Memo to Tim Russert: Stop Letting Andrea Mitchell Guest Moderate Your Show

Yesterday, before I went to see the Braves destroy the Orioles at Turner Field with my pa and my bro, I watched the second half of Meet the Press. I tuned in to the show in time to watch Bill Bennett (pictured left), noted right-wing pundit and self-appointed "moralist", sit at a MTP roundtable with a columnist, 2 newspaper reporters and one Andrea Mitchell, "newswoman" and wife of Alan Greenspan. She was filling in for Russert because Timmy was taking the long weekend off. Anyway, click here for some of the highlights of the roundtable, which was probably the most lively I've seen on that show in the years I've been watching it. The left-wing bloggers (to which the link goes to) think it shows Bennett in a bad light (the headline at Crooks and Liars is "Dana Priest Smacks Bill Bennett Around"), and because I disgree with Bennett, I also think his views make him look pretty off-base. But I differ from the other lefty bloggers in that I think the clip shows Andrea Mitchell in a worse light than it does Bennett; she comes off as someone who can't handle the position of MTP moderator that Russert has anointed her with.

Early in the clip, Mitchell asks Bennett a question about the legality (or morality) of releasing classified material (rightly or wrongly classified) -- he starts to answer and then Andrea Mitchell cuts in with a quote she's got a graphic for, and then, without giving him a chance to rebut, she goes to Bill Safire. Tim would have let Bennett respond. And then later, Mitchell is talking to one of the other panelists and says, "But what Bill Bennett would say to that," even though the Bill Bennett in question was sitting right next to her. Anyway, it was a weird segment and I think Mitchell, who's guest moderated before, is out of her depth in Russert's seat. He's got to stop letting her do it.

Anyway. Hope everyone had a good weekend, and have a spectaculnormous Fourth.