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On PBS's Inside Washington on Friday, the Politico's Evan Thomas – formerly of Newsweek – characterized the United States as a "great giant" that would go on to "stomp on" other countries after the 9/11 attacks.

After substitute host Mark Shields introduced a segment on the 10th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan by asking how history would "judge" the military operation, he turned to regular panel member Thomas who responded with a questionable choice of words:

As a tragedy that was inevitable. Once you had 9/11, we, the United States, the great giant United States was going to go stomp on somebody. And they, one of the first places they stomped was Afghanistan. But once they are in we can't get out, and I think we need to get out. But I just think once you go in and we just got stuck there and I see it not so much as anything other than a tragedy, inevitable tragedy.

Fellow panel member and right-leaning columnist Charles Krauthammer soon took exception with Thomas's word selection:

Evan's implication was somehow we wanted to show our manliness in attacking Afghanistan. There wasn't an act of manliness. It was an act of self-defense. Al-Qaeda was active in there, it planned out of there, and we smashed them and we dispersed them.

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, october 7, Inside Washington on PBS:

MARK SHIELDS: That's Army Specialist Anthony Cook from Largo, Florida, explaining his mission in Afghanistan 10 years after U.S. forces entered that troubled country to topple the Taliban. There are now about 90,000 Americans among the 130,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan. They are scheduled to leave by the end of 2014. Evan Thomas, how will history judge this operation?

EVAN THOMAS, POLITICO: As a tragedy that was inevitable. Once you had 9/11, we, the United States, the great giant United States was going to go stomp on somebody. And they, one of the first places they stomped was Afghanistan. But once they are in we can't get out, and I think we need to get out. But I just think once you go in and we just got stuck there and I see it not so much as anything other than a tragedy, inevitable tragedy.

SHIELDS: Charles, how can you nation build a country where you've got 72 percent of Afghans over the age of 16 who are illiterate and the second highest infant mortality rate in the world?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, COLUMNIST: You can't. That's the lesson of the Afghan War. Evan's implication was somehow we wanted to show our manliness in attacking Afghanistan. There wasn't an act of manliness. It was an act of self-defense. Al-Qaeda was active in there, it planned out of there, and we smashed them and we dispersed them. We've had a remarkable success against al-Qaeda. The problem is when you topple a government, you've got to replace it. And we did well in Japan and Germany, in other places. In a place like Afghanistan, there isn't a nation, and in the first couple of years it was quiet until about '05, '06, and then the Taliban had returned. And I would agree, I think it's a question that India ought to look at. I mean, I'm not sure it's our responsibility.
 

New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes asked President Obama a softball at Thursday’s press conference about what he would like to say to win over the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters, and then followed up: Jackie Calmes follow up question was: "Do you think Occupy Wall Street has the potential to be a tea party movement in 2012?"

Oddly enough, Calmes didn’t use Obama’s answers in her front-page story, headlined “Obama Describes Economy as Dire: Citing Europe, He Urges Passage of Jobs Bill.” Calmes did line up economists to support Obama’s push for passage.Obama said Republican proposals “would not help the economy in the short term. Economists at private-sector forecasting firms agreed,” wrote Calmes.

While economic forecasts are not definitive, in that they are predictions, Macroeconomic Advisers, a St. Louis-based firm that the Federal Reserve often uses, has projected that the Obama jobs plan could increase economic growth by 1.25 percentage points and add 1.3 million jobs in 2012. Moody’s Analytics, another firm, has estimated it would add two percentage points and up to 1.9 million jobs.

Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, said Republicans had “reasonable ideas” but not ones that could be measured by the firm’s forecasting model. He said he believed the proposals “would have little immediate effect relative to a plan that stimulates aggregate demand” — that is, a plan like Mr. Obama’s, with tax cuts and spending programs.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, similarly said the Republican proposals “are generally good longer-term economic policy, but they won’t mean much for the economy and job market in the next year.” He continued: “Given the high odds of another recession in the next few months, it is vital for Congress and the administration to provide some near-term support to the economy.”

The Times offered one Republican quote in the piece, from House Speaker John Boehner:

Even as Mr. Obama took reporters’ questions, Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, rebuked him for his more confrontational tack. “Nothing has disappointed me more than what’s happened over the last five weeks, to watch the president of the United States give up on governing, give up on leading and spend full-time campaigning,” Mr. Boehner said during a public forum in Washington.

Here are the Calmes questions to Obama, the answers to which were widely circulated in other media outlets, if not the Times:

CALMES: Thank you, Mr. President. As you travel the country, you also take credit for tightening regulations on Wall Street through the Dodd-Frank law, and about your efforts to combat income inequality. There’s this movement — Occupy Wall Street — which has spread from Wall Street to other cities. They clearly don’t think that you or Republicans have done enough, that you’re in fact part of the problem. Are you following this movement, and what would you say to its — people that are attracted to it?

OBAMA: Obviously I’ve heard of it. I’ve seen it on television. I think it expresses the frustrations that the American people feel — that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across Main Street, and yet you’re still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on abusive practices that got us into this problem in the first place. So, yes, I think people are frustrated, and the protestors are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works….

The phrase that stuck out there was “huge collateral damage.” If the Bush “folks” or Wall Street were responsible for the metaphorical bombing the streets in 2008, shouldn’t Obama have a better statistical record than he does? Or is the devastation still happening during his administration? Calmes followed up:

CALMES: Do you think Occupy Wall Street has the potential to be a tea party movement in 2012?

OBAMA: What I think is that the American people understand that not everybody has been following the rules; that Wall Street is an example of that; that folks who are working hard every single day, getting up, going to the job, loyal to their companies, that that used to be the essence of the American Dream. That’s how you got ahead — the old-fashioned way. And these days, a lot of folks who are doing the right thing aren’t rewarded, and a lot of folks who aren’t doing the right thing are rewarded.

And that’s going to express itself politically in 2012 and beyond until people feel like once again we’re getting back to some old-fashioned American values in which, if you’re a banker, then you are making your money by making prudent loans to businesses and individuals to build plants and equipment and hire workers that are creating goods and products that are building the economy and benefitting everybody.

For the second day in a row, MSNBC's Martin Bashir used the death of one man to attack a completely unrelated conservative.

Having disgustingly besmirched Sarah Palin in the middle of his eulogy for Apple's Steve Jobs Thursday, Bashir on Friday went after Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain as he paid his respects to Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MARTIN BASHIR: Perhaps the biggest surprise in the Republican race for the White House has been the surge of Herman Cain, whose new book, “This is Herman Cain: My Journey to the White House," has just been published. In the book, Mr. Cain says this about the civil rights movement. "It didn't have an impact. I just kept going to school, doing what I was supposed to do, and stayed out of trouble."

Compare that with the life of the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, who passed away this week at the age of 89. Until Wednesday, Mr. Shuttlesworth was the last surviving member of the big three. He's seen here sitting between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Reverend Ralph David Abernathy. They were the three founders at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the 1950s.

Mr. Shuttlesworth was a godly and devout man of faith who trained for the Baptist ministry, but also braved beatings, bombings, and fire hosings in order to advance the cause of equality. On Christmas Day itself in 1956, somebody placed fifteen sticks of dynamite outside the parsonage where he lived. The explosion destroyed his humble home, but he survived. A year later, in 1957, he and his wife took their daughters to enroll in an all-white school in Birmingham. But as they arrived, they were met with men carrying chains, brass knuckles, and baseball bats. His wife, Ruby, was stabbed in the head. He was beaten unconscious.

Mr. Shuttlesworth once said from the pulpit, “I'm answerable to God for he is the judge.” But as I read Herman Cain’s book, it's hard not to conclude that he finds himself answerable only to those Republicans who will soon start electing their nominee for the White House, and as such, he probably feels obliged to reassure them that he’s no angry black man fighting for the rights of minorities. He wants to be known as one who stayed out of trouble. But he would be wise to remember that without the likes of the late Fred Shuttlesworth, Herman Cain wouldn’t even be able to vote let alone get the chance to run for the presidency.

What is the matter with this man? Is it not possible for him to see anything as it is without perverting it into a vehicle to attack his political enemies?

In the past two days, a couple of historic figures in this nation passed away. Rather than use his television bully pulpit to properly eulogize them, Bashir besmirched both of their memories by adding political commentary totally unrelated to either of them.

Is this really the message MSNBC wants to be sending its audience: that everything now is about politics and advancing a liberal agenda? Even the deaths of a renowned inventor and a civil rights leader?

The more I see of this man Bashir, the more I'm starting to think that he is one of the most disgraceful people in the television news media today.

Given the competition out there, especially at the network he works for, that's saying something.

CBS's Sharyl Attkisson, the only Big Three network reporter who's been regularly covering the "Fast and Furious" controversy, appeared on Thursday's O'Reilly Factor, throwing cold water on an earlier report that she was "unavailable" for further interviews on the story. Attkisson emphasized that there was a lot more to the issue than what has already reported, but "we need to get more confirmation."

The Fox News host pressed the journalist on her revelation from Tuesday's Laura Ingraham Show, that associate White House communications director Eric Schultz "screamed and cussed" at her for her reporting on the controversy. Attkisson would only state that "the conversation, as you reported it, was accurate," and later added that "the point is really not the content of that. The point is, story-wise, it seems significant and important how people handle questions, and how they react when you ask questions" [video clips available below the jump]

The CBS journalist also revealed that there was more depth to the issue than meets the eye:

ATTKISSON: Well, I would say there have been some pretty incredible developments in the past week. Also, documents- we haven't even had time to report on all of them. There are very sensitive documents and allegations going around. Many of them we haven't reported yet because we need to get more confirmation of them. But what you see on the surface, that we do report in our stories, is really only a part of what may be going on, and we may be reporting in the future when we can get confirmation.

Towards the end of the interview, Attkisson noted that she had requested to interview Attorney General Eric Holder on the issue many months ago, and had repeated that request earlier in the day, but had yet to hear back from the top official.

The full transcript of Bill O'Reilly's interview of CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, which began 12 minutes into the 8 pm Eastern hour of Thursday's O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel:

BILL O'REILLY: 'Factor Follow Up' segment tonight- as we reported last night, CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson has uncovered some Justice Department memos that show Attorney General [Eric] Holder knew about the 'Fast and Furious' gun sting long before he said he did.

Ms. Attkisson joins us now from Washington. So let's just walk through this, so even I can understand. When you found these memos, then you called the White House for comment, as any reporter would, and some guy actually yelled at you? Is that what happened?

SHARYL ATTKISSON, CBS NEWS INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, it was during reporting on some of these documents, not those particular ones, and we had a conversation which, you well know about and have reported on and has been duly noted. And, ever since- and I have been moving on and trying to work on the next developments in the case. There have been quite a few-

O'REILLY: Okay. But let's not try to get away from this too quickly, Sharyl. (laughs) [White House Associate Communications Director] Eric Schultz is hired by the White House to handle this story, the 'Fast and Furious' story. So you call Eric up and you say that he was hostile? Was he hostile?

ATTKISSON: Well, I don't want to say exactly how the whole thing took place, because part of that is how we work together, in sharing information since the story began. There are assigned people in various part- sides of the story, to deal with the media, I do want to say that the conversation, as you reported it, was accurate and-

O'REILLY: Did he curse at you?

ATTKISSON: As you reported, that's accurate, and I think-

O'REILLY: Well, wait wait, wait, wait, wait. Now, I have had that happen to me, and you wouldn't- anybody would curse at me- I mean, come on. You get a promotion doing that. But you're a nice person. I mean, you're just somebody who's trying to get the story. Why would this guy curse at you? What led him to do that?

ATTKISSON: In the course of covering these kinds of stories, as you know, you get into a lot of difficult moments with people that you talk to, and they probably don't think you're as nice as you think I am, Mr. O'Reilly. But when you talk to them-

O'REILLY: No- well, you know what I'm talking about here. It usually lights a fuse- particularly if somebody like that- at that level, the White House level, did actually curse at a reporter, a CBS News correspondent- that's not something that happens every day, Sharyl. So what do you think lit that fuse?

ATTKISSON: Well, I would say there have been some pretty incredible developments in the past week. Also, documents- we haven't even had time to report on all of them. There are very sensitive documents and allegations going around. Many of them we haven't reported yet because we need to get more confirmation of them. But what you see on the surface, that we do report in our stories, is really only a part of what may be going on, and we may be reporting in the future when we can get confirmation-

O'REILLY: Okay-

ATTKISSON: And I can only say that this is a very sensitive story that goes into many facets-

O'REILLY: Absolutely-

ATTKISSON: And there's a lot of sensitivities-

O'REILLY: There's no doubt about it- particularly because today, President Obama stuck up for Holder and said- look, Holder didn't mislead anybody before Congress- whatever. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm speculating, based on your reporting- something that makes me uncomfortable- but you're in the field and I'm here in the studio. It looks to me like Eric Holder, the attorney general, did know about this 'Fast and Furious' operation, that led to the death of a Border Patrol agent, long before he told Congress he knew about it. Would that be accurate, at this point in time, to say?

ATTKISSON: You would be factually correct, and as we have reported, that the attorney general was briefed a long time ago or received briefing memos-

O'REILLY: Okay. So the facts say that he knew-

ATTKISSON: Let me finish that- was briefed on 'Fast and Furious,' not-

O'REILLY: So then he goes up to the Hill, and he tells Darryl Issa, the congressman from California- you know, I just found out about this. I really didn't know. So it looks like Holder is not telling the truth. That's what it looks like. Are there any extenuating circumstances that you have found?

ATTKISSON: None so far, and I've put in a separate query to the Department of Justice, which- we're continuing to report on the story- to ask them to clarify- okay, when is it, if he misunderstood the question-

O'REILLY: Yeah, when was it that he knew about it?

ATTKISSON: When was he did- right-

O'REILLY: And when did you put that request into the DOJ?

ATTKISSON: I put that request in today.

O'REILLY: Okay. Did you put a request to interview Holder?

ATTKISSON: I've repeated that request- I repeated it today, yes.

O'REILLY: How long have you been trying to get him?

ATTKISSON: I believe we asked for our first interview request with him many months ago. I would say February, March-

O'REILLY: Okay. So you have been trying to get him for a long time and he hasn't come up. Now, have you asked Eric Schultz at the White House for an apology? You don't have to take that garbage.

ATTKISSON: Well, there's nothing to apologize for. That's really-

O'REILLY: Well, he cussed at you.

ATTKISSON: That's really- the point is really not the content of that. The point is, story-wise, it seems significant and important how people handle questions, and how they react when you ask questions. It's not that anybody owes somebody an apology, and again-

O'REILLY: All right. Well, I was just-

ATTKISSON: We have moved on to the developments in the next-

O'REILLY: It's a curiosity to me because it is at a high level. Last question: in your opinion- you have been doing this how many years- have you been investigating- how many years?

ATTKISSON: Gosh, a long time.

O'REILLY: Okay. In your opinion, is this a big story or is it just a little story? Is it big? Is it going to lead to, perhaps, a resignation by the attorney general? Is President Obama going to be embarrassed? Is it that big?

ATTKISSON: I have no idea about that. But there's no doubt that what we already know, and what we have already reported on, I think, is incredibly important, and is an incredibly major story that we've only- that we really have a lot more to learn about.

O'REILLY: All right. Sharyl, we appreciate you coming on the program very much. Thank you.