Update 3: Thank you Kossacks, apparently Tweety interviewed Greer earlier this evening - link here: http://www.youtube.com/... Still no link for CNN though.
Update 2: Greer is the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party. This Rhode Islander apologizes for not knowing! That makes the story even better!
Update 1: The gentleman's name is Jim Greer. I added it to the title.
I know that this is probably lost in the morass of the Michael Jackson internment service on CNN, but I just heard (on my XM) Anderson Cooper and Roland Martin eviscerate some Floridian Republican right-wing freak over the issue of President Obama. Unfortunately, I missed the intros, (so I don't know the Republican's name)and they kept cutting into the conversation to remind us they were waiting for the Jackson service to begin, but it was awesome!
The Republican could not be consistant, claiming first that President Obama was trying to indoctrinate the students in liberal thought. Then he said he objected to the government sending out an accompanying lesson plan that encouraged kids to write letters to the President (oh please, I remember Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter all doing the same thing when I was in school), and then it was all about the Obama "cult of personality."
Well, Anderson Cooper let him have it (I'm paraphrasing here): "Why didn't you complain when President Bush went to address schools?"
"If the President clearly has no intent to say anything political in the speech, then why are you still objecting?"
Roland Martin was all over this guy, knocking him on the mat over the fact that every President addresses school children at least once, and he never complained about President Bush. Martin just kept on him, saying that it was politics, and the only reason he was doing this was because he was a Republican.
The Republican said it was parental choice, but really, that sort of came as a whimper.
And Roland had at him one last time - in fact, his stinging rebuke of "politics" not "parental choice" was ringing in my ears as they went to a break.
Honestly, it was a great moment for real journalism, something that has been sorely lacking on straight news broadcasts for sometime. I'm just sorry it will be lost in all the sensational coverage of other stories this evening.
I cannot find a video - yet - but hopefully CNN will post soon.
If somebody else has a link - thanks in advance!