Weekend Watchdog Wrap-Up

The Sunday shows start off the New Year going 0-for3 for the Watchdog. [1]

While CBS' Bob Schieffer and NBC's Tim Russert did ask Sen. McCain about his support for staying in Iraq "100 years," they did not ask him how such a stance directly contributes to destabilization of the region.

That allowed McCain to assert unchallenged that a permanent presence is possible without suffering casualties.

From Meet The Press: [2]

RUSSERT: In November, you go the American people and say, “I’d be all right with having U.S. troops in Iraq for the next 100 years”?

McCAIN: Most importantly, so would the American people if Americans aren’t dying. We have a base in, in the neighboring country of Kuwait, very large base. We have a base in Turkey. We have a base in Japan, Germany. We’ve had bases there. It’s not American presence that bothers the American people, it’s American casualties...

...So what I believe we can achieve is a reduction in casualties to the point where the Iraqis are doing the fighting and dying, [and] we’re supporting them...

Let the Iraqis keep dying. Freedom! Stability!

Russert did ask if McCain would support permanent bases. McCain's response: "If that seems to be necessary, in some respects. It depends on the threat."

Neither ABC's This Week [3] or Fox News Sunday [4] asked Watchdog questions to other leading GOP candidates Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee was not asked about his flip-flop on immigration. That was the #1 issue of Iowa Republican voters, and Huckabee's pandering to nativists is a largely unreported reason why he was able to win the caucus.

Romney was not asked about his narrow appeal to Republicans who earn more than $100,000 a year, leaving underreported the brewing class war within the GOP.