Alan Colmes to Leave Hannity & Colmes Show on FOX

News has just come in that Alan Colmes, the liberal half of Hannity & Colmes, the number 2 show in cable news (behind The O’Reilly Factor), will be leaving the show at the end of the year.  Colmes told reporters, “I approached Bill Shine [Fox News Channel’s Senior Vice President of Programming] earlier this year about wanting to move on after 12 years to develop new and challenging ways to contribute to the growth of the network.  Although it’s bittersweet to leave one of the longest marriages on cable news, I’m proud that both Sean and I remained unharmed after sitting side by side, night after night for so many years.”

Shine also gave a statement, saying, “We’re very sorry to see Alan reach this decision but we understand his desire to seek other creative challenges in his career.  We value his incredible hard work in making Hannity & Colmes the most successful debate program on cable news and we’re going to miss him on the show.  Thankfully, he will begin developing a weekend pilot for us.”

Hannity also released a statement, saying, “Not only has Alan been a remarkable co-host, he’s been a great friend which is rare in this industry — I’ll genuinely miss sparring with such a skillful debate partner.”

Roger Ailes, the Chairman & CEO of FOX News also said, “Alan is one of the key reasons why FOX News has been such a remarkable success.  We’re sad to see him leave the program but we look forward to his ongoing contributions to the network.”

Colmes continue working at FOX, as a liberal commentator on a variety of news programs, including The Strategy Room.  He will also continue to host his radio program, The Alan Colmes Show, on FOX Talk.  Additionally, he will begin to develop a weekend program of some sort.

Personally, I’m going to miss Alan.  I’ve always enjoyed the back and forth on Hannity and Colmes.  They actually had good debates.  I always found the format both fun and educational.

The future of the show is unknown at this point in time, but I’m sure that Sean is going to stay at FOX.

The good news is, this leaves room for me and my roommate to get a show on FOX, although I’m not sure that we’d be as civilized as Hannity and Colmes were.  Both him and I like watching COPS, so we joke about combining the two shows, kinda like a Hannity & Colmes with TAZERs.

Done Ranting,

Ranting Republican
:: :: :: :: ::

Senator Chuck Hagel On Hannity & Colmes: Stop Big Government Spending, the Iraq War, and Conservativism

So on March 26^th, Senator Chuck Hagel the Great (R-NE) was interviewed by Sean Hannity the Great (R) and Alan Colmes (D) on the Hannity & Colmesshow, to discuss the war in Iraq, conservativism, government spending, and his new book America: Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers.  Here’s a video of the interview:

And here’s a couple of quick quotes that I liked of Senator Hagel’s:

• Well, I don’t know if you define your position on the war based on your conservative credentials.  I mean, there are some pretty significant conservatives out there the late William F. Buckley was a pretty significant critic.
• I have always defined my position on the war based on what I think our interests are.
• I was against that [Medicare spending], I voted against it.  I voted against No Child Left Behind.  I voted against the real big government type programs.

So, again, I really enjoyed this interview with the Senator – it shows some great principles, especially that we HAVE to cut out all of this pork barrel spending and earmarks.  Earmarks are SOMETIMES (but not very often) ok in small amounts and for certain circumstances (the Office of Management and Budget “(OMB) defines earmarks as funds provided by the Congress for projects or programs where the congressional direction (in bill or report language) circumvents Executive Branch merit-based or competitive allocation processes, or specifies the location or recipient, or otherwise curtails the ability of the Executive Branch to manage critical aspects of the funds allocation process.”), but they should NEVER be tacked on to bills as pork.  I am very glad that John McCain has promised that he would veto all bills with pork attached to them.

Again, I heard a lot of good things from Senator Hagel here, and I express my wishes that he’ll seek another public office.  America needs someone like him.

Done Ranting,

Ranting Republican
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Senator Larry Craig – Staying?

It’s been quite a while since Larry Craig’s scandal (which I held off on posting because I wanted to wait for the facts to come out – they still haven’t).

He’s trying to withdraw his guilty plea, but it’s my opinion (as well as Sean Hannity’s) that he should just retire.  If he REALLY is innocent, I’m fine with him staying.  But if he did commit the crime of disorderly conduct (and why would he plead guilty if he didn’t?), he needs to resign.  If he doesn’t resign, should the Senate impeach him?  It probably isn’t worth their time – but it’s not like I’m going to say it’s unjustified.

Done Ranting,

Ranting Republican