Wimpy Dems Pull Out of Fox News Debate

If there was ever any doubts that the wacky left is in full control of the Democratic Party, this news should remove them:

The Nevada State Democratic Party is pulling out of a controversial presidential debate scheduled for Aug. 14 in Reno and co-hosted by Fox News, according to Democratic insiders.

The debate was being hosted by Fox News Channel and Fox News Radio, the Nevada State Democratic Party and the Western Majority Project.

A Fox spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said Wednesday he would not participate in the debate, citing Fox's conservative ties as a factor. His deputy campaign manager, Jonathan Prince, sent an e-mail to the liberal website DailyKos, which was posted on the site.

“We’re definitely going to debate in Nevada, but we don’t see why this needs to be one of them,” it read.

The state party has been under pressure from progressive activists across the country to cut its ties with the debate. The liberal group MoveOn.org has been leading an effort to persuade the Nevada party to boycott the Fox News-hosted debate.

According to MoveOn, more than 265,000 people signed a petition sent to the Nevada State Democratic Party. The organization launched a website -- http://foxattacks.com/ -- as part of its campaign.

FOX News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes gave the progressive activists more ammunition on Thursday when he jokingly compared Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, to Osama bin Laden.

What a bunch of wimps. If the other networks have any integrity at all, they should refuse to carry this debate because what's to stop either the Dems or the GOP from refusing to allow one of them to sponsor a similar event. If we're going to have an ideological war over the political leanings of a particular broadcast entity, no GOP debate should ever be allowed on CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, or MSNBC.

Last night, before this decision was announced, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes addressed the pressure being brought on the Dems by the wacky left to pull out of the August debate:

"Recently pressure groups are forcing candidates to conclude that the best strategy for journalists is divide and conquer, to only appear on those networks and venues that give them favorable coverage.

There's a long tradition of news organizations, national and local, sometimes together, sponsoring presidential and other candidate debates. The organizations and the panelists have been the objects of a lot of advice and even pressure as to how these debates should be conducted and what questions should be asked. This pressure has been successfully resisted, but it's being tried again this year with the added wrinkle that candidates are being asked to boycott debates because certain groups wants to approve the sponsoring organizations.

This pressure must be resisted as it has been in the past. Any candidate for high office of either party who believes he can blacklist any news organization is making a terrible mistake about journalists. And any candidate of either party who cannot answer direct, simple, even tough questions from any journalist runs a real risk of losing the voters.

The public knows if a journalist's question is unfair. They also know if a candidate is impeding freedom of speech and free press. If you are afraid of journalists, how will you face the real dangers in the world?"

Sorry, Roger, but they're afraid of both real journalist and real dangers.

By shunning Fox, the Dems just gave up their chance to appear on the top-rated cable news network in the country, and instead will end up with the 1st or 2nd loser. I think this also bodes ill for Hillary and Obama, because it appears now that John Edwards is the fair-haired boy (?) of the wacky left, and if they have the power to make a change like this to a party debate, they may have the power to push him to a win in the primaries.

UPDATE: A statement from Fox News (from Drudge):

“We have not received official word from the Nevada State Democratic Party disclosing a change in debate plans. Rumors are being circulated and if true, news organizations will want to think twice before getting involved in the Nevada Democratic Caucus which appears to be controlled by radical fringe out-of-state interest groups, not the Nevada Democratic Party. In the past, Moveon.org has said they ‘own’ the Democratic party—while most Democrats don’t agree with that, we’re waiting to see if that’s the case in Nevada.” -- David Rhodes, Vice President, Fox News...

UPDATE 2: Chris Muir at the cartoon Day by Day gives an immediate reaction.

UPDATE 3: The grievous joke that is being used as an excuse to pull out of the debate.