Bob Schieffer's big weekend get? GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee! He's surging! Dynamic! And how best to play up your guest's surging dynamism? Well, it'd probably be wise to avoid asking questions that were posed to the candidate just days before on Hardball.
Unfortunately, Schieffer spent a lot of his time covering the same well-worn ground on Sunday morning.
SCHIEFFER, 11/11: "I noticed that Fred Thompson said the other day that you are just a pro-life liberal. What's your response to that?"
MATTHEWS, 11/09: "What do you think of fred thompson saying you're -- i'm not sure what this phrase means. Here he was talking about you yesterday, governor. Are you a liberal or even a pro-life liberal? What do you think of that handle bar he put on you?"
COMBINED HUCKABEE: "I have a joke about the WGA strike! He's only half right. I'm pro-life, but not a liberal. Here's a litany of non-liberal things I've done!"
SCHIEFFER, 11/11: "What do you make of Pat Robertson endorsing Rudy Giuliani?"
MATTHEWS, 11/09: "Well, Pat Robertson endorsed Giuliani. Sam Brownback threw his weight behind Senator McCain. And Paul Weyrich is backing Mitt Romney. Why are they bypassing Huckabee to support a senator who's had poor relations with evangelicals and a mormon who's changed his position on abortion? Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is here to answer that question. Governor, thank you for joining us. What is going on?"
COMBINED HUCKABEE: "I have no idea what's going on with the leaders, but I'm glad to have the followers."
SCHIEFFER, 11/11: "There's been some talk that you might be a good running mate for Rudy Giuliani...Could you be on the ticket with Rudy Giuliani or somebody else who is pro-abortion?"
MATTHEWS, 11/09: "What do you think about Giuliani-Huckabee as a ticket?"
COMBINED HUCKABEE: "Hey, how about Huckabee-Giuliani? But hey, just in case I have a shot, let me find a way to praise Rudy...hmmm, okay, how's this: I appreciate that he tells you exactly where he stands on things."
To his credit, Schieffer did two things better than Matthews: First, he delved into Huckabee's foreign policy experience, and asked the former governor a good question about Pakistan that he'd have been better off asking at the top of the interview. Secondly, he spoke in far more complete, grammatically correct sentences.