MAYBE MCCAIN FIGURED OUT WHO’S ON THE ‘RIGHT SIDE OF HISTORY’…. I really have retired my ongoing count of John McCain’s Sunday show appearances. I’m sure folks have gotten the point — Sunday show bookers continue to be obsessed with McCain, and they shouldn’t be.
And with that in mind, I won’t mention that the senator is making his 29th appearance in the last two years this morning, just like I also won’t mention that McCain will be on “Face the Nation” for the second time in just four weeks.
I will mention, though, that McCain’s wasn’t scheduled to be on “Face the Nation,” which had booked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to appear, but host Bob Schieffer explained Friday that the show bumped Reid to get McCain (again) as part of the show’s coverage of developments in Egypt.
Faiz Shakir’s take was spot-on.
It’s sadly telling that Schieffer, a veteran Sunday morning host, feels the need to frequently turn to a Republican Senator to discuss a foreign policy issue, rather than hosting any number of qualified Democratic voices to opine on Egypt.
McCain has waffled on his views regarding the pro-democracy protests. Initially, he expressed fear about the movement, calling it a dangerous “virus” that could spread throughout the Middle East. But following President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to step down, McCain issued a statement applauding the “Egyptian people” for “beginning … their country’s transition to democracy.” Moreover, in late January, McCain told CNN it would not be wise for the Obama administration to “cut [Mubarak] loose.” A few days later, he was demanding Obama call on Mubarak to resign immediately.
Right, and this is partly why I started keeping track of McCain’s appearances in the first place. The media in general, and Sunday show bookers in specific, consider the Arizona senator a knowledgeable, credible expert on foreign affairs and national security. If there’s evidence to support this assumption, McCain’s kept it well hidden — on CNN’s Sunday morning show two weeks ago, he urged President Obama to support “the right side of history” in Egypt, but couldn’t quite explain which side that is.
There are actual experts on Egypt and U.S. policy in the region. It’s a shame “Face the Nation” doesn’t want to book them.
Postscript: Looking over the guest lists for all of the Sunday shows, viewers will see two Republican senators (McCain, Graham), three Republican House members (Boehner, Ryan, Schilling), three likely Republican presidential candidates (Barbour, Gingrich, Pawlenty) … and zero Democrats from Congress or the Obama administration.
In other words, it’s a typical Sunday.
