Shite Said Fred

Fred Barnes is cheesed off that last night's "town hall" "debate" didn't make time for any LaRouchies or Bible-humpers:

The candidates were queried on a narrow range of foreign, economic, health care, and environmental issues -- the stuff they talk about every day at rallies and fundraisers. These didn't come close to what voters at a real town hall meeting might have asked. There was no mention of abortion, immigration, moral values, same sex marriage, guns, their role models, their view of the presidency, or their religious faith.

There's just no pleasing our Freddy. Here's what he said about the Republican "You Tube" debate some 10 months ago:

But it was chiefly the questions and who asked them that made the debate so appalling. By my recollection, there were no questions on health care, the economy, trade, the S-chip children's health care issue, the "surge" in Iraq, the spending showdown between President Bush and Congress, terrorist surveillance, or the performance of the Democratic Congress.

For those keeping score, that would be a narrow range of foreign, economic and health care issues.

But wait, there's more. Back then, Fred bitched that

By my count, of the 30-plus questions, there were 6 on immigration, 3 on guns, 2 on abortion, 2 on gays, and one on whether the candidates believe every word in the Bible. These are exactly the issues, in the view of liberals and many in the media, on which Republicans look particularly unattractive.

That would be your abortion, your immigration, your moral values, your same sex marriage, your guns and your religious faith.

Barnes' real complaint, of course, is that the voters have rejected McCain/Palin on the economy, foreign policy, health care and the environment, and that the Republican ticket's only hope in hell is to demagogue "moral values" and pander to rabid-right fundies like Barnes himself. As we can see, however, had the debate focused on social issues, Barnes would wail that the proceedings were intended to make McCain look particularly unnattractive.

Barnes doesn't really care what the questions are. The only things he cares about are keeping the Republicans in power and keeping his Republican paychecks rolling in.