For Sunday, July 22, 2007

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Meet the Press (NBC): Tim Russert will talk terrorism with Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. Next, he’ll talk to Russ Feingold about whatever.

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace will talk to Fran Townsend, the President’s Homeland Security advisor, about that National Intelligence Estimate from last week. Then he’ll chat with Senators Kit Bond (R) and Evan Bayh (D).

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer is getting one view on the Iraq war from two Senators: dingy Harry (D) and one of his Maine gals, Olympia Snowe (R).

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos and the crew have the morning off, as the golf tour gets to show off its (alleged) ‘roid rage at the British Open.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer talks to Fran Townsend, Mitch McConnell vs. famed Nazi hunter Dick Durbin, and two Dem politicos turned campaign ops: John Edwards campaign manager David Bonior (former Hous Dem whip) and Congressman Artur Davis of Alabama, whose with the Obama campaign. And he’ll have his usual cast of thousands.
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Townsend is sharp, in appearance, demeanor, in intellect. I am not empowered to nominate her to be Attorney General, and the Dems haven’t skinned this current one yet, but I’d give her some serious thought.

Is Wolf’s duel between Mitch and Durbin the shape of things to come, assuming the Dems simply promote Durbin when the sack Reid, which they’ll have to do before the campaign begins in earnest. (There is an argument that Durbin and Chuckie Schumer run the Senate as it is, which is an interesting notion.)

Schieffer’s show looks to be the least bearable – Reid and Snowe?!? They’ll talk Iraq, both from the anti-surge side, with Reid, who shouldn’t remain Dem leader for long, mouthing other people’s words and Snowe offering nothing of any use. I doubt she’ll be Hagel/Smith, in sync with Schumer/Durbin/Reid, but it will be the same nonsense with a different mask.

Feingold is pretty much as waste of time, sounding his one outdated note to the point of metronomic torture, but Russert’s show is saved by Mike McConnell. This is his first stab at these shows, and perhaps he can explain why it took the intelligence community months to draw up that National Intelligence Estimate when a few of us could have done it in a morning.