"<strike>Meet</strike> Read The Press" Watch

If there’s a Russert formula beyond just being the Hack in Chief of the Beltwaystocracy, it’s this: Tim plays a news quote of some kind, then relentlessly goes after the guest for a reaction. Of course, the guests know by now that they can just give a non-answer answer and Tim will move on. But today, even the shtick was gone.

Maybe what they say about D.C. lacking a nightlife isn’t true, and Tim Russert really tied one on Saturday night. Or maybe the first three installments of RussertWatch took the wind out of his sails. But, whatever the reason, on Sunday morning Tim looked more spent than Tom Cruise’s publicist. And so did the show, with Russert’s trademark use of quotes completely out of control. They poured forth faster than the chocolates on the I Love Lucy conveyer belt. And they were the TV equivalent of War and Peace, sometimes three and four screens long. Watching was like taking a SAT reading comprehension test -- without the tension. (We have reproduced them in all their Russertian glory at the bottom of the post. Warning: do not operate heavy machinery for at least an hour after attempting to read them.)

Here’s a production tip: TV is a visual medium, Tim. If there’s video of the quote you want a reaction to -- as, god knows, there is of Hillary and Dean -- show the video! Giving us endless quotes to read through makes absolutely no sense… and leaves us wondering how Meet the Press got its rep as the Beltway’s sharpest political show.

Oh, yes, and the content itself?

First up was Congressman Curt Weldon, a Republican from Pennsylvania who has a new book out called Countdown to Terror, and just returned from a trip to Iraq with the show’s other guest, Senator Joe Biden.

Russert puts up a quote of a Washington Post article (did I make it clear that it was the first of many, many more to come?): “Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) ...said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others are misleading Americans about the number of functional Iraqi troops.”

RUSSERT: Who's misleading the American people and how?

Good question. Weldon gives an answer, only not to the good question that was asked.

WELDON: Well, Senator Biden and I and the six-member delegation I took with us to Iraq were concerned because the level of training of the Iraqi troops has been represented to the American people as being much more competent than it is today. Senator Biden and I probed this issue aggressively with our generals and they agree with us that you have to define what the level of training, in fact, is. And if you look at those troops that have a level one capability, which mean they can operate totally on their own without backup of U.S. support, it's not the size the numbers that are being reported back home here in America.

So Russert, of course, realizing his question wasn’t answered, and, being the pitbull that he is, goes right back at Weldon, right? Wrong. You see, all you have to do is the rhetorical equivalent of jingling a few shiny keys in front of Tim and he forgets all about what he wanted to know seconds before. So here is his “follow-up” question:

RUSSERT: How many would you say it is?

Well done, Congressman. You’re off the hook. You don't have to actually say on national television that the administration is misleading the American people.

Now on to Sen. Biden:

BIDEN: The problem they have now is they're beginning to think this is a black hole, they're beginning to think they're not being told the truth. And you saw for the first time, Tim, 52 percent of the American people now think that the war on terror is not being helped by our actions in Iraq. They feel no safer relative to terror because of what we're doing in Iraq. They figured it out.

Figured what out? If what they’ve figured out is that the “war on terror is not being helped by our actions in Iraq,” does that mean Biden believes the war in Iraq is actually making us less safe at home? And if he does, why does he want to send more troops to Iraq?

But instead of seizing this opportunity to probe the contradictions in Biden’s position, Russert seizes the chance to sleepily move on and throw up more quotes for us to read.

The low point of today’s low energy show comes in an exchange during the roundtable with Gwen Ifill, Judy Woodruff, John Harwood, and David Broder, the Dean of the Washington Press Corps. Russert runs through a litany of numbers showing how badly the president is faring right now, including on Iraq and the war on terror. Broder’s response is an incredible piece of Washington-think:

BRODER: This president tends to go straight ahead, and he can do that, I suppose, on Iraq, because there are very few options for him. But he really needs to think about the domestic side.

And Russert lets him get away with the preposterous claim that Bush doesn't need to think Iraq! Broder and Russert don’t have to agree with alternative options, but shouldn’t Russert at least have put on the table the options being discussed on the Hill? Including what is real news, that a conservative Republican, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), the very man who was so gung-ho for the war, he got “French Fries” rechristened “Freedom Fries” in the congressional cafeteria, will be introducing a bill next week calling for a withdrawal date. (To find out more about it, watch the video of Walter Jones’ interview with George Stephanopoulos. I’ll link to the transcript as soon as it becomes available.)

So here's what Tim came back with instead:

RUSSERT: Gwen?

Neither Russert, nor Broder, even though it was after all front-page, above-the-fold, in his own paper, made a single mention of the Washington Post story, which details how the administration has been fabricating terror convictions. Though the president claimed on Thursday that more than 200 terrorism suspects have been convicted, “an analysis of the Justice Department's own list of terrorism prosecutions by the Washington Post shows that 39 people -- not 200, as officials have implied -- were convicted of crimes related to terrorism or national security.” Obviously, not as important a roundtable topic for Tim as Dean’s temper and Hillary’s positioning for 2008.

He closed with the announcement that on next week’s show, he will put The Mill on the Floss on the screen in its entirety, and read it aloud for our edification.

Till then...

UPDATE: Digby has more here.

Now, the CIA and former members of it are hopping mad about your allegations. This was from Thursday's New York Times: "Mr. Weldon's allegations have infuriated CIA officials, including a veteran case officer who said he had met with the congressman's source four times in Paris. `He's never given us any information that was the slightest bit credible,' said Bill Murray, the CIA station chief in Paris when he met Mr. Weldon's source, an elderly Iranian who once served in the government of the shah of Iran. `This guy was a waste of my time and resources.'"