Flush twice... it's a long way to Sally Quinn's place!

Pundit Pap for May 11, 2003
It's (Finally) the Economy (Again), Stupid!
Tax cuts may play in the Oval Office, but elsewhere? Fuhgeddaboudit?
By JJ Balzer

May 11, 2003 -- NEW YORK (apj.us) -- It took months, but finally the Sunday shows have turned the focus back to politics. Item one was George the Lesser's continued campaign for the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich; item two seemed to be a tie between Captain AWOL George's still-backfiring "Top Bum" moment on the USS Abraham Lincoln and reverberations from Josh Green's revelation just over a week ago in Washington Monthly that right-wing "morality czar", virtues scold and perennial Clinton-basher Bill Bennett (who, by the way, was -- and still may be -- addicted to tobacco) was a high-stakes gambler in Atlantic City and Nevada. He claims to have played away from the public at high-stakes slot machines and to have won around what he has lost -- but other reports pout his losses in the $8 million range.

Two colleagues extremely familiar with the world of high rollers -- one an investigative reporter in New York, the other APJ's resident odds-maker "Stiggs" -- reminded me that Bennett was afforded VIP treatment in both cities, and said luxury treatment is often thought to mean some coed companionship in the luxury suites at which the "big players" stay (as Stiggs put it, "slots in the casino, sluts in the Royal Penthouse").

Hmm...

Oh, well, enough with the gratuitous innuendo. By necessity, today's round-up will be very brief.

This Weak
Steph the Superstar? Cue laugh track! It's Snow Job time!
Players: George "Steph" Stephanopoulos
Treasury Secretary John Snow
Former GE chief and renowned horndog Jack Welch
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell (D)
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R)

The non-spectacle of watching Steph toss denizens of Junior's misadministration softball after softball after softball is getting a bit tiresome. Steph gave John Snow (who comes across a lot more scripted and a lot less erudite than the FAUX News' Tony Snow) a practically open mike to shill for tax cuts, tax cuts and more tax cuts because it will "spur growth" -- and every time Steph challenged Snow with another bit of evidence that the economy has tanked (he downplayed the fact that this is Smirk's deficit), he let Snow put out another Roveish-sounding scripted talking point that, more often than not, was a nonsequitur when examined more closely.

Far more entertaining was the four-way debate between Welch, Landrieu, Bloomberg and Rendell. Here's the gist.

Welch: Oh, this economy thing is just a little ripple, the tax cut will give investors plenty of money to plow into stocks (yeah, right, Jack -- we're sure your mind has been on plowing into something else, but since this is a family publication, we'll not mention what it is we think has been on your dirty little cheating mind).

Rendell: Don't make me laugh, it's not a real stimulus plan. States are facing financial ruin. The tax cuts spell disaster, and they will be a bigger issue than the GOP anticipates.

Bloomberg: If the federal government reduces taxes, it "will ease the burden on states and cities who are being forced to raise their taxes -- simply because they have services that they are either unwilling or unable to cut" -- but it isn't enough. (Careful, there, Mike - you've already wandered off the Republican reservation as far as the Pretend-a-dent and George "Screw the Five Boroughs" Pataki are concerned - unless you ARE planning to jump parties...)

Landrieu: The whole tax cut push is a sham, "I think this whole 'trickle-down' is hogwash", and we're going to face an economic mess for as far as we can see.

It was actually an entertaining four-ring circus and Steph did a respectable job of keeping the action going -- in fact, this was one of the better segments we've seen on This Weak in well over a year.

But we once again had to reach for the airsickness bag as ABC went overboard to once again shove the fact that Steph "hosted" the first presidential debate of the season -- and naturally, they peppered a promo spot with a handful of selective, highly favorable comments on Steph's (not terribly brilliant) performance. ABC is using this ploy to try to con viewers into thinking that Steph has "arrived" as a broadcast journalist -- despite the fact that This Weak's ratings are still in the toilet.

Face it, Disney -- he's no Tim Russert. But take some consolation in the fact that neither is Russert!

Beat the Press
Tom Daschle in a Pink Tutu -- how sweeeeet (NOT)
Players: Tim Russert, looking fatter than even Tony Blankley
John Snow, still shoveling it (we don't mean the white stuff)
Tom Daschle, Senate Minority Leader

Tim spent the first half of MTP letting John Snow pull the same spin he had on This Weak -- but Tim made it just a hair tougher for Snow, bringing up such nuggets as the possibility that the US Treasury may default on loans and a national debt that now stands at $6.4 TRILLION -- and the Chimp wants a tax cut? This time, Snow blamed Congress (that's right -- the GOP spend and spend Congress) and prior tax reductions -- but he still shilled for "tax relief".

Tim then turned to deficit hawk talk from Snow from 1995 -- portraying Snow as a born-again tax hypocrite. Naturally, Snow never credited sound Clintonomic policy for the economic boom and even tried to claim that the economy had been at "full" employment (yeah, right).

Does Tim see the writing on the wall? Or was something else going on? Tim would hammer Snow, but Snow would respond with what sounded like scripted Roveian deflection (for example, blaming Clinton for a recession that started on El Smirko's watch) -- and Tim would not follow through, or press for a straight answer. This is what passes for political interviewing in the age of His AWOL Subliminableness.

But perhaps the best indication of the inane absurdity of inviting someone like Snow as a Sunday morning guest came as Snow misquoted John Kennedy's metaphor for bolstering an economy using tax cuts (and never mind that Kennedy did a lot more than cut taxes):

"A rising tide raises all the votes."

That's right. Snow said "Votes." If that doesn't tell you exactly what this Bushling "tax cut" is about -- buying votes from people who are completely uninformed about all sides of the issues -- then nothing will.

Following the break came Daschle, who started off strong -- as a deficit and debt hawk. He slammed snow's evasiveness: "This administration has ignored [the economy] from the beginning." Daschle also refuted some nonsense from something called the Concord Coalition. Tim: how about ending tax cuts and cutting spending? Daschle said the amount of added debt is unacceptable.

Daschle tried to look tough when Tim brought up the possibility of repealing tax cuts to pay for decent health care. Tim claimed a family of four would pay $1600 more (but never said which right-wing think tank that particular hooey came from). Daschle hammered "debt" and "deficit" -- but should have challenged Tim on the very numbers he brought up.

Tim suddenly shifted the topic to Iraq, and quicker than you can say "pink tutu" Daschle lost his spine. He admitted that the failure to find WMDs is a "humiliation" -- but said that the invasion of Iraq was justified by deposing Saddam. So the war was worthwhile? "Yes."

Oh, really, Tom? So it's okay for Georgie, Rummy and Powell to lie with impunity to the nation? This guy should be fired as Senate Minority Leader -- in fact, his weak leadership is part of the damn reason Democrats are in the minority in both houses of Congress.

But Daschle did stand by his assertion that Preznit Shrubbo is a failed diplomat. Tim: "Did we lose 145 lives to failed diplomacy?" Daschle said that he was "disappointed" in Smirk's inability not only to get a diplomatic solution (read: to help the Saudis and other interested parties stage a coup). But again Daschle backed down when Tim tried to get him to pin the blame on Little George -- Daschle said he supports the troops and the generalissimo. And worst of all, Tim got Daschle to say that his slam of His Fraudulence was badly timed.

What a complete wuss. Daschle had every reason to say what he did -- and his backdown is about the worst thing he can do to a party that is finally showing a little backbone against Dim Son, especially following his asinine million-buck "Top Bum" carrier landing.

In fact, Tim did bring up an investigation of Flyboy George stunt: "Should it be investigated?" Daschle: "It is." Of course, it will be swept under the political rug faster than you can say "He's no Tom Cruise."

And, of course, Tim did have to get in some Clinton-bashing, showing old footage of Bill Clinton doing a meet-and-greet on a Navy vessel. Daschle blew it big time, failing to point out that:

1) Clinton didn't waste a million dollars flying onto the vessel, and;
2) Clinton's appearance and speech were not given saturation coverage by CNN, MSNBC and FAUX News Channel, while other more pressing news was completely ignored.

Daschle needs to grow a brain and a pair of... well, this is a family publication.

On second thought, Daschle shouldn't bother -- given her performance over on ABC, Mary Landrieu would make a better Senate Majority-Leader-to-Be than Daschle.

We'd had enough. We grabbed the remote and took our wife to a Mother's Day brunch.

One last note: I'm headed to England with the missus and kids for four months. A tip of the hat to Gene Gaudette and the APJ gang for letting me take a weekly swipe at the laborious, lugubrious loudmouths of the Beltway. I'll be back before you can say, "Iowa Caucuses."

But I don't expect much improvement by then.

-- JJ Balzer

JJ Balzer is a former television news producer. He lives in New York City.