David Gregory is a Universal Constant

 

It was brought to my attention (repeatedly :-) today that David Gregory had once again bobbed to the surface of mainstream media attention with the same "But the Democrats..." energy he has brought to every Republican scandal and catastrophe since the boys & girls at the NBC Pundit Lab assembled him out of spare parts left over from David Brooks Weekly Standard columns and turned him loose on an unsuspecting world.  

Thanks to Media Matters for the video

And the transcript (with emphasis added):

POPPY HARLOW (CO-HOST): How can they not coalesce in a moment like this? How do you explain it? 

DAVID GREGORY (CNN POLITICAL ANALYST): I don't have an explanation. I think it's another embarrassment for the Republican Party. Mike McFaul, who is a very serious lawmaker from Texas from the Homeland Security Committee said the world is burning. The world is on fire. And we can't seem to come to an agreement on a leader. It's a real problem. I mean at the end of the week here with all this chaos among Republicans but much graver circumstances around the world. I actually have my eye on Democrats. How long are Democrats going to stand by in the world of identity politics, and zero-sum politics, and not be part of any solution? We'll see. I think there's more cards to be played before Democrats jump in. But I think people who don't follow this day in and day out like we do, they're looking up and they're wondering whether Washington has the ability to do their job, to pass bills, pass legislation, make sure the government is funded, let alone play a role on the world stage which is what America is still expected to do.

In case you are unfamiliar, before David Gregory (aka. Dancin' Dave, aka Greggers, aka Fluffy) was a CNN political analyst, he had the most prestigious job on network political teevee.  The host of 

 Meet the Press, which was, at the time, the most-watched Sunday morning talk show in America and the flagship of the Villager Centrist bullshit Sunday Show armada. 

And he was consistently fucking awful, in exactly same way every week.  Mr. Both Sides Do In right down to his Buster Browns.  NBC even brought in a shrink, which they referred to euphemistically as a "brand consultant" to see if putting Greggers on the couch could fix what was broken at Meet the Press.  That failed, because what was broken at Meet the Press then is exactly what is still broken: their total commitment to the Both Sides Do It Big Lie.     

When the shrink couldn't fix what was wrong. Greggers he was fired by NBC executives over the phone as he was out tooling around the countryside, presumably looking for new fences to straddle.  

He was then replaced by Chuck Todd, who was exactly as awful as Gregory in exactly the same way.

And just to bring you up all the way up-to-date, after +8 godawful years, Todd was allowed to "resign" and has been replaced by Kristen Welker, who is shaping up to be...exactly as awful as Gregory and Todd in exactly the same way.

As if maybe the problem isn't the hirees.  Maybe its the hirers. 

Also, if you're a media/politics nerd like me, you may have also found it deeply weird that Gregory's entire tenure at the helm of MTP was just ... sorta ... forgotten.  That people who are prone to nostalgic misremembrance on social media used to moan and cry that Chuck Todd's blatant incompetence would make Tim Russert spin in his grave.  Except Todd didn't replace Russert, and Russert was no great shakes anyway.  Greggers replaced Russert, and Todd replaced Greggers.   

Also too, by NBC standards, Greggers clearly wasn't incompetent and neither was Todd.  In fact, they were both very good at doing exactly what NBC executives hired them to do: sucking up to Conservatives, deflecting any criticism of Republican atrocities with "Both Sides Do It" , abjuring any potentially embarrassing follow up questions of Republicans when they were clearly lying, and so forth.

But hey, don't just take my word for it:

For you younger folks, before @NBCNews turned to @chucktodd and then @kwelkernbc they used to rely on @davidgregory as Director of Both Sidesist Bullshit on @MeetThePress https://t.co/MCS2Zd44r7

— Keith Olbermann⌚️ (@KeithOlbermann) October 13, 2023

So when reports of Greggers' latest inane return to the Both Sides Do It precincts reached me, I got to wondering exactly how long I'd been writing about Gregory and Todd and the indestructible bullshit salad shooter that is Meet the Press.  Fortunately for me I don't have to guess.  I have archives.  And so down and down the winding steps I went, deeper into the darkness, past the Trump years and even past the Obama administration.  All the way to the depths of the fiery wreck of the Bush regime.  August of 2005, where we find Gregory guest hosting Meet the Press.

Meet The Press II:

Iraq. Constitution. Sunni. Monday deadline. Where does it end?
A rather intriguing if surreal discussion on the Coming Iraqi Democracy from two guys which whom I had been unfamiliar until today.

Larry Diamond and Reuel Marc Gerecht.

Our host, David Gregory, introduced them as follows: “Middle East specialist for the CIA, Reuel Marc Gerecht, and former adviser for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Larry Diamond.”

One line did jump right out me, though. I the face of rather stark evidence that women are about to get screwed back into the 13th Century in Iraq, Reuel Marc Gerecht opined that:

“In 1900, women did not have the right to vote. If Iraqis could develop a democracy that resembled America in the 1900s, I think we'd all be thrilled. I mean, women's social rights are not critical to the evolution of democracy.”

So take that Soccer Mom!

So what else is Reuel Marc Gerecht, other than a man who obviously never, ever wants to get laid ever again.

Why he is, among other things, a Senior Fellow at the Project for a New American Century.

You know, the people that run Bush Foreign Policy like a Predator Drone.

And the other guy -- Larry Diamond – in addition to “advising” the CPA also happened to be Fellow at the Very Right Wing Hoover Institute. The internets reveal that there are currently eight Hoover fellows on the Defense Policy Board that advises Don Rumsfeld.

Funny how David Gregory forgot to mention that.

So, long damn time.

Gregory's tenure at Meet the Press would have been worth a laugh or two as buffoonish comic opera were it not for the fact that Gregory wielded real power: a guest shot on MTP was worth hard currency and fungible credibility; repeated appearances increased your Very Serious Person line of credit exponentially.

And who was Greggers' most-invited guest in 2009?

This guy:

Newt Gingrich, who (as I have mentioned once or twice or 100 times before) has been a real curve-breaking innovator in Republican lying, adultery, hypocrisy, racism and demagogy practically since the beginning of recorded time.

Also he hadn't held a single elected office since "Ally McBeal" was on teevee.

Beyond rehabilitating the public career of a degenerate like Gingrich over and over and over again, Gregory's other fetish was making sure that nary a Sunday went by without a homily from David Fucking Brooks.  

I seemed like every week, Brooks would show up on the panel and Gregory would read Brooks' latest Both Siderist obscenity back to Brooks and ask then Brooks what he thought of it.

Riveting!

When Brooks wasn't available for whatever reason -- shopping for a new wife, or teaching a class in Humility at Yale --  Gregory would read Brook's latest column aloud anyway and ask everyone else what they thought of it.

One more from the Twitterverse, from friend of the pod, Jay Rosen:

For me to run a clip of bad punditry only so you can appreciate its wretched state means that this is content approaching museum quality.

David Gregory: pic.twitter.com/GsczeJ83qz

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) October 13, 2023

What else can one say about David Gregory other than -- 

Age cannot wither him/

Nor custom stale his interminable monotony.

There Is A Club...