According to My Wife: Tim Russert is a Big Bully

Russert: Off our Christmas List

According to my wife Tim Russert is a big bully for bodyslamming fun-sized FLILF-mate Dennis Kucinich at last night's Democratic Presidential debate. Scrappy Kucinich was feeding the party base red meat all night, clearly hoping to get some headlines with his impeach Bush and Cheney message. Then Russert fixed his beady stare on amiable Kucinich and went in for the kill. You know a question is going to be trouble when it starts with the name "Shirley MacLaine", a convenient shorthand for "crazy batshit nuts". Here's the full question:

"The godmother of your daughter, Shirley MacLaine, writes in her new book that you sighted a UFO over her home in Washington state...

(Laughter)

... that you found the encounter extremely moving, that it was a "triangular craft, silent and hovering," that you "felt a connection to your heart and heard directions in your mind."
Now, did you see a UFO? "

Kucinich seemed taken aback and his answer was a little jumbled as a result. He didn't get to the real heart of the question which was "Are you some kind of lunatic?" But was this really a necessary question to pose to a decent man of integrity who doesn't stand a chance of winning the White House? Or just a great way to kill a nascent impeachment movement that leaders of both parties would like to see go away? The softball question the usually irascible Russert tossed Obama afterwards suggests that at least subconsciously, he would like to see the field thinned to the "real" candidates and perhaps this was his way of helping to thin it. Still, that's no way to treat a guy who has run a brave and honest campaign... according to my wife.