“If it’s Sunday…”
The lineup on CBS’s Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer> gives me a queasy feeling. I fear they’re doing another JFK retrospective, which would be unfortunate, but Schieffer might also try to put the President’s Baghdad jaunt into historical perspective. His guest will be Robert Dallek, the author, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963; David Maraniss, the author of They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America, October 1967; and author Garry Wills of Negro President: Jefferson and the Slave Power. It’s not time to put Iraq into any sort of final context, as it is not finished, so God help us if they do.
“If it’s Sunday, it’s Meet the Press.” That’s their line…. I saw host Tim Russert praise Tom Brokaw at some taped event on C-SPAN at about midnight lat night, so I don’t know. … Russert will talk to Mike Allen of the Washpost, one of the reporters who went to Baghdad with the President. He’ll also talk to Doris Kearns Goodwin, whom they insist on calling a “Presidential historian” — instead of a plagiarist. He’s got his usual roundtable stooges: Dana Priest, Robin Wright, and Bill Safire.
Steph’s guests on ABC’s This Week include the Mullah of the Moderates, Senator John Breaux (D-Louisiana), and Senator Trent Lott, Republican of Mississippi. This discussion will not doubt be the Medicare Reform Act, as Breaux helped write it — from his position as Sultan of the Centrists — and Lott voted agin it after being pressured into voting for cloture. Steph also talks to candidates Kucinich, Sharpton, and Mosley Braun, lumping the three who poll below Edwards, getting them over with in one motion.
CNN’s Late Edition with Wolfgang Blitzer promises to be painful. Sure, he talks to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Dick Lugar (R-Indiana). He also talks to candidate Wes Clark and former candidate Senator Bob Graham (D-Florida). Lugar was a Presidential candidate in 1996, so perhaps it’s time for the band to strike up the Theme from Barney the Purple Dinosaur.
On Fox News Sunday, we’re promised Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) and candidate Joe Lieberman. I can’t see the point.
But I will review and analyze these shows and their guests for this afternoon’s free Rightsided Newsletter. You can subscribe by visiting the web site or by sending a blank e-mail to rsn-subscribe {AT} topica.com.
