Playing Softball on “Hardball”

It’s sickening to watch David Frum, Bob Shrum, Susan Molinari, and some news guy sitting around pontificating on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews: the unanimity is boring, and depressing. Frum is flustered when Matthews calls him “Frummie,” but clearly he is a hawk among pigeons, the only one there with a consistent view, albeit an evil one.

Shrum wiffles on about how the President, for all his pro-democracy rhetoric, is going easy on Turkmenistan, where the dictator has just named the first two months of the year after two members of his family. And what about Saudi Arabia: when’s he going to get tough on them.

That’s right, Bob: you and Kerry would’ve added Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia to the list of countries to be invaded. Thanks for reminding me why I voted for Ralph Nader.

Molinari simply reiterated the same tired old Republican talking points. The newsguy (didn’t catch his name) was the only one to challenge Frum, saying Iraq is the test of the President’s crusading mission — but he wanders off into agnosticism, saying we “don’t know” if it will work.

Why is it that the anti-interventionist viewpoint gets almost no exposure on television, even as opposition to the Iraq war is on the rise? Yeah, it’s the good old MSM — biased, but not in the way Republican wing-nuts would have it.