Bill Press

Hey, if you thought ONE Fox News Channel was bad, how about two of them?

Two and a half years ago, shortly after Rupert Murdoch purchased The Wall Street Journal, Fox News launched the Fox Business Network to compete with CNBC.

On the surface, it looked like a killer deal: combine the giant resources of The News Corp. with the mighty Wall Street Journal and its new TV organ, the Fox Business Network — and you could kiss CNBC goodbye.

Is she or isn’t she?

Can you believe it? Elena Kagan is such a strategically brilliant nominee to the Supreme Court — smart, centrist, popular, no paper trail, gonzo resume — that increasingly desperate opponents are reduced to asking:

Is she or isn’t she — a lesbian?

Do violent video games inspire kids to commit acts of violence?

There are not two parents in this country who have not had that conversation between themselves and with their friends. But it’s soon going to go a lot higher: all the way to the Supreme Court.

This week, the court agreed to review the constitutionality of a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. It’s a law that sponsors say is necessary to protect children from violence, but which video game-makers denounce as a violation of the First Amendment.

Most of the time, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made as Americans. But sometimes we’re not. Witness the retrograde, racist immigration law just adopted in Arizona.

Under the new law, police officers are required to stop anybody they “reasonably suspect” of being an illegal immigrant and demand to see proof of citizenship.

Sarah Palin urges people to “reload.” Sean Hannity calls Tea Partiers “Tim McVeigh wannabes.”

You think right-wing rhetoric is getting a little too violent? You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.

Red-state blogger and CNN contributor Eric Erickson refuses to fill out his census form. Which means a local, or ACS, worker might show up at his home. If so, warns Erickson, I’m gonna “pull out my wife’s shotgun and see how that little twerp likes being scared at the door.”

Nothing like a good laugh. And it’s been laugh-out-loud funny, ever since Friday, hearing Republican reaction to the latest job numbers.

As everybody knows, we lost 8.5 million jobs during the Bush recession. And it’s going to take a long time to get them all back.

In January 2009 alone, the last month of the Bush administration, we lost 740,000 jobs. Since then, things have only gradually improved. In February 2010, we still lost 11,000 jobs. But last month, for the first time in three years, we actually gained new jobs: 162,000 of them — in every sector of the economy except financial services.

I’m starting to think there are two Barack Obamas.

First there was the Obama we saw during the 2008 campaign: strong, forceful, on fire, ready to kick some ass.

Then there was the Obama we witnessed during most of his first year in the White House: weak, meek, holding back, almost afraid of his own shadow. And, meanwhile, getting nothing done on healthcare, his No. 1 legislative priority.

Did you ever see such a bunch of whiners in your life?

Now that it looks certain Democrats will have the votes to pass healthcare reform, Republicans are again whining about the process.

First, they accused Senate Democrats of foul play by planning to approve the bill with 51 votes — even though majority rule, not the filibuster, is the way the Senate is supposed to do business. Now they’re accusing House Democrats of breaking the rules by considering the use of “deem and pass,” instead of voting up or down on the Senate bill. Which is another red herring.

You don’t have to be a biblical scholar or have a degree in theology to know how deadly wrong Glenn Beck is about Jesus Christ and Christianity.

If you’ve ever even read the Gospels, just once, you know that Jesus loved, worked for and spent most of his short time on earth trying to help the poor.

“If you want to be perfect, sell all you have and give it to the poor,” he advised his followers. He also told them it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

What can you say about Eric Massa? Except that it’s sad, sad, sad.

Watching him self-destruct is especially sad for me because I used to be such a big fan. In fact, he was scheduled to be the in-studio guest on my radio show on Thursday, March 11. But, once he resigned from Congress, he was disinvited.

Why? Because, overnight, he went from the person I believed about everything — to the person I believe about nothing. Overnight, he went from the hero of liberals — to the darling (temporary) of right-wingers. Overnight, he went from the hope of the Democratic Party — to the man who’s trying to destroy the Democratic Party.