Have WPLR Morning Show hosts Chaz and AJ learned nothing from Scott McLellan, the former Bush/Cheney press secretary?

 

McLellan just wrote a book, undertitled at What Happened. You helped unleash the dogs of war is what happened, Scotty. When we finally prosecute the Iraq War Crimes Tribunal, McLellan will get less prison time for his mea maxima culpa.

 

After admitting to lying to the press and manipulating the media to march to the pro-war beat, McLellan in his book criticized complacent reporters for kowtowing to the Bush/Cheney putsch.

 

So what do Chaz and AJ - the all-star members of Connecticut’s number one morning radio show on WPLR 99.1 FM - do when they land the show of a lifetime, thanks to the vice-presidential ambitions of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman?

 

Chaz and AJ bowed before the masters of war Thursday morning.

 

For more than an hour, live from Lieberman’s DC office, Chaz and AJ played starstruck stenographers for the likes of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, Vice President Dick Cheney, and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham (R).

 

As an added bonus, Connecticut's Senior Senator, a former Democratic presidential hopeful himself, Chris Dodd, stopped by too. Dodd’s arrival marked the first moment brains appeared on the set; he compared America before the passage of the Family-Medical Leave Act to life in apartheid South Africa.

 

Unfortunately, Dodd's brains were too little, too late. If I thought I wanted to pull my hair out after Chaz and AJ gave Gov. M. Jodi Rell and CT Speaker of the House Jim Amann free passes, I almost gouged my eyes out after listening to them toady up to Cheney and his co-conspirators.

 

But Chaz and AJ aren’t stupid. They’re businessmen. They want to maintain their ratings, and access gives them rating. And they want to do this round of interviews again next year.

 

So they were very careful not to insult their host and his guests with impolite inquiries about a questionable election, an illegal war, a secret global gulag, $5.00 a gallon gas, McLellan's allegations of Buch-Cheney lies about the outing of a CIA agent, and an Ohio Congressman who just introduced articles of impeachment.

 

I first tuned in to hear the end of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's segment in the car. I wish I had heard more. Maybe Megan Doll asked him what possible reason he could have had when he voted to prevent Megan and all women similarly situated from suing for back pay when they learn of sexual wage bias.

 

But I cut it short and I ran into my office so I might transcribe the Cheney portion for later use in this space. I wanted to write a post last week suggesting questions, but I figured Chaz and AJ would wimp out anyways.

 

They opened the interview of Cheney with "What's it like to be a 34-year-old White House Chief of Staff?" It only got worse.

 

Not a single hard question. When Cheney said he went hunting, they asked him what the biggest thing he has ever shot was? I dunno, a lawyer?

 

The better question would have been, so, please, Mr. Cheney, explain to us how exactly you shoot someone in the face, then fail to report it to the police for more than a day?

 

When Cheney discussed duck-hunting Nino Scalia, they needed to ask Cheney if he thought it was appropriate that Scalia didn't recuse himself casting votes on the Supreme Court cases involving the Vice President because of this cozy relationship? Even CBS got this one.

 

Chaz and AJ took the conversation swiftly to Cheney's happy family life, and when he met Lynn. The cute schmucky high school sweetheart shit sounds so disingenuous coming from a man whose policies result in bombs falling on weddings in other parts of the world.

 

Yep, then Chaz asks the big 9/11 question – not about any of the inconsistencies with the official narrative, not about the Vice President’s refusal to testify under oath, not about the problems with the 9/11 commission whitewash – but "Where were you when you found out we were under attack?"

 

Earth to Chaz and AJ – and I mean literally Earth – as in – listen to all the people on the planet who think that Cheney is a war criminal, listen to the 80 percent of Americans who think he is the worst vice president ever and don't ask him something that Time Magazine and the establishment media have repeated ad nauseum.

 

I could have answered that question for Cheney – he was in the West Wing when he heard that a plane hit one of the World Trade Towers. George Bush was in Florida. Cheney was in charge of the country. The Secret Service whisked Cheney into a secure bunker under the White House while the supposed president read a story about a pet goat.

 

Ask him what he talked about in the bunker. Ask him about the Jersey Girls. Ask Richard B. Cheney any of a million questions. But for the love of God, do not ask him something that doesn't make him sweat.

 

Cheney would never have submitted to the interview had Lieberman not set it up, and assured the Veep that Chaz and AJ would not ask something real.

 

That is exactly the problem. Chaz and AJ weren't paying attention to McLellan, who said that the media needed to be more aggressive. Chaz and AJ weren’t paying attention to the Scooter Libby trial, where we learned that Cheney and company would only visit the Sunday morning talk shows where they could control the message.

 

When Cheney told AJ and Chaz that "We have done a good number on Al Qaida," our shock jocks sat dumbfounded, maybe in awe or just afraid of the chickenhawk in their midst. All reasonable evidence points that the war in Iraq has been a good thing for Al Qaida.

 

The hardest question that they asked was if Cheney had any regrets about the last seven years.

 

"No not really," Cheney said. "I haven't had time to think about all that. I feel very good about what we have done. There is controversy around the Global War on Terror."

 

Uhh, you think, Mr. Vice President? This was where to ask about British journalist Patrick Cockburn's recent revelation of a proposal for permanent U.S. control of more than 50 Iraqi military bases. But Chaz and AJ let Cheney continue uninterrupted.

 

"We have defended the nation against further attack for seven years," Cheney said. "A lot of that is because of guys like Joe Lieberman who are willing to take a controversial stance."

 

A better question would have been framed around George Bush's comments in Europe this week that he regrets his image a warmonger and he is sad that his legacy will be that of a man who wanted war. I wonder how Cheney would have responded to the wistful words of his "boss."

 

Chaz and AJ did no better with the official Republican candidate for president, Sen. John McCain. They allowed McCain go after Obama – "It's been 884 days since Sen. Obama went to Iraq."

 

A follow-up to that would have been – how can you get the number of days right, but you can't seem to tell the difference between Iran and Al Qaida, and you need Sen. Lieberman to whisper in your ear foreign policy facts?

 

But Iraqistan – few Americans could find it on a map. So why bother. AJ moved along and asked how to turn the economy around.

 

"I think we have to do a lot of things," McCain said. "We have to keep people’s taxes low." And McCain pitched the summer gas tax holiday.

 

"Of course all quote economists say it is a gimmick," McCain said. He demonized economists, saying they failed to predict the dot.com crash, or the housing meltdown. That policies McCain espouses helped caused these issues hid in the background as McCain made that learning stuff sound stoopid. Trust Daddy McCain. And Chaz and AJ did.

 

I understand the difficulty of asking questions of people in power.  You have to find the gumption. Brave isn't a word in a song you sing to a piece of cloth hanging on a pole. Brave is your heart beating fast and your mouth going dry when you confront a White House official about why he pursues a policy that hurts people.

 

An official will respond angrily when you dare question his almighty judgment. He is unaccustomed to questioning like that because not only has he insulated himself from criticism, but reporters can be fundamentally lazy, conflict averse creatures. And he will make you feel bad about seeking truth.

 

Journalists want to be liked, not just by their audience, but by themselves. It feels like you've made something of your life when you can engage powerful men in seventh-grade jokes before a wide audience.

 

There is little joy in asking speaking truth to power. Yet even if it enrages that official so much that he will never talk to you again, even if it means your host will shun you, even if you may lose your job. You must.

 

Acting the part of the fawning fans for the bully cowboys does not help democracy. I will never have a chance to interview Dick Cheney. But Chaz and AJ did, and because they didn’t read or heed Scott McLellan's book, they will be invited back to the party of the powerful.

 

Of course I am jealous. And while I am sad for my country that Cheney would never consent to an interview with the likes of me, I am proud because I would demand he answer questions about war and power that he would rather avoid.

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