Lost in the mainstream media coverage of the McCain-Obama dust up about Al Qaeda in Iraq is any mention of the role Tim Russert played in initiating the imbroglio.
Like the little manager man in pro wrestling -- the one who tosses the folding chair into the ring when the ref isn't looking -- he slipped McCain something to hit Obama with. And like the little manager man, he got away with it.
"Who...? Me...?"
It was Russert who asked Hillary Clinton (and then Obama) if, having pulled American troops out of Iraq, they would re-invade if Al Qaeda were to establish a base of operations there. Two hypothetical questions. An if and an if.
Jettisoning the hypothetical context of Obama's answer (as well as any sense of honesty and honor), McCain immediately struck a pose and delivered his, "I have news for Senator Obama: Al Qaeda is in Iraq" line.
The unflappable Obama was quick to point out that Al Qaeda had not been in Iraq before George W. Bush and John McCain invaded. The senator from Illinois seems to be a counter-puncher. But that doesn't mean the Republicans won't continue to try to use Obama's response to Russert's "gotcha" question against him in the future.
It was typical Russert hatchet work. Another example of his greasy thumb weighing heavy on the already-unbalanced scale of mainstream media political reporting. From Whitewater to impeachment to Florida to Iraq -- right on through last Tuesday evening, the man has consistently veered right. And his mainstream media colleagues have let him get away with it.
Inside the beltway, in New York, and up on Nantucket where Russert summers, the anointed say he's a bulldog. Out here in real America, where Iraq, jobs, NAFTA and healthcare are real issues, not pundit banter, a lot of everyday people say he's bullsh*t.
Hopefully, the profusion of new media and the ascendancy of the Internet will continue to diminish Russert's soapbox. Hopefully a new generation of politically aware Americans who get their news from the Internet, will make him irrelevant. Soon.
In the meantime, keep your eye on the little manager man running around the ring distracting the referee. You never know when he might try to slip McCain another folding chair.