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Russert Watch: Riding the Straight Talk Express, but Not With John McCain

Russert actually brought up "flip-flopping," the kiss of death to Republicans. Does this mean Russert doesn't consider McCain a viable candidate? I think it does.
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Founder, TheLi.st

Founder, TheLi.st
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Good afternoon, and welcome to Russert Watch. I'm today's host, Rachel Sklar, an extra hour cranky on one less hour's sleep, which might explain why I had so little patience today for John McCain's transparent political backtracking and Tim's insistence on what President Bush continues to see in Putin's soul. I have to wait for MSNBC to post the transcript (a girl can only type so fast, people!) but since last week's commenters requested a speedier wrap-up, here are a few of my initial thoughts, to be supplemented in full once the transcript becomes available:

  • Russert opened with softball what-do-you-think questions about Iraq and flogged his Russia obsession from last week, but also returned to last week's tough talk, re-citing the litany of ways in which the Administration was flat-out wrong (well, a partial litany, natch) and putting McCain on the spot about his neo-Bush-love (citing HuffPo's own Jim Pinkerton -- proof that he's reading! Hi, Tim!) and baffling new association with Jerry Falwell (well, maybe not so baffling considering this quote: "I believe that the Christian right has a major role to play in the Republican party").
  • McCain supported Bush in full, on every issue from handling Iran to his split-down-the-middle stance on immigration to the intelligence rationale for the Iraq war (cue Mike Myers as Linda Richman: "The intelligence rationale for the Iraq war was neither intelligent nor a rationale. Discuss."). My notes read, "Oh, McCain. Straight Talk Express?"
  • Russert actually brought up the dreaded "F" word: "flip-flopping" which is the kiss of death to Republicans. Does this mean that Russert doesn't consider McCain to be a viable candidate? I think it does. Russert really had a go at McCain's credibility -- and he didn't even mention his weird support of the South Dakota abortion ban or controversial hire of Terry Nelson who was the national political director for Bush's 2004 campaign and, more importantly, has been named in the DeLay indictment (NB: he has not been charged). Still, McCain has not addressed this.
  • Let's not forget the second guest: General Tony Zinni, former Commander, U.S. Central Command and author of "The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose." Two words: WOW. Talk about the Straight Talk Express! Zinni was amazing: blunt, smart, and with the kind of soundbites that the Democrats dream of generating. He called the administration out for faulty (nay, totally freakin' absent) WMD intel going into Iraq, massively mishandling the insurgency, and trying to make the media a scapegoat on bad news from Iraq. Upshot: Zinni is, in a word, awesome (and, in another word, presidential, per Marty Kaplan).
  • Upshot: Today's "Meet The Press" was indeed a ride on the Straight Talk Express, but not with John McCain. He's on a different road now.

    • By now I'm sure the transcript is up so I'll get to filling in these blanks. In the meantime, Cenk Uygur has some choice words on John McCain (hint: like "Sell-Out Express"). Back with the update at 2 p.m., or 1p.m. for those of you who forgot to set your clocks.

    UPDATE: It's 1:17pm and the transcript isn't up! I guess the people at MSNBC are lamenting that lost hour of sleep, too. Bear with me, delights and treats a-plenty to come (that is, if you consider John McCain fumbling through justifying his brand-new alliance with someone he once called an "agent of intolerance" a delightful treat. Yep, I know. Not so much. Back shortly).

    UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: Transcript be damned. Watch it here, and in the meantime I've added a few more thoughts below (NB: Transcribed bits are from my notes and as such may be slightly paraphrased).

  • McCAIN'S DAMAGE CONTROL FOR BUSH: Neo-hardballing Tim cites the big-time Administration screw-ups in Iraq (WMDS/greeted as liberators/insurgency losing steam) and asks McCain "would it help if the President admitted he was wrong?" Said McCain: "I think the President has been doing that." Excuse me? Then he says, that "mistakes are made in every war" to which Tim, well-prepped, cites Thomas Friedman who calls the administration "criminally negligent" (which is a pretty high standard of culpability, btw). McCain disagrees, and instead points out that, hey, everyone was fooled by the same intel - the Brits, the French, the Israelis. Sure, but until when though? Clearly not in the months leading up to war. Russert does NOT make this point. Needless to say, McCain does not either.

  • McCAIN'S BUSH-OPHILIA, PART TWO: Russert also doesn't ask about how Bush vitiated McCain's Anti-Torture Bill, appending a signing statement which effectively rendered it useless. About which McCain has been silent. He does ask McCain about Iran, about which McCain says he "applauds the President's handling of this issue." In the matter of immigration, Russert asks for: "straight talk: has the President shown the necessary leadership?" McCain's response was a kind-of-yes, with no real sense of how confident he was of Bush's position. Straight talk? Not quite.

  • RUSSERT ON JILL CARROLL: Russert asks McCain about Jill Carroll's videotaped statements criticizing the U.S. and praising her captors, asking McCain to draw on his own experience as a hostage in advising viewers on whether to take these tapes seriously. Is Russert serious? Even before she clearly stated that the tapes were made under major duress, it didn't take much to figure that out (unless you're John Podhoretz). I can't believe he's even intimating that there's anything more here (McCain, to his credit, points out that the statement obviously couldn't be taken as voluntary, and professed relief at Carroll's safe return).

  • RUSSERT ON RUSSIA: Russert bring this one up again. Safe to say he's not a fan of Putin. McCain notes that he's more worried about Russia's failure to really cooperate regarding Iran. Russert asks McCain about what Bush said about Putin's soul. McCain said something like "well, we all say things that are stupid" and then, when Russert pounced on that, McCain backpedaled because God forbid he should criticize Bush one iota. McCain obviously hasn't read the poll numbers, or Zinni's book.

  • McCAIN ON THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT: He once called Bush a "Pat Robertson Republican" and Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance." Today on "Meet The Press" he said "I believe that the Christian right has a major role to play in the Republican party" and defended his upcoming commencement speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University as no more significant than speaking at any university. Tim reminds McCain that Falwell blamed "the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians" for paving the way for 9-11. (NB: For the record, Falwell did apologize.) However McCain chooses to whitewash it, he revealed his true motives in this potion of the program, when he pointed out that the Christian Right had that "major role" because they were so darned active. Active at the polls and on the campaign trail -- which is apparently enough reason to align with South Dakota anti-abortionists and promote Intelligent Design in schools (which brings his thinking dangerously in line with Pat Robertson, whom I think we can all agree is currently riding the Cuckoo For Cocoa Puffs Express).

  • From my notes, bewildered: "Where is John McCain?"

  • Commercial! Here we break for an Oasis-inspired musical interlude, an example of what I like to call "blog synchronicity," which occurs when two or more references to the same subject come up on your blog independently of each other. That happened today! When Tim questioned McCain on how he could stump for Bush after the dirty smear campagin in 2000, (assumed to have been mounted by the Bush campaign), McCain said a few time that he wasn't going to "look back in anger" (clearly taking the advice of the floppy-haired British twosome). Then, in a separate commercial for AT&T, we were treated to another Oasis hit, "All Around The World" (audio samples at both links, for those who can't wait to rock out). Fun fact: Oasis once claimed that they would be bigger than the Beatles. I wonder if Condi has an opinion on that? Okay, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

  • ZINNI ZINNI ZINNI! From the comments below, it's clear that General Tony Zinni is the new fan favorite here at HuffPo. And rightly so -- his straightforward no-BS take was a refreshing change (compare and contrast with Condi last week). His take: Iraq was a mistake but "we're committed to it now." Zinni thinks that the U.S. has to push the Iraqi government to address the civil strife, including the militias which is "part of the problem that we are not addressing." He smacks down Russert's lame blame-the-media talking point (so last week!) and says that "all the good things will mean nothing" if the situation in Iraq disintegrates. He calls the administrationi out for "cherry-picking facts" and using loaded metaphors meant to provoke kneejerk emotional responses.

  • SAME QUESTION, DIFFERENT ANSWER: Russert re-poses the quetion asked of McCain above, namely "would it help if Bush apologized" for the screw-ups thus far? Zinni does not take the opportunity to pat Bush on the back for a job well done. What Zinni says is this: "Integrity is more important than loyalty." Bush should fire Rumsfeld, fire everyone who has screwed up and made grave errors, and not try to defend or "rewrite history."

  • "THESE GUYS DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY'RE GETTING INTO": That's what Zinni said in this WaPo article from December, 20003. Looks like he was right.

    • The transcript is still not available, but when it is it'll be here. We'll be back next week, and hopefully this tougher-talkin' version of Tim will be too. Russert Watch out -- along with, we're betting, McCain 2008.

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