The Sunday Show Review
MTP, FNS, TW, FTN, and LE
By Mark Kilmer
Sunday, August 13, 2006
On FNS, talking to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, host Chris Wallace seemed concerned that Britain had some law enforcement tools which we ought to also have but that our laws currently proscribe. We do have the protections of the Fourth Amendment. He asked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-Michigan) about this, and the chairman remarked that "some folks in the United States want to get rid of the tools we have developed over the past five years."
Wallace talked to Ned. Ned needs a media coach, some decent policy people and some intense briefings, a makeup artist, and someone to make him lay off the coffee. (You know, he's the antithesis of Joe Lieberman!)
Talking with Michael Chertoff, Meet the Press guest host David Gregory wanted to know if Pakistan was Afghanistan. He also wanted to discuss 9-11 Commission letter grades.
Both Gregory and George Stephanopoulos (ABC's This Week) were still confused, five years on, about the nature of al Qaeda as a network of terrorists rather than a centralized group.
Russ Feingold on TW embraced Ned, said that Joe Lieberman "doesn't get it," and told Lieberman to withdraw from the Connecticut Senate race. John McCain on TW did not endorse Lieberman, much to Steph's surprise, but did endorse "the Republican." (That's Alan "Foxwoods" Schlesinger.)
Hamilton and Kean, formerly of the defunct 9-11 Commission, hawked a book on MTP.
Howard Dean went on MTP and declared Ned Lamont to be "a moderate." Ken Mehlman said that the Democrats were for removing terror-fighting tools from the U.S. arsenal.
Scott Pelley, in for Bob on FTN, Pelley wanted Chertoff to guarantee the same protections for rail passengers as are now given to those traveling by air. Chertoff said that they would be as protected, but it would be done differently.
House Intelligence Committee ranking Democrat Jane Harman told Pelley that we were in more danger now that al Qaeda was a network rather than a top-down organization. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts said that if we cannot get rid of politics in something like this, we're in trouble.
Pelley interviewed Ned, who boasted that that Bill Clinton could have said that we hadn't been attacked for 5 1/2 years after the first attack on the World Trade Center.
Because of family matters, I was unable to catch CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer this week, but that will be back next week.
Read the complete show-by-show review beneath the fold.
Posted in Special Features — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »
He couldn't catch CNN this AM (we can help - sign up and provide comments at RedState.COM... it's FREE) but the rest of the shows are incredibly complete and insightful (IMHO).
Yeah, yeah. I know. I'm "falling all over myself to praise him" (and no, "he" isn't me). Alternatively I'm being "seduced" because he mentioned my preview thread in his post. I sincerely don't think so. Let me explain.
If you look back I've been posting a link to Mark's preview and review posts longer than I've been posting my own thread and a lot longer than I've been posting my stuff to a blog. I started doing my research in part because of what Mark was doing on RedState. I got hooked on AB's Sunday morning thread and started looking for more info before the fact on the guests and topics. Part of that search led me to Mark's posts. From that I started building my own list of who would be on and then doing some googling to find out who they were and what they'd said recently that would tempt the "powers that be" in the DBM to book them on these shows. I did that for my own purposes for awhile then dared to share it with the folks here on FR, because I've come to value them and this thread so much. Recently I've had the hubris to think that others might like to see the same info in advance and, when TownHall opened up to free blogging I decided to take the plunge.
I already have a free account at Redstate and participate there occasionally, but I didn't feel it was right to post my preview there as that was Mark's territory for this topic. No one was doing one at TownHall (that I'm aware of) so I figured I'd camp over there. I have been mentioning both the FR thread and Mark's posts at RedState at TownHall and FR pretty much since I began. I figure the more we spread the information the better off we all are. Folks will catch me out when I'm wrong and others will learn something they didn't know. All to the good.
I'm incredibly flattered and grateful that Mark has taken the time to link to my thread here the last two weeks when I've pinged him to the post. My entire effort is meant to get us all more background info and a better ability to understand and respond to the stuff being pushed on us by the drive by media. We are the answer to their spin. The more we reinforce each other (as well as check each other (I know I need it)) the better we all are.
Follow the link and read the whole thing.
As I suggested, it would be good for folks here (the good ones, you know who you are <g>) to join up at RedState and provide info on CNN's Late Edition, which Mark had to miss this time. We are all looking to pursue the truth and to learn from each other and we need to back each other up.
Redstate as a whole has been progressively disapointing. I rarely visit anymore. The level of discourse is nowhere near that of many other conservative blogs, and IMO it lacks focus and sounds a bit "breathless". Thanks for posting this, which is a regular feature at Redstate I have looked forward to.
I assume Hoekstra was being critical of the "some folks" who want to get rid of our current tools. Good for him.
What else did Hoekstra say on the show? Anybody?