Lil' Russ's Propoganda Hour

First up on Meet the Press: Sen. Bill Frist, M.D. (R. Tn.) Have I missed something or is Frist now using the M.D. after his name all the time? I don't remember that he had been using this formal designation in a long while. Frist put on a predictible show trumpeting all the advances there have been in Iraq over just the last four months! Elections must go forward and freedom is on the march. A lot of pablum about the tsunami recovery effort (nothing about the alleged news about getting a snapshot of him with devastation in the background), about whether we have given enough money to the relief effort compared to Australia, German, Japan. Frist is a master of saying nothing but feel-good hogwash the Republicans have mastered.

But-ah what-ah hit me-ah while he spewed-ah all-ah his-ah clap-trap-ah is who he sounds like:

Reverend Lovejoy



Then the round table. An improvement over last week, but that isn't saying much. Albert Hunt, Andrea Mitchell, Katty Kay, and Byron York. Some honest talk about Armstrong Williams (what Williams did was dishonest and broadcast media has credibility issue it can ill afford), Iraq (things aren't going well, we are stuck with what we've got, nobody really knows what the heck is going on and, according to Mrs. Greenspan, off-the-record Washington thinks Brent Scowcroft's recent words about civil war may be correct), and Social Security Reform (there is huge disagreement among Republicans, the Preznit has no idea how big the battle is going to be).

While Byron York is an improvement over Kate O'Beirne, and Andrea Mitchell is an improvement over William Safire, Katty Kay (whoever she is) is an improvmement over Evan Thomas, and Albert Hunt (who has moved from the WSJ to Bloomberg news) is an improvement over David Broder, I am still left wanting. Is it too much to ask for a real progressive on one of these programs?

Don't waste time on the transcript.