FOX & Friends anchors heaped insults on Democrats during inauguration coverage

FOX & Friends co-hosts E.D. Hill and Steve Doocy used the show's January 20 coverage of Inauguration Day ceremonies to heap insults and ridicule on Democrats.

The coverage included an interview with Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), who presented E.D. Hill and her co-hosts with Georgia peanuts and peanut butter. During the exchange, Hill took a shot at Senator John Kerry, who was in no way germane to the discussion:

CHAMBLISS: Knowing how you love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches -- Peter Pan peanut butter made in Sylvester, Georgia, about 25 miles from my hometown of Moultrie.

HILL: But you know, senator, could you have Senator Kerry's manservants come in and make those sandwiches for us? 'Cause we don't do that by ourselves, you know. Isn't that what he had his guy do? Make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? They must be good.

Later in the same interview, Hill attacked Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Joseph Biden (D-DE) for their pointed questioning of Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice during her confirmation hearings before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on January 18-19:

HILL: I was struck by Senator Boxer's use of rhetoric instead of any facts, and I was struck by Senator Biden's use of sarcasm instead of any, you know, concrete information. Is that -- am I just naïve? Is that the sort of -- I mean, do people talk to secretary of state, you know, nominees that way normally? You know, calling them liars and then, in Senator Biden's, you know, very condescending, you know, tone, saying, you know, “As my mom has said,” you know, "'God love ya, but,'" you know, whatever. Do they talk -- I mean, is that normal protocol?"

CHAMBLISS: Well, you know, some people would refer to it as sour grapes. I don't really think that's the case.

HILL: But is that normal? I mean, is that really what goes on in a normal give-and-take?

In fact, the transcript of Boxer's exchange with Rice shows that Boxer's remarks consisted almost entirely of direct quotations of Rice's own words. And Biden referred to his mother (“So do me a favor. As my mother would say, 'God love you, please do me a favor.' Start to tell the whole deal.”) only after extensively quoting concrete observations about coalition efforts to train Iraqi security forces by Peter Khalil, former director of national security policy at the Coalition Provisional Authority, from Khalil's December 20, 2004, New York Times op-ed.

Later, in a segment featuring Weekly Standard executive editor and FOX News contributor Fred Barnes, Doocy ridiculed Democrats as he agreed with the openly conservative Barnes, who criticized Democrats for delaying Rice's and Attorney General-designate Alberto R. Gonzales's confirmation votes:

BARNES: You know, the problem that Democrats have on the issue you raised, Steve, is that, you know, there's an old saying, “Nobody likes a sore loser.” And they act like sore losers. You know, they did lose the election. They have to accept that and move on. To merely do sort of a rearguard action against President Bush and his nominees and his legislation isn't gonna work. I think they need to say the opposite. “You know, we're on your side, let's work together.” Then when we get down to specifics, they might be the opposition. But to do that at the beginning, I think, is bad form and bad politics.

DOOCY: Well, may I remind them of two words: [former Senate Majority Leader] Tom Daschle. He was an obstructionist, and where is he right now?