What's Eating John McLaughlin?



(image via mrc)

Off and on for 20 years -- off while attending college -- we have watched "The McLaughlin Group" with an almost unholy joy. Geeky, yes, but we cannot deny the sublime pleasure of watching Pat Buchanan's Archie Bunkerish nativism ossify, over the years, right before our eyes into a fully-fledged case of inoperable xenophobia. Priceless.

And what of the fundamentally boring Fred "beetle" Barnes? Bloodless, to be sure, but entertaining in his colorless and entirely predictable defense of free market capitalism. Mort we won't mention because he was a living, breathing punching-bag on whom McLaughlin took out his political aggressions with rhetorical right-crosses and ideological hay makers. And of the wonderful Eleanor Clift, who is now just one of the guys, screaming, "waitaminnut, waitaminnute, let me finish!" just before McLaughlin gallantly breaks in and gives her precious seconds to finish her point.

And then there is Mort Zuckerman, a newbie, a billionaire who is not averse to spilling inside information from his contacts in the Israeli Knesset. And the bloviating Tony Blankley, now thankfully gone, who never seemed to be able to play nice with Eleanor.

But we are most impressed with Monica Crowley, also a newbie, who is clearly a cross between right-of-center foreign-policy intellectualism and eye-candy to McLaughlin. Crowley stood up to McLaughlin's irrationalism last week, calling him on his absurd claim that "white men are the most discriminated against .." foolishness.

But this is not the only odd McLaughlin claim that has come through in the past few weeks. Increasingly The McLaughlin Group is veering into deeply anti-Obama rhetoric. McLaughlin, a former Jesuit priest and Nixon speechwriter, is obviously going to pull the lever for McCain. That's his right as an American. But on the show McLaughlin has always worn the cloak of impartiality. And he wore it well. Even during the Clinton '92 Presidential race -- which The Corsair remembers clearly -- McLaughlin tried to remain fair, picking topics that equally praised and attacked the rising governor's popularity. No one who watched the program doubted that McLaughlin was a Bush '41 man, but he never tipped his hat remotely as far to the Right as he has been doing, of late, in the case of Senator Obama.

McLaughlin has done everything in his power to paint Obama in an unflattering light. His heavy-handed brushstrokes insinuating naivete and unpatriotic behavior come right out of the McCain camp and are quite rancid. As someone who has watched the McLaughlin Group with the unabashed joy that only a political geek can experience over 20 years, it is with sadness that we relate that the host may be going over the deep end with the sexist comments and the virulent anti-Obama rhetoric, which even surpasses Pat Buchanan's.

It may, sadly, be time to stop watching The Group.