the early 00's.

But, wow, heavy duty verbal and body language!

Alex Koppelman at Salon catches the money quote from Smith:

"he faced off against Cliff May, the president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and bluntly dismissed May's arguments that what had been done to detainees, and what was described in OLC memos released last week, wasn't torture.

"Of course, we know what the problem is, we know what this is, though, Cliff -- this isn't about what's torture. What this is about is a series of dots which people are now mentally connecting... If there was torture, that's a crime. If there was crime, there were criminals who ordered the torture," Smith said. "That's the problem. It's political. And the right is going, 'Get away from George Bush and his administration, it's over, remember look forward? Remember look forward?' And the other side's going, 'This is torture.'"

"

Double fucking bonus carnival in my pants Bingo.

....that apparently came after the voice in his earpiece told him he'd just said "Fucking" :D

It's hard for me to imagine he's survived on Fox all these years if he hasn't played ball with them and their agenda (I don't watch the network, so I wouldn't know), but he was impressive in this 2006 discussion, as well:

http://vastleft.blogspot.com/2006/10/mur...

Apparently he's from Down There somewhere where Katrina hit.

I think it depends on whether you think you (or your family, or your class as a whole) could ever find yourself on the wrong side of bad news, and left to drown/starve/get tazed/tortured/whatever by those in power.

Both he and Scarborough got a teensy bit radicalized during Katrina. They still comfortably go back into douchebag mode pretty easily, all these years later, but I don't think it had truly occurred to them before 2005 that they and their loved ones could so easily be considered One of the great disposable unwashed by the tools they helped put in power.

who said "blow job" in reference to J-Lo.

That has nothing to do with his journalism or points of view. As he noted during the "top cock" blooper, it happens.

Shep's been one of the few on the network who I'd even ever considered labeling redeemable. That's not to say he hasn't played the game with Fox, but if there was a man who could ever be turned in Fox-hole, it'd be him.