Friday night, one of my colleagues alerted me to the fact that I had confused McConnells. It’s not the Bush "enabler" Senator (Mitch of Kentucky) who’s going to be on NBC’s Meet the Press this Sunday –but rather the McConnell who’s the Director of National Intelligence. If there’s any justice left on Sundays on our media, this McConnell will talk about how the recent National Intelligence Estimate indicates that Bush’s war has generated new and deadly threats against the US.
So, this Sunday on Meet the Press, at a moment when the overwhelming majority of the country has turned against this bloody quagmire, has turned against a President who even many Bush loyalists fear is detached from reality (see the editorial in Richard Mellon Scaife’s newspaper questioning Bush’s "mental stability" ), Tim Russert chooses to give a platform to TWO not three, as I wrote earlier, of "the President’s enablers" (to borrow Paul Krugman’s term) – Stephen Hayes and David Brooks.
"…Mr. Bush keeps doing damage because many people who understand how his folly is endangering the nation’s security still refuse, out of political caution and careerism, to do anything about it" Krugman writes in today’s New York Times. That’s a good description of what Russert is enabling with this Sunday’s program.
MEET THE PRESS WITH TIM RUSSERT WEEKEND LISTINGS 07/22/07
MIKE MCCONNELL Director of National Intelligence
SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD (D-WI) Foreign Relations Committee Intelligence Committee
DAVID BROOKS New York Times Columnist
STEPHEN HAYES Senior Writer, The Weekly Standard Author, "Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President"
BOB WOODWARD Assistant Managing Editor, Washington Post Author, "State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III"
Exclusive! In his first television interview as Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell joins us live and in studio to discuss terrorism & the National Intelligence Estimate. What is the state of our intelligence gathering? Now that nearly six years have passed since the 9/11 attacks, how safe are we? Are we any closer to capturing Osama Bin Laden?
The debate over the Iraq war reached a fever pitch on Capitol Hill with an all-night session and a Democratic proposal to withdraw U.S. troops. This Sunday we will be joined in studio by the first Senator to propose a specific withdrawal date, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI).
Then, our Meet the Press roundtable shares insights and analysis on the Bush-Cheney administration and the Iraq war: David Brooks of the New York Times, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, and the Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes, who has just written a new book, "Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President."
