Page 158 - Mark Shields News Today

Lost. he wants to invest in drones. hes expanded it. this is a president who sees american interest and goes after them. he may not want to get involved in wars he seems interested in directly. it doesnt mean hes a peace president. he never has been and wont be. >> its interesting. after every build up, when i worked for reagan, we went up for four years by 28% to real terms. we had a deficit problem, we came down 10% in real terms. sequestration is only -- >> people are running around like its ...

The reason why, is because whitney houston and other artists bridged that gap so completely, the gap no longer exists. >> mark, you mentioned michael jackson. i wanted to ask you, when you look at the history, the culture of all, compare someone like whitney houston to a legend like billy holiday. striking similarities there in terms of the talent, enormous stardom, personal struggles. same thing with michael jackson. where do people like whitney houston fit in this history of great singers? >> ...

With parties to figure out what an appropriate compromise would be. i know they speeded up the timeline because of the uproar. but i think part of uproar was because it played into presidential politics. my republican colleagues arent satisfied with the people that they have running right now and they needed an issue that they could latch on to. this one is. >> matt, you can respond and im going to ask you in addition. do you think republicans are at risk of overplaying their hand. >> sure. this...

Caring about it and everybody they know was talking about it and must be be the most important thing happening in the world. the coverage was relentless and then you have this issue, which is a major issue that affects so many people that they werent interested in it. what i would say, i think it was a lot of liberal catholics came out, you know, ej dyan and mark shields and people who support obama on pretty much everything saying this is not okay. >> jon: i think, jim, the coverage got confuse...

Way. i dont -- its clear from the reaction they didnt anticipate throwback from catholics and now he is in position to ask the electorate to choose between him and their own religious teaching. >> bret: david, we saw the house speaker take to the floor today. powerful speech. many people on capitol hill say this is less about contraception and more about the inflingment, expansion and threat to religious liberty overall. mark shields the liberal commentator saying its the conscience clause. deep...

Issue. but this is a perfect example of how obamacare in a concrete way invades your life, institution and liberty in a way that hasnt been seen. i think it revives obamacare as large issue. it revives big government issue again. >> bret: supporters say religious freedom means all women, catholic or non-catholic should have the opportunity to make their own decisions when out comes to birth control. is that argument getting anywhere? >> this is -- not withstanding the politics of it, this is an ...

Way. i dont -- its clear from the reaction they didnt anticipate throwback from catholics and now he is in position to ask the electorate to choose between him and their own religious teaching. >> bret: david, we saw the house speaker take to the floor today. powerful speech. many people on capitol hill say this is less about contraception and more about the inflingment, expansion and threat to religious liberty overall. mark shields the liberal commentator saying its the conscience clause. deep...

Republicans dont want to campaign against the president on foreign policy. they know president obama is absolutely unbeatable on that front with huge favorable margins. president obama on social conservative issues. and now they think the president has given them one. campaign ammunition, the kind of campaign ammunition that they think they need by requiring religious employers, especially catholic employers, to provide contraception coverage in their health care plans for their employees. my ne...

It in the eye of catholics. i mean, saying what you believe, what your creed is, what your mission is is unimportant and that you must swallow that or stop doing what defines you as a catholic church. >> well, it sounds like david axelrod is interested in reopening something and getting some kind of compromise. mark, welcome to the world of commercials every three or four minutes. i now have to go to one of these horrible commercials. i wish we could go on and on. nationally syndicated columnist...

>> ten years before msnbc even existed, the lone voice of the left on american television was mark shields who has been participating in a left/right dialogue on pbss "news hour." he was a political operative for two of the greatest liberal icons of the 20th century, bobby kennedy and senator george mcgovern who ran the most liberal campaign for president as a nominee of the democratic party that this country has ever seen. friday night on the "news hour" on pbs, he had this to say about the oba...