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If things don't work out for Hillary with this presidential thing, she can always do stand-up comedy out in LA. Or not. If you didn't catch her side-splitter on last night's Letterman, you can view it here, as rebroadcast on MSNBC this morning. For those taking nitrates who might not want to risk a sudden drop in blood pressure by watching the clip, here's the text of Hillary's rib tickler: Dave has been off the air for eight long weeks because of the writers' strike. Tonight he's back. Oh well. All good things come to an end. Hillary, stop. You're...

Paul looked miserable at times and sounded worse. This was not a good appearance for Dr. Paul, the NBC appearance was not kind. Paul was forced to say that he would vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 if it were brought up for a vote again today. It was pointed out that he deemed Ronald Reagan "a dramatic failure." And his answer on the Civil War was mind blowing. He said that Abraham Lincoln made a mistake by going to war to free the slaves and his plan would have been to "buy the slaves and free them."

Talk about damned-if-you-do . . . On this morning's Today show, Matt Lauer discussed with Tim Russert the Middle East peace conference that began today. After years of MSM criticism of President Bush for not getting more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian situation, how does Lauer react when the president undertakes an historic initiative bringing together leaders of all the area's countries for the first time? You guessed it. View video here.

Fred Thompson took his acid bath this morning on Meet the Press. Measured by the traditional standards of Sunday morning political theater, it was an uneven performance. Fred did well on international affairs and "stumbled" on domestic policy. His answer on abortion in particular will come as an uncomfortable revelation to some of his more conservative supporters. I have a team of Jesuits attempting to unravel the yarn-balled logic of Fred's rambling answer, but it appears to boil down to this: "I'm 100 percent pro-life and have voted 100 percent pro-life. I hope one day Roe will be overturned and...

Those expecting to see a train wreck this morning when Fred Thompson appeared on "Meet the Press" must have come away disappointed. Though Tim Russert was his usual aggressive self, Thompson held his own and committed no gaffes of the sort that have plagued his campaign for the past two months. Yet that Thompson's performance on "Meet" — much like his debate debut last month — was one in which merely getting through without making any major errors is seen as tantamount to success says much about the diminished expectations for the candidate once seen as the cure to GOP...

A look at the Sunday morning chat circuit ... Former Sen. Fred Thompson visits NBC's "Meet the Press." Of special note, the program is reaching its 60th anniversary. It debuted on Nov. 20, 1947, and is the world's longest-running TV program. It airs at 9 a.m. on WESH-Channel 2. Former President George H.W. Bush will talk to "Fox News Sunday." It airs at 9 a.m. on WOFL-Channel 35. Sen Joseph Biden will take questions on CBS' "Face the Nation." It airs at 10:30 a.m. on WKMG-Channel 6. Another guest will be Mark Penn, who is a strategist for Sen. Hillary...

(Don't even THINK of reading this DUFU edition before VOTING by clicking HERE. It only takes a couple of seconds to vote in this 2007 Weblog Awards Contest and you can vote once per day until Thursday. If you only see an orange color in the circle after clicking it, then click again. You will know that your vote has registered when you see the vote totals results come up.) As we saw a little over a month ago when William Rivers Pitt performed a DUmmie GRANDSTAND, the Magic Man is continuing to pander to Hillary as you can...

Former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) will undergo a presidential campaign rite of passage fraught with both peril and potential positives when he appears this Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Thompson has appeared on Tim Russert’s famed Sunday morning news show nine times, his campaign said, but this will be his first time as a candidate. Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for Thompson, said the ex-senator is grateful for the chance to expand on some issues that warrant more time than debate formats allow for. “Fred Thompson is a thoughtful candidate who has said many times that debates and 30-second sound...

Hillary Clinton Another highlight from that conference call with Hillary strategist Mark Penn: One caller from Oklahoma City said that "the questions ... were designed to incite a brawl," and that Russert's and Brian William's moderating was "an abdication of journalistic responsibility." Another said Russert "should be shot," before quickly adding that she shouldn't say that on a conference call. Penn and Mantz said they were hearing a lot of the same sentiment from other supporters, but they do not plan to engage the media or the debate's moderators...

Hillary Clinton’s top advisers charge that the presidential candidate was unfairly targeted by moderator Tim Russert during Tuesday night’s Democratic debate in Philadelphia. Russert asked Clinton a number of tough questions during the MSNBC-sponsored debate, including one on Social Security and another on the release of documents from the Bill Clinton administration, as she sought to fend off attacks from her Democratic rivals. Mark Penn, Clinton’s senior strategist, said: “Russert made it appear that President Clinton had done something new or unusual” in regard to the release of documents. “I think there will be further clarification.” Penn and Jonathan Mantz,...

Honeymoon? Forget about it. The morning after his announcement, "Today" wasted no time in going after Fred Thompson. Like a Las Vegas bride with a bad hangover, Meredith Vieira seemed particularly grumpy. At 7:05 a.m. EDT, the "Today" co-anchor interviewed Tim Russert. MEREDITH VIEIRA: The other candidates are out debating last night, and he's on Leno, he's yukking it up announcing that he's running for president as if it is a punch line. Was that a smart thing for him to do? By her acerbic tone, Vieira left no doubt that, in her mind, it wasn't. Russert suggested that Thompson...

Brian Williams and Tim Russert made it sound like John Warner, "one of the president's strongest allies on the War in Iraq", has now changed his stance and wants to bring the troops home. John Warner sold the president up the river long ago. For the NBC talking heads to claim this is a new, dramatic shift, is an outragous lie and they need to be called on it. I don't believe I have every witnessed a more blatant collection of lies.

‘Meet the Press’ Demonstrates How Terrible an Unbalanced Panel Can Be Posted by Noel Sheppard on June 24, 2007 - 14:58. On June 3, NBC’s “Meet the Press” marvelously demonstrated how wonderful a panel discussion can be when there are an equal number of liberal and conservative pundits present as reported by NewsBusters here.Three weeks later, host Tim Russert stocked his panel exclusively with liberals: David Broder of The Washington Post, John Harwood of The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, Gwen Ifill of PBS’ Washington Week, and syndicated columnist Roger Simon. As a result of there not being one conservative...

A quick hit this morning, as I'm on the road . . . Question for our readers, astute observers of the political scene that they are. You read the news this morning, and see a report on the latest presidential poll. John McCain has lost over 1/3rd of his support. What's the first thing that pops into your mind? OK, the headline here is a hint, but isn't it obvious that McCain's pro-amnesty stance has hurt him badly among Republican voters? Well, apparently not so obvious to Tim Russert. Here's how it went on this morning's "Today." NBC WASHINGTON BUREAU...

The western world has had to deal with violent jihad by Muslims for more than a thousand years. After the defeats of Muslim armies in Spain centuries earlier, and of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, the west largely relaxed regarding that particular threat. The combination of billions of petrodollars with the acquisition and near acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (including nuclear weapons) together with the atrocity of September 11 completely changed the equation and the rules. It is a fact of life that grownups have to deal with the potential of these threats – and also deal...

NEW YORK Denis Collins, the juror in the Libby/CIA leak case who delivered a post-verdict commentary for the press, spent about a decade at The Washington Post. Today, after a night on cable TV shows, he re-appears with a massive recounting of his experience at the Huffington Post blog. His story is billed as "INSIDE THE JURY ROOM: WHAT THE JURY THOUGHT, DAY BY DAY, WITNESS BY WITNESS, AT THE SCOOTER LIBBY TRIAL" by Denis Collins, Juror #9. It calls it "unedited" impressions, memories and facts. Other jurors' names are changed. The New York Times today reports that he is...

Meredith Vieira [file photo] was in a light-hearted mood at the top of this morning's "Today," joshing with substitute co-host Ann Curry about the estrogen on the set, even offering to leave her husband for the winner of the Powerball lottery. But we shouldn't have let the idle chatter fool us. When it came to discussing the repercussions of the Libby conviction, Meredith's leopard-skinned blouse should have been a clue -- because she pounced. Discussing the trial with NBC host turned star prosecution witness Tim Russert [file photo], Meredith displayed on screen and read this quotation from Republican strategist...

It's a bit early for a Passover Seder, but Tim Russert had his own version of the Four Questions on this morning's Meet the Press. Not once, not twice, but four times Tim Russert put questions to Jack Murtha clearly designed to provoke the anti-war congressman into taking a verbal swing at Vice-President Cheney. Murtha refused to rise to his host's bait. Russert began by displaying Mr. Cheney's recent statement [displayed below]. Palpably fishing for a big headline, he put this provoking question to Murtha:"How does it feel to be linked with Al-Qaeda by the Vice-President?"View video clip of Russert's...

A Democratic senator has just announced his presidential candidacy. On the next morning's "Fox & Friends," a Fox News reporter who recently denied that Fox has any conservative leanings or that Sean Hannity is a conservative narrates a segment on the announcement. To analyze the news, she plays clips of someone from the National Review and then a writer from Weekly Standard. Host Brian Kilmeade follows, schmoozing over the senator's prospects with a former senior aide to a conservative Republican governor. Total lack of balance! Couldn't Fox News have found at least one Democrat to discuss a Democrat's candidacy?...

When it came time to pass an anti-war resolution, the Democrats were no better than a bunch of timid pre-teens on Halloween. That was the view Matt Lauer expressed in a colloquy with Tim Russert on this morning's "Today." Lauer: "The Democrats in the Senate failed to pass this vote so they could even debate this Iraq strategy and there's even some who are talking about possibly bringing up the idea of revoking the 2002 authorization to go to war. If they can't pass a kind of symbolic vote, how do they ever have the kind of strength to do...