In a headline reminiscent of the Howdy Doody Show theme song (feel free to sing along, now) Electablog’s Dave Pell writes,”It’s Condoleezza Time,” in anticipation of the National Security Adviser’s testimony tomorrow before the 9/11 commission. The networks are likewise anticipating, Pell notes, with ABC, CBS and NBC hoping to draw sizeable peanut galleries by producing the big guns — Jennings, Rather, and Brokaw/Russert–to oversee live coverage of Thursday’s event. “Too bad we won’t have the same kind of coverage when Cheney and Bush perform some of the old favorite Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy routines,” Pell grouses.
Speaking of Rice, Bush’s National Security Adviser is “right-of-center” bloggers’ “favorite contemporary dinner guest,” followed by George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. (Karl Rove is tied with Dick Cheney, the blogosphere’s own Glenn Reynolds and three others for 18th, and Sean Hannity, P.J. O’Rourke and Bush I receive honorable mentions).
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews put a related question to Sen. John McCain last night (via Wonkette): “I always ask people, who do you want to sit next to on a 13-hour flight to Australia? … Who are you most comfortable with, Bush or Kerry?” McCain replied, “You know, both — I’m equivocating here, but I think because Bush is president of the United States I’d rather sit next to Bush.”
(No doubt many in the media did note McCain’s “equivocating” and will use it to fuel their Veep-stakes-related program activities). In what gets Campaign Desk’s vote for most vivid Veep-stakes moment to date, Wonkette points to this exchange in the Matthews-McCain interview:
Matthews: Also, being an independent Republican is sort of like a girl in a bikini. It’s kind of inviting. I mean, you have a more interesting role here.
McCain: It’s a tradition in Arizona of Barry Goldwater and others …
“Chris Matthews really likes the idea of a Kerry-McCain ticket, and he will grab just about any available metaphor to express his desire,” Wonkette teases.
And speaking of teasing, Josh Marshall offers this update to his post about President Bush’s Monday exchange with the “AP person” covering a campaign event. Marshall links to Dan Froomkin’s story in yesterday’s Washington Post indicating that the president might have asked the reporter “Who are you talking to?” because the “AP person” may have been talking on his cell phone during the presidential Q&A. Andrew Sullivan is content with the explanation, and all is right with the blogosphere.
–Liz Cox Barrett
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.