Saturday, February 07, 2004
The Bag Man
For some reason the punditocracy expects the country to believe that Tim Russert is a tough, fair-mided journalist, and that this Sunday's interview with George Bush will be a challenge for the President. Bull cookies.
Russert is a GOP bagman, and make no mistake, Bush would not be going on Meet the Press if it weren't in the bag.
Don't believe us? Take a look back at the video tapes of the Clinton/Lazio NY senate debate. Or the Romney/O'Brien Massachusetts gubernatorial debate. Or the (Jeb) Bush/Graham Florida gubernatorial debate. In all three cases the GOP candidates were in trouble before their Russert-moderated debates, and of the three only Hillary survived to win the election.
In all three debates Russert either sprung some cheap trick on the Democratic candidates or just went easy on the Republican. (You'll recall the video footage of Hillary Clinton defending her husband in NY, and the left-field question to Massachusetts Democratic candidate Shannon O'Brien about a minor's right to an abortion without parental consent--an existing law that had nothing to do with O'Brien or the election, but which had no politically correct answer.)
Russert is the guy the GOP calls when they need a media heavyweight to bail them out. And he always answers the bell.
You heard it here first: whatever he's asked, George Bush will do "surprisingly well" on Meet the Press, and before the end of the day the talking heads will be telling the country what a great job he did.
201k bets the script for that has already been written at Fox News.
Russert is a GOP bagman, and make no mistake, Bush would not be going on Meet the Press if it weren't in the bag.
Don't believe us? Take a look back at the video tapes of the Clinton/Lazio NY senate debate. Or the Romney/O'Brien Massachusetts gubernatorial debate. Or the (Jeb) Bush/Graham Florida gubernatorial debate. In all three cases the GOP candidates were in trouble before their Russert-moderated debates, and of the three only Hillary survived to win the election.
In all three debates Russert either sprung some cheap trick on the Democratic candidates or just went easy on the Republican. (You'll recall the video footage of Hillary Clinton defending her husband in NY, and the left-field question to Massachusetts Democratic candidate Shannon O'Brien about a minor's right to an abortion without parental consent--an existing law that had nothing to do with O'Brien or the election, but which had no politically correct answer.)
Russert is the guy the GOP calls when they need a media heavyweight to bail them out. And he always answers the bell.
You heard it here first: whatever he's asked, George Bush will do "surprisingly well" on Meet the Press, and before the end of the day the talking heads will be telling the country what a great job he did.
201k bets the script for that has already been written at Fox News.
