Since when was NBC News an official agent for the White House?

Maybe they're an independent contractor; we could ask for a copy of their 1099 forms.

Russert did the same thing during the 2000 election. It has been documentated that he went to the GOP oppo team on Gore in order to get some good stuff to use against Gore.

I guess doing actual reportage is to much to ask of a man who earns millions a year for standing behind a desk and acting like he knows what is going on.

Obviously, being a corporate media whore pays well, doesn't it?

I wonder how he is at selling vowels? Nah, forget it! Vanna's still prettier by far!

Russert/Rove use a couple of tricks to make the tax cut seem good -- many have been documented before, but I summarize them here

Using % increase or % decrease is one I didn't talk about, but it's intellectually dishonest. If I pay $1 in taxes and that gets increased to $10, the Bushies will say that's a 900% increase, which sounds bad. That's nuts, it's just $9. It's a way of removing context.

Unbelieveable. Russert is even more in the tank than I thought.
Dean handled that question all right, by simply saying, "I don't believe it."
But at some point, (e.g., when Russert was resurrecting 12 year old quotes to try to show that Dean was a hypocrite on capital punishment), Dean should have said, "What are you trying to prove? Have you ever asked Bush about Harken oil? Have you ever asked Cheney about Halliburton? Cut the crap and ask me about issues today."

Yes, this is exactly what happened on MTP yesterday with Dean pretty much verbatim as you posted it. Just checked the transcript as it is now online and it is all right there in black and white. here's the site
and scroll down about a quarter of the page as it is quite lengthy a paragraph. At the end though Tim sum's it up and the clincher is that Russert repeats that Howard Dean wants to raise taxes!

Bush doesn't even have to accuse the dems of raising taxes, Russert does his dirty work for him!

Russert: But in the middle of an economic downturn, Howard Dean wants to raise taxes on the average of $1,200 per family.
Dean: So says the Republican Treasury Department which I think has very little credibility in this matter. Let’s look at the record.
Russert: But you would raise taxes?

What more do I need to say, we in this country deserve much better from our media and Mr. Russert should be embarrassed by this revelation.
Russert did some political campaigning for Bush and it was free. Why does Bush even need to go out fundraising when it is evident that he has the media volunteering to campaign for him for free.

What's all this talk about tax cuts? Yes, my income tax has been cut. My job went away at the beginning of 2002. I don't have to pay any tax at all on the income I don't have! But my property tax has gone way up, under the effect Dean tried to explain. This increase is substatially more than any federal tax cut I might have received. The bottom line is, my taxes have been increased, while my ability to pay them has been reduced.

This post of yours, Steve, captures perfectly the dynamics of the current political structure. The GOP has thoroughly co-opted the inside-the-Beltway power elite, with years of effort in working the media, building think tanks, and rewarding/punishing lobbyists paying off. So now Democrats are afraid of their own collective shadow because they don't want mean Timmy Russert pounding GOP attack lines on them. This has to stop. It can change on the Presidential level. The DC power elite was equally hostile to Reagan, and he was successful at tapping into the American public's anger and frustration at the disconnect they felt with Washington. He owned the "empowerment" theme that is probably the most important in American Presidential politics. Democrats have to run against this version of DC, and if they do, they can change Presidential politics for decades.

And we have to continually call the Tim Russerts of the world on their sloppy, lazy excuse for journalism. I just e-mailed MTP.

Its disheartening to hear over & over again how weak & timid the democratleadership [this term is almost an oxymoron] is. What is it about Bush that makes them so afraid? Its not like their aren't thousand of republican & SCLM quotes out there about how horrible it is for the president to lie.These quotes could be recycled to good advantage if they were ever brave enough to attack back. 2002 has taught then nothing if they chose their way of dealing with Bush & taxes rather than what you've intelligently proposed.

Too bad Bush doesn't lie about a blow job. By god, then they'd go after him. War, peace, the economy, taxes, the environment, healthcare, etc. no big issues are worth calling a "popular wartime president" a liar even when he is demonstrably so.

Its not like the democratic leadership is reflecting the will of its people when it lets Bush set the terms of debate & refuses to go after him on his lies, missteps & wrong policies. Its not just on blogdom where democrats are clamoring for fight & spine. Its out in public. It sometimes makes me wonder if any of the senate democrats or any one in the DNC has any democratic family, friends, or neighbors because they don't seem to see or hear what I'm seeing, hearing, & feeling by just going about my daily life.

I very much agree that the analysis released by
the Bush Administration (it originated from the
Treasury Department) is highly selective and
misleading. I've posted an analysis of it at

http://home.netcom.com/~rdavis2/tax03ex.html.