Hotline After Dark -- When I Listen To Him, All I Hear Is Blah Blah Blah

"World News" led with the Ft. Hood investigation. "Evening News" led with health care. "Nightly News" led with Treas. Sec. Tim Geithner's Cong. testimony.

Pols discussed Geithner's job performance 11/19 p.m.

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), on whether he expected it go get so "nasty": "No, I didn't. But, the truth is, sort of tired of blaming Bush for everyone. At some point, this White House has to take responsibility for its own decisions. These policies are failing. The public has no confidence anymore. In fact, a majority of Americans disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy. I think the best thing that could happen is for Geithner to step down. And there's more Democrats joining us in that cause."

Brady, on Geithner's involvement in the bailout prior to taking office: "I think he tries to paper over that pretty quickly. He was Fed governor of New York. Wall Street was his purview. His district, his position, on his watch with his friends. And he had key roles to play in the bailouts from day one. So, again, another reason why the tired excuse of blaming it on Bush, well, it is not me that is not buying it. It is the American public is not buying it" ("Your World," FNC, 11/19).

More Brady, on who he would choose to replace Geithner: "My choice would be a conservative Republican who would let the free market work, would address the financial crisis not from a spending binge, but to get our financial house in order. And the credit for small businesses and mid-sized businesses, it is frozen. And I'll tell you, too, local businesses, small and large, they're deferring their key business decisions because they're frightened of what's happening in Washington, D.C." ("Ed Show," MSNBC, 11/19).

After the jump, more on Geithner, Senators address health care reform and ex-AK Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) book tour continues.

(RACHELLE DOUILLARD-PROULX & ABBY LIVINGSTON)

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), on whether Geithner has "some time to turn" the economy around: "I think he does, and his record shows that. You have to remember, when President Obama took office 10 months ago, we were shedding jobs at 700,000 jobs a month, well over 700,000 jobs a month. And we're trending in a better direction now. We lost 190,000 jobs last month, but it's moving in the right direction. ... We need to be more aggressive in coming out with ways to create jobs for American people, but President Obama, he inherited a financial crisis."

Maloney, on whether he's "satisfied with his plan the way things are going right now": "Well, he's been criticized from the right and criticized from the left. So he is in the middle, putting this together, working, and one person doesn't control the economy. He's part of the entire Democratic team working with the president and with Congress" (MSNBC, 11/19).

TAPING THEIR ANKLES FOR A SENATE HEALTH CARE DEBATE

Senators discussed health care on cable 11/19 p.m.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), on the wavering Dems: "They won't want to vote to kill the most important domestic initiative of their careers, the most important vote that they will ever cast they don't want to kill that on a procedural vote. So they will put it on the floor, then we have the debates, and then we'll see what happens" ("CNN Tonight," CNN, 11/19).

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), on the Dems' closed-door negotiations: "What the Democrats have done is what we Republicans sometimes do.
They have all gotten themselves in a room here in Washington and convince each other they are right, when they could not be more wrong" ("Your World," FNC, 11/19).

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), on whether she's nervous about the anti-abortion funding in the Senate bill: "I am very pleased, because what Harry Reid has done is to build a real firewall between, federal funds cannot be used to buy abortion coverage or for any abortion except for life, incest or rape, and private funds can be used, as they always have been, to buy insurance. But let me just say this -- I think we'll win that. I'm really not worried about it, because anyone who votes for the Stupak Amendment is basically rolling back the clock."

More Boxer: "So I think this choice issue, this abortion issue, is a bit of a distraction, because I think what Harry Reid has done is maintain that compromise that's been in place for three decades now that a woman can use her private money, but no federal funds" ("Ed Show," MSNBC, 11/19).

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), on his use of the term "holy war": "We're talking about a country that is really going to be in real economic jeopardy if this bill goes through this way. And let's just be honest. Those figures are probably low."

Hatch, on his communication with Reid: "He talks to me. He's very cordial. We're cordial to each other, of course, and he's a friend. But in all honesty, he's got a job to do, and the only way they can do it is by phonying up the figures, which the media allow them to do, by the way, by and large" ("On the Record," FNC, 11/19).

IN THE NO SPIN ZONE

Palin went on the "O'Reilly Factor" 11/19 p.m.

Palin, on her interview with ABC's Gibson: "Those are the gotcha techniques that what some people call mainstream, others call now the lame stream media, who want to participate in a tactic like that."

FNC's O'Reilly: "But he's not like that. Gibson's not like that."

Palin: "Had he explained a little bit more the context of the questions he was asking, probably could have answered it."

O'Reilly: "Now, Katie Couric asked you an easy question and you booted it, governor. ... Why did you boot it? If somebody asks what do you read? I say I read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post. I can reel them off in my sleep. You couldn't do it?"

Palin: "It's ridiculous to suggest that or to say that I couldn't tell people what I read. ... It was my inexperience in having to deal with a badgering condescending line of questioning. ... It had no reflection at all on my inexperience in terms of administrative record or accomplishment. ... Or vision for America. Yeah, and, you know what? So what? So I wasn't. "

O'Reilly, on the Couric question: "That led, in my opinion, to the McCain people, Steve Schmidt and the other guys saying, you know, we can't trust her out there because she booted that. And that's where you lost credibility among them. I understand what you're saying. Although Katie Couric, and I spoke to her a couple days ago, says she wasn't out to get you. Clearly in your book, you feel that Katie Couric was out to get you" (FNC, 11/19).