There is a furor today (along with the inevitable “counter-furor” by the NeoCon Blogs), over Bob Schieffer’s kid-gloves treatment of Senator Joe Libermann on Face the Nation. Senator Liebermann was acting as a spokesperson for Republican Presidential Nominee Senator John McCain. Retired General Wes Clark was acting as a spokesperson for Democratic Presidential Nominee Senator Barack Obama. (Yes, it is true that neither is formally the nominee–but the emphasis is on formality.) In a classic division of styles, Senator Liebermann was lead with friendly questions he could essentially “yeah” or “ney.” By contrast, General Clark, was challenged from the get go in a manner that made it clear that Mr. Schieffer wanted no credibility to attach to Senator Obama’s spokesperson in any fashion.
Bob Schieffer’s soft-pedalling of Senator Joe Liebermann is not too surprising. Bob Schieffer is a Texan and the older brother of Tom Schieffer. Guess who he was at one time in business with? George W. Bush. The now President “W” appointed Tom Schieffer first as Ambassador to Australia and currently as Ambassador to Japan.
Ironically, Mr. Schieffer’s tactics may turn out to backfire. They served to highlight and emphasize General Clark’s position that Senator McCain’s military service does not especially qualify him for President. Perhaps a better strategy would have been to ignore Senator McCain’s military record.
Often, Americans conflate service to the country (which Senator McCain undeniably delivered to a high degree) with a successful military career (and his military career is at least debatable). I would prefer to defeat Senator McCain on his policies which would be W++. But I would also like a less stilted and one-sided debate. Bob Schieffer should be disqualified from moderating in these circumstances. He all but sits in the inner circle of the “W”‘s power, and his loyalty to the rest of us–the Third Estate–is nil.
From Bob Schieffer’s point of view, we don’t deserve the truth (or even an honest debate). We deserve another 4 years of Republican disaster.
