Who Will Replace Russert on Press the Meat?

Joe Scarborough, currently a morning host for MSNBC and who could be using his tv time much as Ronald Reagan did, to help the nation become comfortable with him in preparation for either a Seanatorial (VERY likely) or presidential (look for GOP elders to buttonhole him about 2012) run, has been mentioned as a possible successor to Tim Russert on Meet The Press.

That would be a kind of Fox News move for MSNBC, which is attempting to differentiate itself from the Rupe-a-dupe" propaganda outlet, and would draw howls of protests from Democratic viewers. It is one thing to have been a Democratic operative, as Russert was for Mario Cuomo, but it is another to have been a conservative Congressman with a record that moderates and liberals may find distasteful heading up the leading Sunday political interview show.

The chief question here for me is whether or not out of professional courtesy Tom Brokaw will be offered the seat. Brokaw, who I remember from his days as a local anchor for NBC in L.A., is a pompous ass and will turn viewers off. Again, it is one thing to be a newsreader and quite another to be quizzing political leaders week after week for however long the show lasts.

Another candidate for the job, Keith Olberman, should stay right where he is. If he doesn't, MSNBC is out of business in a year.

Brian Williams is too vapid to be taken seriously and also too respectful of those he will be interrogating. Well, it won't be an interrogation so much as a slow pitch softball game.

Andrea Mitchell-Greenspan was way too friendly with the Bush Administration and her marriage to Alan Greenspan, Bush's former federal reserve chairman, only further hurt her objectivity. Plus let's face facts, many people just don't want to see women being hardasses. Ask Hillary Clinton.

Katie Couric is an airhead. Her stint at the anchor chair of CBS was also such as a disaster and still present in the audience's mind that she has no chance. Really, if they want a woman, they need to hire Rachel Maddow. But Rachel is a lesbian and sharp as a tack, someone that political figures, especially on the conservative side of the aisle, may find nettlesome to want to confront. Rachel is clearly the most qualified to do this job in terms of no nonsense temperment and high intellect, but lack of access will kill her chances here. She has been rumored to perhaps getting her own MSNBC program during weeknights. Please let that happen.

So I believe, and this is hardly original thinking, that if Brokaw turns the job down, White House correspondent David Gregory will be tapped to succeed Russert. Gregory earned the favor of the yellow elephants at GE by fondling Bill Clinton's cock during the Monica Lewinsky episode and his johnny come far too lately to be of any actual import tussles with Scott MacClellan have set him up to move over to Sunday.

Gregory is a bit of an empty suit, but he is brash and in today's news environment of all heat and no brains, he could end up being a long running staple.