Anti-'Factor' Folks

Nobody likes us: that's the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

Listen up. — All you Kool-Aid liberals who think this program flacks from the right. Here's proof positive you are wrong. Republican Congressman Curt Weldon (search) was invited to appear on this broadcast two days ago. He accepted. — Weldon's pushing a book.

Now we expected the congressman to show up for the interview in our Washington bureau about 15 minutes before air time. We received an e-mail from his Chief of Staff, Russ Caso, that Weldon was on his way.

One problem, Weldon was not on his way. In fact, Weldon never showed up. He stiffed us. Apparently, the congressman had some late votes, and that happens all the time, but most people call. They don't stiff us. So I went on the air, told you exactly what Weldon did, and that he was banned from future appearances on “The Factor”.

Well, Weldon took exception to that and actually went to the House floor yesterday and said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CURT WELDON (R-PA): Mr. Speaker, in this job, all of us are used to misinformation, lies and distortions, and manipulation by the media. We refer to that as spin.

But Mr. Speaker, I never expected such spin to come from the No Spin Zone of Bill O'Reilly. Mr. O'Reilly proceeded to tell his national audience last night that I "snubbed him", that I failed to call him, that I was inconsiderate, that I was rude.

Talk about spin, Mr. Speaker. So today, I sent a memo to Mr. O'Reilly explaining the facts. Now I would remind Mr. O'Reilly that the Secretary of Energy, an important meeting on nuclear issues in the former Soviet states, takes my top priority.

So Mr. Speaker, for the record, because I had some contacts from constituents or other members, I would put the summary of my statement to Mr. O'Reilly and the notes of my staff about their contact with Mr. O'Reilly's show in to the Congressional Record.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Amazing. What a colossal waste of the people's time!

Now look, congressman, man to man, me and you, OK? We have an e-mail that proves your staff didn't tell you the truth. And your own publisher apologized to us! Don't embarrass yourself any further, sir.

This, of course, is not important in any way except to demonstrate that the truth has become elusive in America. But folks make mistakes, they should not attack as Weldon did. They should try to correct the mistake. Every human being is fallible. And we should stop the blame game. Let's all own up, all of us, instead of being a country of excuse makers and personal attackers.

"Talking Points" has nothing against Curt Weldon. I actually feel bad that his staff is so chaotic. But enough's enough with the propaganda. Let's stop the nonsense. And you can put that in the Congressional Record, Congressman.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day"...

The very spooky St. Petersburg Times newspaper once again lodged personal attacks against Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite and me for demanding justice in the murder case of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford (search).

The paper is completely in the tank for local authorities who refused to arrest three people who apparently helped confessed killer John Couey (search). Now this is an old story, but the newspaper continues to attack those with whom it disagrees.

Remember that paper was also soft on accused terrorist funder Sami Al-Arian (search).

The guy behind the attacks, Greg Hamilton, said his bosses will not let him be a man and debate the issue with me. So there's not much else to say. I feel the paper is not only wrong but irresponsible and intellectually dishonest.

But we'll let events play out in both the Lunsford and Al-Arian cases. Ultimately, the good people of Central Florida will make a judgment about the St. Pete Times. We'll keep you posted. To not do so would be ridiculous...