Ai Yi Yi!

WTF is WRONG with Tom Hartman? If
it weren't for Heidi Tauber bringing him back on track every time he
goes wandering off into his seeming senile meanderings he'd be lost.
And yet he has a cult-like following of people who call him and
pronounce him "the greatest thing on the radio" and in one case "the
saviour of liberal talk radio." (And Al Franken hasn't taken him to task on that, and Ed Schultz continues to LIKE the dude! And Randi Rhodes---the GODDESS of radio according to Sam Seder---promotes him as one of her favorite talk show hosts.



I can't decide if he's got some kind of charisma I'm immune to, if I
still resent him for taking the slot that used to belong to (the now
cancelled for no good reason)
"Morning Sedition" on KPOJ in Portland, or if there really is something
seriously wrong with him and people are so starved for liberal talk
radio that they'll love anyone who can be made to sound left-wing and
angry at the same time.



He claims to be a scholar yet he can't get the pronunciation of words
related to his field(s) of expertise right. He mis-quotes Jefferson, or
attributes any quote he likes from the Revolutionary War era to
Jefferson. He mis-quotes FDR. He gets sidetracked by some of the
stupidest damn stuff, like if the address 12250 is pronounced Twelve
thousand two hundred and fifty,, twelve-two-fifty, or what. Or while
discussin the ozone layer he goes off into how lovely the view from the
deck of his houseboat is. After two years, he still has no clue what
goes on in Portland, except in terms of politics as fed to him by his
(inefficient, I suspect) researchers.



I'm over the loss of "Morning Sedition." I can listen to Maron at night
now. And Rachel Maddow is pretty darned interesting first thing in the
morning, anyway.  But why can't people see that Hartman is a jackass
and needs to be replaced by someone who has a clue?



As mentioned, if it weren't for Heidi Tauber (who is a very
intelligent, articulate, and interesting lady) the show would be a
nightmare. I'm back to listening to books on tape to avoid having to
listen to his drivel in the morning. (I get sleepy listening to
"Morning Edition" on NPR and KBOO is so bad in the morning I can't even
fathom it.) Could someone please get Tauber a GOOD co-host? I'd listen
to her in a flash.



Okay, I'm done ranting and I'm off to work now.

cross-posted to my Live Journal site.