves into war, freedom to criticize the rest of the world to the point where they hate us, freedom to torture, freedom from accountability for mistakes, freedom from FEMA helping you during an emergency, freedom to out a CIA operative for political payback….
April 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pmWOW.
Payback time for the party of hate and unlimited stupidity.
I’d like to think the MSM could expand on this practice of calling “bullshit” when someone throws it in their face.
Flippin’ schweet!
April 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pmOK, here we go…just rename the current Repig party to the Fox Party. Then reinvent the Republican party as the party of Eisenhower, roll back everything stupid they’ve done since Reagan. Then the blue dogs can leave the democratic party for the new Republican party, the wackos can haunt their own Fox party, and the true progressives will remain in the Democratic party. Problem solved.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pmIt is truly astounding what money will make people do and say; it’s the political version of the “imperious curse….”
April 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pmThe “big tent of freedom” is full of nothing but freaks speaking in tongues and handling snakes. americans have taken a pass on that sheeyat for two election cycles now
April 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pmHe and Rep. Bachmann must get their talking points from the same folder…It’s amazing how he can actually stand there, spew this non-sense and expect ANYONE to pay attention…these people are SOOOOO stupid…
April 28th, 2009 at 3:54 pmThe big tent, are the tents that people are living in thanks to chimpy.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:58 pmAnd what would the response have been if DeMint had spouted these words-with-no-meaning on — oh, say — Fox and Friends?
April 28th, 2009 at 3:58 pmDude, the nutters who came out for the tea parties don’t need a “tent”, they need “therapy”. Their problem isn’t a lack of “freedom”, it is an overabundance of “paranoia”.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:59 pmThe lies are intense!
(get it?…the lies…in tents…heh…get it?)
nyuk, nyuk, nyuk…
April 28th, 2009 at 4:00 pmThe dirty tricksters who got morons elected with (R) associated with their names have come full circle. The (R)s have nothing! They are shrinking as I post this. They have no new ideas. They allow big corporate interests to get the wingnuts to go out and carry hate for them, claiming all along it is a grassroots deal. Yea, grassroots of Rupert Murdoch and Dick Armey. Since the teaparties, at least two of their wingnuts have gone off the deep end and killed police officers and or innocents. Both were upset at having a black president. Today Arlen Specter switched back to the democratic party. DeMint is another lying, idiot.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:02 pmYup… Big Tent Cities.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:03 pmAhh, Jim. You forgot you weren’t on Fox News again, didn’t you? Sometimes you have to respond seriously to a question and not use some cornball hokum from where George Patton meets Hallmark Cards.
/He pulled a boner! FOR FREEDOM!
April 28th, 2009 at 4:03 pmJanis said “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:07 pmoh jeez– i WISH a viable candidate steps up to run against DeMented DeMint
DeMint just ain’t that bright…but he is born again Christian which is a big deal in this state.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:08 pmsomeone ought to smarten this bird up to the fact his “big tent of freedom” is now missing one senator
April 28th, 2009 at 4:09 pmBy the end of this clip Rick Sanchez is ready to bite right through his lower lip because listening to Jim DeMint is just so frustratingly painful for anyone with a brain.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:09 pmSomehow, I don’t think the GOP is “pitching a big tent” over this.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:09 pmWhat the hell does that mean?
If more reporters would have asked this question repeatedly for the last eight years, we might not be in this situation today.
Wouldn’t the “tent of freedom” technically be no tent? Because being in a tent restricts your movement somewhat.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:14 pmOf course, by implication, DeMint’s trying to suggest that the Democrats must somehow be against freedom.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:19 pmDeMint sounds like one of the trolls on this site.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm“Quite the opposite. We’re seeing across the country right now that the biggest tent of all is the tent of freedom.”
TRANSLATION;
April 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm“We got nothing…”
Everybody loves tents. People aspire to be in a tent of some sort—the tent of freedom being the highest order of tent. It’s sells itself. Honestly, tell me you don’t yearn for the tent. Don’t play like you don’t get just a little bit giddy when you hear the word “tent”.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:25 pmGOP Freedom means free market deregulation to protect an elite class of corporatists. The best moniker for the GOP is simply cheap-labor conservatives.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:28 pmSo their big tent is 200k tea baggers? Good luck with that!
April 28th, 2009 at 4:28 pmThat was hilarious.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:28 pmDon’t fight Dirty, Sanchez.
OMG, I crack myself up!
April 28th, 2009 at 4:29 pmIt’s funny he uses the tea parties as an example of their “big tent”. The only people there were white dudes angry that a brown man won the election.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:39 pmElBruce says:
“If more reporters would have asked this question repeatedly for the last eight years, we might not be in this situation today.”
Isn’t that the truth? Don’t you wish SOMEONE with b*lls had stood up in one of Chimpy’s “press conferences” and asked the same question?
What a great moment in interviews – Shanchez just may be my new hero!
(also, really appreciating some of the responses here!!!!)
April 28th, 2009 at 4:40 pmOf course DeMint isn’t going to go into “concentrated GOP” talk. The GOP is shrinking and is going to have to go into radical methods to reinvent themselves for the public, possibly to the point that they totally do not resemble how they appeared during the Bush Administration.
I think that both parties are serious about giving Americans as many freedoms as possible. DeMint telling Sanchez that they are the party for the “tent of freedom” is a misnomer, as not everyone is considered “free” under that tent (i.e. gay marriage advocates, the poor, small business vs. big business). Offering a platform to express one’s desires for freedoms and liberty (the tea parties) is one thing, but offering those liberties is another, as I don’t feel the GOP can provide for the average American anymore.
April 28th, 2009 at 4:51 pmTea bags, tents getting pitched…let’s start taking bets on which blatantly obvious sexual innuendo the GOP will unknowingly glom onto next.
“See, us Republicans think this economy is dirty, like a rusty old trombone. Well, we’re gonna oil up that rusty trombone and play it until our economy is back on track.”
April 28th, 2009 at 5:08 pmLike an Alabama Hot Pocket…
April 28th, 2009 at 5:13 pmIs it a yurt of hurt?
April 28th, 2009 at 5:20 pmIt’s the pup tent of shame.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:23 pmI tell ya, it’s about freakin’ time that someone in the mainstream media finally grew a spine and asked someone in the GOP for concrete arguments instead of simply allowing them to spout all sorts of abstract (not to mention abstruse) pseudo-patriotic homilies and platitudes which must have sounded good to the sort of person who never bothers to think about what he’s being told or what motive someone might have for wanting him to believe it — yet which, when subjected to critical analysis by a reasonably intelligent and perceptive person, disclose themselves to be something akin to a verbal souffle with little of any real substance inside.
I personally find that the word “freedom”, much like the word “love”, is one of those deceptively innocuous words which everyone has been programmed to almost instinctively assume is a good thing — yet which unfortunately have the potential to mean very different things to different people. I collect quotations, and one of my very favorite ones is by Francois de la Rochefoucauld — “if we judge of love by its general effects, it resembles hatred rather than friendship”. Unfortunately, the same can potentially be said of the word “freedom” — whether this is true or not depends entirely upon the character and intentions of the person using the word. After all, some of the most brutal atrocities that human beings have ever committed have been done in the name of such high-sounding concepts as “freedom”.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:24 pmSen. Demint, have you met Rep. Michelle Bachmann?
April 28th, 2009 at 5:29 pmI think you have a lot in common.
I love it here in the tent of freedom, with my sleeping bag of liberty, and my canteen of democracy.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:30 pmNo, the biggest tent of all is the massive squid tent-acle.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:31 pmYo Dumint! I gotcha “big tent” right here.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:31 pmI love it here in the tent of freedom, with my sleeping bag of liberty, and my canteen of democracy.
—
April 28th, 2009 at 5:33 pmDon’t forget your somemore of family values…
Those would go great with the hot dog of security I’m roasting on a big stick. Got a free market cooler, too for my 40 ounces of the Lord.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:36 pmActually, now that I think about it…it’s interesting, isn’t it, that DeMint should have chosen to refer to the Republican Party as the “biggest tent” given that a big tent is usually a sign of a circus filled with clowns.
The analogy works as far as I’m concerned!
April 28th, 2009 at 5:39 pmdbadass Says:
I love it here in the tent of freedom, with my sleeping bag of liberty, and my canteen of democracy.
—
Don’t forget your somemore of family values…
April 28th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
__________
Or your bug spray of empty metaphors.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:40 pmOr your words of saying things.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:43 pmForgive me, but this shows exactly what is wrong with the Republicans. They have lost the ever loving freakin minds. You’ve got idiots like this guy and Michelle Backmann, Sean Mannity, Rush Limpbaugh, Joe Scarborough (Morning Joe), Dick(head) Cheney, Michelle Malkin,(Giraffe Neck) I mean, Ann Coulter, Neo Nazis, and the Klan and they make up the party. Arlen Spector just couldn’t take being a part of an extremist and racist party anymore. The people that support them are a bunch of low self esteem, bigoted, southern good ole boys and gals, who claim to love America, but clearly hate their fellow minority Americans. They are on the brink of becoming a small, do nothing, say anything, group of haters, who want to re-fight the civil war, and sucede from the union. The South will never rise again!
April 28th, 2009 at 5:47 pmI never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man on coming to his senses.
-William Makepeace Thackeray
He finally gave his good-bye speech, his leaving SC in the name of “freedom”, “can I get an Aman!!” , only to obtain his “freedom”….”yes sir!!” ,while living in “big tents” in the Republic of Texas?
Make sure you don’t forget to drink Perry’s “kool-aide” than you will be free, in the name of “freedom” under your “big-tents.”
Is this what he was trying to convey,perhaps?
DeMint is another right-wingnuttier by the minute for ya along with Bachmann.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:54 pmWhere the heck does the GOP find these people??!! DeMint needs to hear what Americans are hearing, “The Republican Party used to be the Big Tent Party, now they are only a sideshow” as was said by the hugely popular Bill Maher. DeMint is venting much like John Calhoun of the 1850s. I don’t even know if many in the deep south are even taking the Republican Party seriousky anymore!!
April 28th, 2009 at 5:55 pmTracy__5 Says:
More freedom certainly doesn’t mean doing what Specter did….more control is about right.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Delusional as always Tracy. Dont you ever get embarassed by ALWAYS being the weakest link?
April 28th, 2009 at 5:57 pmCamping out in the wilderness with the GOP.
April 28th, 2009 at 5:58 pmThe tent represents Ringling Brothers and freedom is another way of saying “STFU under all circumstances”.
Today’s Republicans are tomorrow’s mental hospital patients.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:04 pmIt doesn’t matter how big your tent is if it’s upside down.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:10 pmIsn’t the Freedom tent where they sell the Freedom fries at the county fair?
April 28th, 2009 at 6:12 pmDeMint: “Uhh, uhhh… big tent… freedom… lower taxes? SMALL GOVERNMENT! Uhh.. liberty…”
The famous Rovian method of controlling the debate by laying claim to key emotive phrases has now run completely into the ditch. Republicans don’t even know what they’re saying any more. They just have a list of words they’re expected to recite to make the electorate feel good. But the reality has now become so divorced from their Rove-speak that they can no longer put those phrases together into sentences that refer to reality, much less assemble the coherent grammar to string them together.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:14 pmwiley Says:
Camping out in the wilderness with the GOP.
=======
Especially, if “Torturer” Cheney and “Crazy” Bachmann is out there running their re-education/re-programming torture camps with only Rush and Mike Savage to listen to.
I wouldn’t camp with this bunch.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:18 pmHe should have just stuck with the Fox talking points. socialist facist marxist zionist teleprompter reading elitist who pals around with acorn and ayers.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:19 pmHey who let those gays into the tent? Damn it did someone leave the zipper undone?
April 28th, 2009 at 6:22 pmThere in the past tents. Had to.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:35 pmDeMint makes many of us in SC cringe, especially today.
April 28th, 2009 at 6:36 pmYeah, Acme Public Relations Co. isn’t really working out for them.
April 28th, 2009 at 7:32 pmVery cool, Senator DeMint. Poor response, Mr. Sanchez. The correct answer would be “so you believe Americans should be free to choose their own marriage partner, choose whether to smoke marijuana or drink alcohol, and steer their own reproductive health?”
April 28th, 2009 at 7:35 pmNah. The proper response was “What the hell does that mean?” WTF also works.
April 28th, 2009 at 7:40 pmHaving lived in SC, I see 2 types of repub Senators from SC. The old school Thurmonds who may have made me cringe, but had the ability to think
And the new school SC repubs who are strictly empty, pressed suits. Not capable of evolving to sentient life.
I see Demint as the later.
April 28th, 2009 at 7:59 pmIt’s wonderful that the conservative base of the Republican Party can get together to jump up and down and thump their chests in unison. However, their ideology is so far out of the mainstream of the American public that they only account for 20-25% of the voting population. So unless they begin to follow the lead of some of the more moderate leaders in their party, they can count on getting creamed again in the 2010 and 2012 elections.
The hate-mongering rhetoric of Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, etc. is the single best ally of the Democratic Party. Sure, their broadcasts are popular, but do the math folks. For every voter who listens to these ignorant clowns and embraces every word they say, there are three voters who are totally put off by their disingenuous vitriolic rants.
Arlen Specter is extremely principled, but he wanted no part of the obstructionist mentality that has become the obsession of the Republican Party. So he voted his conscience and supported some key legislation that undermined the GOP’s primary goal during the next 2-4 years–to do everything in their power to impair the success of the Obama Administration, even to the detriment of the American people.
The GOP had basically told Specter that they had no use for him and would see to it that he was not re-elected. So they are shocked that he switched parties because….
It’s akin to a spouse changing the locks and leaving a note on the front door saying “I want a divorce”, and then acting offended and outraged when they get their wish.
April 28th, 2009 at 11:11 pmYou know, Palin probably would be the best candidate for them in 2012. Lord knows she’s helped them pitch plenty of big ol’ tents already. Maybe if she works at it, she can help them pitch some even bigger tents.
April 29th, 2009 at 12:13 am.
FREEDOM from TORTURE…
FREEDOM from RELIGION…
FREEDOM from WARRANTLESS SEARCHES…
… That’s your limited Government!!!
.
April 29th, 2009 at 12:58 amWasn’t CNN a big cheerleader for the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq? I am amazed at how supportive the corporate corrupt media are of Obama, the very same folks who lied for Bush and boosted our nation’s treasure into the sands of the ME. Wonder why they like Obama so much…
April 29th, 2009 at 4:25 amMax Anax junius wrote:
FREEDOM from TORTURE…
FREEDOM from RELIGION…
FREEDOM from WARRANTLESS SEARCHES…
… That’s your limited Government!!!
Are you aware that the Obama admin just recently argued in Federal court in San Francisco for broader powers for spying than even Bush did? Are you aware that it also, in another case, is trying to weaking the Miranda protection of counsel present when interrogated by authorities?
April 29th, 2009 at 4:28 amDeMint, Limbaugh, Cheney…etc…these are all demented souls who found their way to the public forum via media like CNN and through the auspices of ATT, Fox/AOL, and other mega corporations. When America cleans up its media of sick souls and sycophants, democracy might just become that, a government of the people and not overly politically and economically vested by the likes of this ilk.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:34 amI was forced to watch this total Tools interview in the waiting room of my V.A. center…and when he made this remark…two vets got totally pissed off at him and when they changed the channel to FOX…everyone started thanking them.
A career nurse…who obviously had put the channel on to begin with…came out from around the desk…to change it back to this Anti-American retard…and several Vets told her to leave the channel alone…and go back to doing her job!
For those of you so proud of this tools remarks…how is that any different than what you accuse the other side of doing?
Oh…that’s right…it’s OK if a liberal tool does it…but when it is a conservative…they are just mean and don’t know what they are talking about.
Hypocrites!!!!
April 29th, 2009 at 11:27 amBig tent or is it Big Top as in circus which the republican party is rapidly becoming.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:29 pmkassandrasduplex Says:
Are you aware that the Obama admin just recently argued in Federal court in San Francisco for broader powers for spying than even Bush did? Are you aware that it also, in another case, is trying to weaking the Miranda protection of counsel present when interrogated by authorities?
And are you aware that outrageous accusations without so much as a single link to substantiate your claims have no credibility outside DeMints’ “big tent”?
Come back when you have something that didn’t come frome some wingnut blog.
April 29th, 2009 at 6:13 pmThanks Sites Sesli Sohbet
April 30th, 2009 at 8:34 amSesli Chat
SesliSohbet
SesliChat
Rick Sanchez really is a biased moron. What the hell does freedom mean? The vapid idiocy was coming from CNN not from Demint. Demint explained what the hell that meant. Obama’s meddling with how much executives can get paid. THe Congress impeding free speech with the fairness doctrine. Napolitano stating that people who don’t agree with the liberal agenda should be labeled as domestic terrorists. That’s just a taste of how this administration has no clue what this country actually stands for and hates the freedoms we enjoy. You whiners thought the Patriot Act was bad just wait and see what Barry the Kenyan pulls out of his hat.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:39 pm