Face the Nation
Posted at 12:16pm on Jun. 15, 2008 The Sunday Morning Talk Shows: The Review
By Mark Kilmer
Sunday, June 15, 2008 (Happy Fathers Day)
PREFACE:
Everyone had a tribute to the late Tim Russert. (The sentence looks strange.)
On FNS, a roundtable argued about how to decrease gas prices. Hutchison Dorgan wants to tax the oil companies and find new types of energy and to regulate speculators, as well as to drill in his home State of South Dakota, while Kay Bailey Hutchison wants to drill in ANWR and elsewhere. American Petroleum Institute CEO Red Cavaney offered that a promised increase in production by the Saudis, along with domestic production, will help to decrease prices. He also forecast that absent external factors, the price of gasoline should start to decrease as the summer proceeds.
Next on FNS, Karl Rove picked veeps for McCain and for Obama: Joe Biden and Mitt Romney.
On TW, John Edwards went in one ear and out the other. Fred Thompson was as charming as ever, but he said that he was "not interested" in being McCain's veep pick. However, he would not rule out what has not been offered, he said. (Russert would have taken that as a "definite maybe.")
On MTP, Tom Brokaw hosted a nice discussion of Tim Russert and his career, including plenty of clips.
First up on FTN was Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Guest host Chip Reid wanted to talk about Jindal as GOP-Superstar and Jindal in the veepstakes, but the governor got the word out about what's happening in Louisiana.
Next on FTN, Newt Gingrich said plainly that Jindal would be McCain's best running mate selection.
FEMA director David Paulison was on LE to discuss the flooding in Iowa, but host Wolf Blitzer wanted to talk about Katrina. It turns out that CNN's Abby Boudreau had done an exposé on supplies which FEMA had hoarded for years, keeping them out of the hands of the needy Katrina victims. Paulison explained that the supplies were not all for Katrina victims and that Louisiana had turned down FEMA when they were offered. An indignant Blitzer demanded to know why Paulison hadn't explained that to Abby Boudreau before she made a fool out of herself.
Next up for Blitzer was House Republican Leader John Boehner who stressed that the Republican Party has to inform the American people of their solutions; do that, and they will do better than expected this November.
After this, Blitzer talked to his own congressman, DCCC boss Chris Van Hollen. The Congressman went through the Axelrod talking points and smiled as he said that the GOP "is very tight with BIG OIL."
Read on for the Show-by-Show review….
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