FIRE THE BOOKER

MEET THE PRESS

This past Tuesday, the Democratic Party made history. In one fell swoop, the party of the people took back control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also did so without losing a single seat that was previously held by a Democrat, which is all but unheard of. And, in recognition of this most momentous occasion, our liberal press, in the form of Meet the Press, has scheduled exactly zero Democrats to appear.

Given the strong majority now enjoyed by the Democrats in the House, perhaps it might have been a good idea to interview someone like Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi or perhaps one of the candidates running for Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer or John Murtha. Think again. Equally frustrating is the fact that the election was viewed in many quarters as a repudiation of the Bush adminstration's running of the war in Iraq. With the fact of a Democratic Majority in the Congress and the anti-Iraq message sent, who does MtP choose to feature? None other than war supporter and minority party Republican John McCain and war supporter and non-Democrat Joe Lieberman.

I can think of no greater example of NOT having one's finger on the pulse of the public than these two bookings. Seriously, were there no Democrats willing to come on a discuss their plan for the direction of the 110th Congress? I understand that the mainstream media has an inexplicable hard-on for McCain (a erection not shared by most hard right Republicans), but what exactly does he truly have to offer in an interview? Aside from announcing his intentions to run for president in '08, having him on is a waste given that he is a member of the minority party and a supporter of a war policy that was widely repudiated by many Americans as they went to the polls last Tuesday. I suppose a case could be made for a Lieberman interview given his somewhat unique position in the Senate. It is not an interview that I would be interested in watching given that it will most likely be a retread of his statements in the past - namely a call for bipartisanship (though he obviously never misses a chance to practice said bipartisanship by jabbing at his mates among the Democrats) as he prances and preens at having snubbed his nose at the Democratic voters in Connecticut who decisively decided that he did not represent their interests any longer.

Overall, this is just a missed chance by our "liberal media" to feature the new majority's plans for America and instead choosing to partisans whose time in the limelight is quickly passing.