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Schieffer Exposes Backstage "DeLay" at Face the Nation
by The Editors
Monday, November 15, 1999 -- NEW YORK (APJNS) -- It's a shame we missed yesterday's Face the Nation.
Bob Schieffer, the courtly but penetrating host of CBS's half-hour-and-too-short Sunday political talk show, always closes the show with a few words on a current political issue. Yesterday, however, he chose to make one politician's failure to appear on Face the Nation the issue. Schieffer said:
During our discussion about Congress's difficulty of in drawing up a budget to run the government on Face the Nation, we never got the Republican side and we owe you an explanation.
On Thursday, Congressman Tom DeLay (R-TX), the House Republican Whip, agreed to be on our broadcast along with Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD), the Minority Leader.
But late Saturday afternoon, DeLay sent word he would appear only if he could be interviewed after Sen. Daschle.
Since the Republicans are responsible for writing the budget that Congress will eventually vote on, we thought it logical to interview Rep. DeLay first.
When his staff said that was unacceptable, we offered a compromise. We would interview Mr. DeLay first, then Sen. Daschle, and then bring Mr. DeLay back to respond to whatever Sen. Daschle said.
This too, proved unacceptable, so we decided to let Mr. DeLay take care of his business elsewhere.
This is small stuff to be sure. But ironically it comes as more and more rank-and-file Republicans tell me their problem is their leaders just can't seem to find a way to get the party message out.
I have no interest in getting in the middle of that. But they may be on to something.
We say, "Good for you and CBS, Bob." For far too long, the hard right wing have been given all but a free pass to use the Sunday talk shows to get out their message in the most biased of ways -- and many of the "neutral" pundits have played along. The sort of maneuvering that Schieffer describes goes on all the time between congressional aides and bookers and producers for these shows -- and usually the networks "give in," ostensibly so as not to "alienate" politicians.
But ratings, advertisers, and the not-so-hidden agendas of the pundit elite also are key factors in these decisions.
Schieffer's decision to "blow the whistle" on DeLay is very telling. And it's set off a round of speculation as to what really happened. Did DeLay try to "bully" someone at CBS? Did his team "simply" overplay their hand in trying to push for "their" booking?
Two things are certain -- Schieffer and his producers must have felt there was nothing to lose in exposing the DeLay cadre's demands. And "The Hammer" may not in fact be the sort of Capitol Hill "heavyweight" the media continues to talk about.
Copyright © 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, American Politics Journal Publications. All rights reserved. ISSN No. 1523-1690