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Alan Colmes Makes Anti-Reform Urologist Look Silly

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by Tommy Christopher | 8:49 pm, April 6th, 2010

» 13 comments

While he was half of the duo Hannity and Colmes, Alan Colmes was the subject of derision from the left. Monday morning quarterbacking Colmes’ responses to Sean Hannity‘s guests was a favorite pastime, and current liberal hero Senator Al Franken (D-MN) mocked him mercilessly in his book. I bet they all miss Alan now.

On last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart played a clip of Florida urologist Jack Cassell on Fox News, vomiting misinformation about health care reform unchallenged. He then played a clip of Colmes, the guy whose job that used to be, completely decimating the guy in a radio interview.

In his well-researched 2003 book Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them), Franken mocked Colmes for failing to point things out during H&C segments, and reduced his name to the lower-cased “colmes” in transcripts. For some reason, this made me want to check out Colmes’ book, Red, White, and Liberal, I guess to see what an awful hack the guy must be.

I was surprised to find out that Colmes is a really good liberal and a very sharp, thoughtful guy. Since then, I’ve learned that people outside the news media often have trouble understanding certain parts of the job. They expect journalists and talking heads to treat every exchange as if it’s a prize fight. Sometimes, that’s necessary, but in the long view, nobody will ever talk to you if you constantly interrupt, or talk about bloody diapers, or call people names. Even Franken had to pull punches on his radio show, for example, or he’d never have been able to book any guests.

Also, with the pressure on and the cameras rolling, it can be tough to access every point in an argument every time. This is true even in a neutral setting like the White House briefing room. It’s magnified when you’re one blue speck in a studio swimming with red.

But let’s face it, Colmes’ true crime was that he didn’t personalize it– he didn’t sneer at Hannity and call him “dumbass” every five minutes– because that’s what you would do, right? I can relate. Many on the left deplore the fact that I get along with conservatives, even though it affords me, and them, a unique ability to see behind the scenes. If you go around looking for a fight, you might find one, but that’s all you’ll find.

So, now, while Colmes is still a Fox News contributor, he doesn’t have the platform he did before, and he’s not there as often to stem the tide of bullshit from people like Cassell. If the left doesn’t miss him, they should.

Al Franken, Alan Colmes, Jack Cassell, Sean Hannity, Tommy Christopher

News Hounds Ellen

As the blogger at News Hounds who covered Hannity & Colmes for several years – now blogging about Hannity’s solo show – there is probably no liberal Fox News viewer who misses Colmes more than I do. I have long said that he did a far better job than he got credit for. I believe you hit the nail on the head in your assessment that his critics didn’t understand or could never take into account the kinds of constraints he almost surely operated under on H&C.

That said, Colmes seems to have really hit his stride now as an independent contributor. He obviously has a lot more freedom and I think it agrees with him. 99% of the Democratic spokespeople could – and should, in my view – take some lessons from him. It’s sad that Hannity and/or his producer seem too cowardly to bring Colmes back for an occasional re-match.
Averreauxii

Alan Colmes has been very phenomenal defending the liberal platform in the past few months even in his FNC contributor status on Foxnews. I had noticed he was reserved when he appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor”s segment with Monica Crowley. I noticed he let her get away saying things that any respectable liberal would eviscerate on the spot. Turns out she is his sister-in-law, so understandable. He however is very sharp and more hostile in rebuttal when she is not there. There is a favorite episode of mine where he completely dressed down Tantaros when Eric Bolling was guest hosting for O’Reilly. Bill also always cuts him off and openly derides him when he responds to the conservative talking points. Alan pushes back effectively in a neutral environment. I wish he had his own show on FNC to slap around the righty ideologues. He has a different style that is not boorish or antagonistic but still gets the finer points across.
drex94

I TOO MISS ALAN COLMES –THAT WHY HANNITY GOT RID OF HIM…COLMES WAS USUALLY RIGHT.
Rusty Shackelford

I’m an arch conservative who’s willing to say he admires Alan Colmes.He’s not a screeching one trick pony like KO,Maddow,Randi Rhodes and yes on the flip side Hannity.
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pyrope

First, it was not Mr. Hannity who ostracized Mr. Colmes. Mr. Colmes left because he felt he wasn’t “being effective” in that particular venue.

Make no mistake about it though, Mr. Colmes is a decent human being. Before he appeared on FOX, he had a radio gig and raised a lot of money each year for a couple of charities, plus he did a lot of gratis work on the local scene–I believe he was with WHRU at the time. Still, that doesn’t make him correct in his political arguments, even though on occasion he is. On the whole, Mr. Colmes is a good-hearted idealist who can’t see that liberalism is a failure.