Wes Vernon
Saturday, March 29, 2003

Moyers, an old Lyndon Johnson acolyte, received the tongue-in-cheek "Dishonors" in two categories: the "I Hate You Conservatives Award," and the "Quote of the Year."

Moyers, whose Public Television salary is subsidized by the American taxpayer, had delivered an angry on-air reaction to results of the mid-term election of November, 2002.

The film clip in question showed the pundit bemoaning the Republican Party's "monopoly control of the American government" that was "united by a right-wing agenda."

He did not note in passing that his Democrat party had "monopoly control" of the government united behind a left-wing agenda while his mentor was shoveling out taxpayer dollars to build the so-called Great Society.

In his "Dishonor" award-winning rant, this relic of the sixties big government era compared President Bush unfavorably to the "reasonable" Republicanism symbolized in the fifties by the now-deceased President Dwight Eisenhower. He did not mention that Ike's "reasonableness" may have been rooted in the shrinking GOP presence in congressional, state, and local offices during his presidency, as opposed to George W. Bush who (unreasonably?) has thus far successfully campaigned to expand GOP strength.

As one presenter pointed out, it was Moyers who crafted the calm, cool, objective "reasonable" "daisy" 1964 campaign commercial whose message was that Barry Goldwater wanted to nuke little children back to the stone age.

Moyers accused Bush of trying to "force women to give up control over their own lives," "using taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich," and of bringing America "judges with a political agenda appointed for life."

Speaking of the latter, he did not mention the "reasonable" vicious left-wing campaign against Bush court nominee Miguel Estrada, first Hispanic nominated for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals,

As usual, none of the awardees showed up for the roasting ceremony, though they are always invited.

Other Awards

Other awards at the Washington gala and dinner included the following.