Mark Shields
Biography and Quotes

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The media were more than willing to assist. Columnist Mark Shields on the "Capital Gang" remarked that Bush had badly damaged his own cause in the general election by "hanging out with the cast of 'Deliverance'" in his South Carolina comeback effort.

In case you missed the movie, Shields was comparing Christian conservatives to the dueling-banjo strumming, sodomy-seeking Mongoloid mountain men from the wilds of Georgia. The previous weekend, ABC's George Stephanapolous said that Bush had become a kamikaze Conservative by appealing to the pro-life extremists of the religious right. In many news stories, McCain's strengths are trumpeted while his vulnerabilities are ignored and Bush's weaknesses are underscored.

McCain's Coalition-Busting Daggers in GOP's Heart
David Limbaugh March 1, 2000
http://archive.newsmax.com/commentmax/get.pl?a=2000/3/1/083052

How do members of the media really feel about Dick Cheney? Mark Shields, a syndicated columnist appeared on the roundtable discussion show Inside Washington, which airs on Friday nights on local PBS powerhouse WETA. He blasted Cheney, linking the accident to his Vietnam deferments, saying:

"I’m just grateful that he had his five deferments, because, my God, if he’d had gotten a platoon, he would have wiped out half his own men."

Shields, who has previously connected Tom DeLay to the West Virginia coal mine tragedy, also accused the Vice President of not caring about the troops and possibly being drunk when he shot Harry Whittington. Shields, in one sentence, brought up the old canard that Cheney is running the country and also suggested that the Vice President doesn’t care as much about American soldiers as he does Harry Whittington:

"Watching that interview with Brit Hume, just once, uh, to see the Vice President display such emotion and sympathy, I just once wish he’d demonstrated similar concern for the Americans who have fallen in Iraq, as a result of his decision." (Emphasis added)

He later indicated that he saw conspiracy in the Vice President’s comments about alcohol use.

"Brit Hume did ask him about drinking. He said, oh no, you never go hunting with anybody who's drinking. I never would do that. I had a beer at lunch. Wait a minute. Is a beer drinking? I think it is. So there was that certain disconnect in some of his answers."

Columnist Shields: Cheney's Drunk, Deferred, and Dangerous
By Scott Whitlock (Bio | Archive) February 21, 2006 - 01:08 ET
http://newsbusters.org/node/4116