Give anyone a loud microphone, a regular audience of concerned citizens -- and they're liable to do some damage after a while. Especially if they "sound measured and reasonable," and their soapbox hosts never disclose the many conflicts of interests held by their "regular" democratic observer and perennial spokesman.
Ed Rendell is one such Megaphone. A sly "democratic" agenda-setter -- for hire. And MSNBC is his perennial, obliging host.
MSNBC: Disclose Fix-the-Debt co-chair Ed Rendell's conflicts of interest when booking
credomobilize.com/petitions
To: MSNBC
Ed Rendell today is a co-chair of Fix the Debt — nevertheless, in media appearances on your network he is regularly introduced only as the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania. He is special counsel to the law firm Ballard Spahr, where he focuses on privatization in housing and infrastructure. Rendell is a senior adviser at Greenhill & Co., a multinational investment bank.
Rendell is also on the advisory board of Verdeva, a technology development firm, and an operating partner at the venture capital firm Element Partners, a company that has recently invested in natural gas "fracking" in Pennsylvania and nearby states.
Ed Rendell is no longer a Democratic politician. He is a lobbyist, a banking adviser, and technology investor.
Ed Rendell has numerous conflicts of interest that belie his role as neutral or "liberal" commenter. [...]
And MSNBC response to their viewers petition: to give the former Democratic Governor EVEN MORE air-time, to promote the views of various unnamed think-tanks:
[...]
To those who argue that the ideological splits within the party are overstated or mostly stylistic, the effort to draft Warren is a misguided enterprise. “There really isn’t a huge division in the party,” said former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell (D). “. . . I don’t think it’s anything like the tea party and the Republicans.”
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Democrats see rising populist sentiment. But can it shake Hillary Clinton?
by Dan Balz, washingtonpost.com -- December 24, 2014
THAT, is what Pundit Rendell's backers would like us to believe. You know, they can paper-over our "trivial differences" -- between us Warren-Sanders advocates and the traditional stakeholders of the DNC.
And they have the Papier-mâché on the ready ... just as soon as we heed their urgent fundraising calls ... for them to once again save the day dawn the garments of Republican-Lites.
Whether it is standing up for Bain Capital capitalists, or failing to disclose his own conflict of interest, when vigorously advocating for the "Fracking interests" laying claim, the state he once used to governed -- Ed Rendell has various undisclosed agendas. And their differences with progressive-populism couldn't be more stark.
When Ed Rendell comments on current events, he usually wearing his Green-tinted $pectacles, as he tries to make the blame-the-victims dog-food palatable:
[...]
Villagers and cynics love to mock liberals for “Green lantern-ism” — the notion that the president has more power than he actually does — but the truth is that this centrist twaddle qualifies just as easily. Oddly, Rendell and company rarely get criticized for insisting that the president could have just gotten everyone in a room and knocked some heads together to solve everything once and for all. It’s fair to say that this myth is just as pervasive as the so-called silly liberals’ and it’s believed in much more powerful circles than the comment section of Daily Kos. Rendell gives the president only a C-plus, unfortunately, because, well, you know why:
ED [Rendell]: When I say C-plus, he came in with tremendous wind at his back, and he had the opportunity to do great things. He’s failed to do the politics, small p, necessary to do the great things. Interestingly, I think he has a chance to change that legacy — ISIS has given him that. He did a brilliant job putting that coalition together. You’ve got Arab jet-fighter pilots dropping bombs on other Muslims. That’s a huge achievement. I think if he pivots off this, if after the election he gets immigration reform done, maybe cleans up a few things in the Affordable Care Act, and maybe his last year does the bargain on the debt — if he does all that, then he gets the A-minus.
It’s nice that Rendell thinks ISIS is an “opportunity” for the president to change his legacy [...]
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Chris Matthews and Ed Rendell, working-class heroes — in their dreams
by Heather Digby Parton, salon.com -- Nov 3, 2014
Pundit Rendell would love for us Daily Kos rabble-rousers to just get in line -- his party-line -- and accept the inevitable -- afterall the corporate-forces-that-be, have already predicted the outcome, THEY want ... the rest is just obligatory kabuki.
[... Ed Rendell: ]
Well, it’s not necessarily a coronation; a coronation is when somebody hasn’t earned it. I think for all of the things that Hillary Clinton has done in her career, she has basically earned it. When George W. Bush ran, he had some competition, but he hadn’t done the things that Hillary Clinton had done.
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Video – Rendell on MSNBC: Hillary has already “earned the nomination”
by Jazz Shaw, hotair.com -- February 1, 2014
Foregone conclusions -- meet your inevitable Destiny. The great and wise Rendell has spoken.
We can fold up camp and go home now. The undisclosed interests have chosen their champion.
And the Horse-race promoters could be more pleased about it. People-Schmeople! -- The Punditry-media now have themselves a real contest: Clinton vs Bush II -- it's the story of our American {Corporate} Dynasty ...
An Open Letter to MSNBC: Disclose Ed Rendell's Conflicts of Interest
by Daniel Marans, Executive Producer, Take Action News with David Shuster, huffingtonpost.com -- 03/06/2013
Dear MSNBC President Phil Griffin,
I am a longtime fan of MSNBC. I have watched it regularly for years and admired its growth into a commercially successful platform for smart news and analysis.
That is why I am so disappointed that MSNBC did not respond to a CREDO petition asking it to disclose Governor Ed Rendell's conflicts of interest when featuring him as a guest or analyst.
[...]
Governor Rendell's role as co-chair of the Fix the Debt campaign stands out because he frequently uses his platform as an MSNBC analyst to call for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Specifically, Governor Rendell has suggested on MSNBC that the president should enact the chained CPI, a cut to Social Security benefits that would grow deeper over time, hitting oldest beneficiaries hardest. He has also said that President Obama should propose raising the Medicare eligibility age to 67, which is projected to deprive nearly half a million seniors of health insurance and drive up out-of-pocket costs for just about everybody else.
Whatever one thinks of Governor Rendell's positions, the public deserves to know that he is not just a neutral commentator. [...]
Details, details ... the Schmeople don't need to be bothered by such pesky, 'trivial' details.
Let them read blogs -- if they really want to be informed.
... (Phil Griffin was assumed to have said, by his enduring, soft-soap silence, regarding Mr Rendell's many yet-to-be-disclosed, back-channel agendas.)
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