Randi Rhodes: The Cain Doctrine

It's Friday, ya bastids!

Herman Cain was on Lawrence O’Donnell’s show last night, probably because Herman needs to sell some copies of his book before his 15 minutes of political viability are over. The title of Cain’s book is “This Is Herman Cain!” I wonder if that was directed at Sarah Palin. This is Herman Cain, Sarah—not Herb Cain.

According to Cain, “Taxing people more who make over a million dollars isn’t going to solve the problem.” Really? It makes more sense than the Republican approach to the problem—which is to tax them less. Taxing millionaires won’t solve the problem? We don’t have enough money. Taxing millionaires raises more money. According to my math, that certainly helps solve the problem.

Cain says he didn’t participate in the Civil Rights struggle because he was just a high school student. And that’s a valid reason—except for the fact that Cain was a college student during the height of the struggle. Herman, you can’t just make facts up—you’re not on Fox News right now. Cain asked Lawrence “Did you expect every black student in every black college in America to be out there in the middle of every fight?” No, Mr. Cain, I don’t expect everyone to have participated—but I do expect someone who wants to be the President of the United States to have done something.

The National Journal’s famed political prognosticator Charlie Cook says that the Republican nomination is Rick Perry’s to lose. And if he gets the nomination, that’s exactly what Rick Perry will do.

HOUR TWO GUEST: Matt Butler, President & CEO of Media Matters for America on how Fox News has re-shaped America over the last 15 years.

And Fox News turns 15 years old this week. Before Fox News, most news organizations at least made an effort to get at the truth. The only time Fox News tries to get at the truth is when it’s hunting it down to kill it. Now with Fox News, conservatives have a place to go if they don’t want to know what’s going on. Fox News has managed to divide America like nothing has since the Mason-Dixon line, and we all know how that turned out. Give them this much—Fox News provided a lot of people with employment opportunities. If it weren’t for Fox News, people like Bill O’Reilly would be shouting their craziness in bus stations.

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