Weekend Watchdog Wrap-Up

The substitute Watchdog gave something of a break to the chattering Sunday morning class. George Stephanopoulos and Tim Russert took advantage of it. Chris Wallace didn't.

Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" asked Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican presidential candidate, about the refusal of Judge Michael Mukasey, President Bush's nominee for attorney general, to characterize as torture the practice of waterboarding, which subjects its victim to a drowning-like sensation. McCain had earlier sharply criticized former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani for his own equivocation on the issue.

"Will Mr. Mukasey have to say clearly that waterboarding is torture to get your vote for attorney general?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"I can't be that absolute," McCain said. "But I want to know his answer. Obviously, you judge a candidate based on his entire record. But this is a very important issue for me."

McCain left himself a lot of room to back an attorney general who has made clear that he largely supports President Bush's bid to expand presidential power and minimize checks on that power, including the power to use tactics such as waterboarding against people who have none of the basic rights to challenge the legality of their detention.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., got to address the issue posed by the Watchdog question we suggested for Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press." Russert asked about Dodd's opposition to legislation that would give telecommunication companies immunity for illegal wiretapping at the administration's request. He reiterated that opposition, but he was not pressed on how far he would take that opposition.

(Russert did ask a very good question about Dodd's reticence, as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, to support taxing the profits of hedge-fund managers as ordinary income. Dodd replied that he was concerned about "unintended consequences" of doing so and that the responsible approach would be to study the issue more. But he also talked about how much experience he has had in dealing with financial issues in the Senate, so wouldn't you think he would have a more definitive answer?)

Chris Wallace's interview with first lady Laura Bush on "Fox News Sunday" did, as I predicted, take on the air of a friendly chat. Still, it was surprising that Wallace didn't go near either of the Watchdog questions we posed.

While a significant percentage of the interview was devoted to her advocacy for early breast cancer detection in the Arab world, there was no serious discussion of breast cancer issues here in the United States, including the fact that in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute, "African Americans have higher mortality rates than any other racial or ethnic group in the United States. The gap in mortality between African Americans and Whites has widened in recent years."

That points to continuing racial disparities in health care availability and treatment within our own borders that have not been effectively addressed, or even acknowledged, by Republican leaders when they ridicule Democratic and progressive health care reform proposals.

And while Wallace asked a question about "soft diplomacy" in Iraq, there were no critical questions about recent actions that are working against any good soft diplomacy would do, including the shootings of civilians by Blackwater security guards under contract to the State Department.

This coming weekend Rick Perlstein will do a stint in the Watchdog pen.