Fox News Sunday: Secretary of
Lies State
Condoleezza Rice, Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist, Senator
Joe Biden.
ABC's This Week: Budget Committee Chairman Senator Judd Gregg, Senator Kent Conrad.
CBS's Face the Nation: Senator Rick Santorum, Senator Richard Durbin, TIME Magazine reporter Karen Tumulty.
NBC's Meet the Press: Congressman Charlie Rangel, Senator Chuck Grassley, author Natan Sharansky, former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.
CNN's Late Edition: Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, Vice Chairman Jay Rockefeller, S. Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, Colorado Governor Bill Owens, Syrian Ambassador to the U.S. Imad Moustapha, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon.
Here's the summary of expected topics...
Fox
Rice will lie, then lie some more, starting with how she was "warmly received" by European leaders. Iran will be the "big threat," and she'll dodge a Foxball question about North Korea. Frist and Biden will talk about all the various ways the Bush Administration will screw ordinary Americans in the next fiscal year. Both will smile awkwardly, and Frist will use the word "reform" at least six times. Brit Hume will decry the (real) journalists "who discovered that Jeff Gannon wears underwear." (Insert trademarked Hume-look-of-disgust here.)
ABC
The Bush budget. George Stephanopoulos will ask Sen. Conrad, "So, why wouldn't Democrats want to pass this delightfully fragrant tome? Will you all just be obstructionists? And how do you like my hair?"
CBS
"The Budget, Medicare, and Social Security." In 30 minutes, including defense contractors' ads? Whatever.
NBC
Grassley and Rangel are supposed to debate Social Security. Which means roughly that Grassley will want to change the subject. And could Timmy find anyone less capable of promoting a rational foreign policy than "dig a moat 'round America" Buchanan?
CNN
You think they might talk about North Korea? The real bet is whether anyone mentions "missile defense" as the solution.
Credit: "Sabbath gasbags" is a term coined by the author Calvin Trillin of The Nation.