Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows:

The battle is well and truly joined.  The extreme left in the Dhimmicrat party, which was so careful to hide in the run up to the election, is out in full force, claiming their "mandate" to lynch George W. Bush.  The banshee wail is being raised and the wild hunt has begun.  They smell blood and they demand their victims.

The deck this week is stacked with Bush critics (surprise, surprise), particularly those that can be found from the Republican party.  There is a leavening of a few less hostile voices, but very few (and some of those could be suspect... which would be why they got invites to the shows, of course).  I put the tally at 16 hostile guests and hosts to 4 friendly guests and 4 who may or may not be friendly, depending on the circumstances.  I'll preserve my listing of how I think the guests might break down for the show by show previews and try to keep score in the Sunday live thread of how well I predicted things.

The focus, of course, is "Bush vs. Congress" and, particularly, the battle about Iraq.  A lot of the discussion looks like it will use what the President said in the State of the Union speech as the launching place, particularly for criticisms.  Many of these guests have been trying out and refining their catch phrases and talking points all week.  Some have been working on them for years and some just change the name of their enemy de jour in the same old tired rhetorical spew.

The interesting thing for me to watch is whether or not any of the so called "anti-war" players hedge or back off of some of the more extreme things being said, particularly in the World Workers Party affiliated march in Washington on Saturday.  The professionally made signs calling for Bush and Cheney to be impeached (or killed) seemed to outnumber the participants by a considerable margin, but the DBM (drive by media) will inflate the number of moonbats present just as surely as they ignored the tens of thousands of pro-life protestors from last weekend.  I get the feeling that some of the power players in the Dhimmicrat party may realize that they've overplayed their hand by several orders of magnitude.

At least that's my humble opinion.

NBC Meet The Press continues with their introductions of potential players in the presidential horse race 2008, this time with Mike Huckabee (and maybe Chucky Schumer, judging by his self promoting book).  I'm sure they'll try to solicit some Bush bashing quotes from Huckabee, but the main event will come with Schumer, Vitter, Gerson and Pollack.  Schumer and Pollack are guaranteed lock step Bush haters, while Vitter will be diverted with criticisms and questions about the lack of Katrina in the SOTU.  I think they'll try to get him on the defensive over that to persuade him to provide less defense of the Iraq policy.  Bush's former speech writer Gerson would be the most natural ally of the President of this foursome, but he has penned his share of criticisms of Bush since leaving the administration that he might be persuaded to hedge and temper his support.  Gerson is also not popular with the fire breathing hundred percenters so any praise for Bush from him can still be spun to Bush's detriment.  You know who the hundred percenters are, don't you?  They're the folks who helped give us the Dhimmicrat congress to "punish" Republicans for not being more "pure" on whatever pet issue they obsess over as "real conservatives."  You know, the Perotistas and Buchannanites.  From this show that's 3 Bush haters (including Lil Timmah) and 3 occasional Bush critics who could go either way.

CBS Face The Nation offers up the new darling of the moonbats, Jim Webb, a "man's man" and a Democrat.  Who'da thunk it?  Reasonable people can disagree over the value of a given speech, but the silly fawning over Webb's barely literate and wholly inaccurate "response to the State of the Union" was laughable.  A few of the old hands on the hard left of the DBM were probably embarrassed by what they were doing, while others were arrogantly assuming that the idiots in the viewing audience would believe whatever they told them to believe (and you know they're out there).  Likewise the pre-written criticisms of the SOTU speech itself have become little more than fish wrap in the last few years (if they ever had any value or interest).  Mitch McConnell is making only his second major appearance on the Sunday shows since assuming the top leadership role in the Republican party, while Trent Lott has been a nearly constant figure even though he's McConnell's number two.  Lott has a personal axe to grind with Bush who he feels abandoned him after he shot himself in the privates with the Strom Thurmond birthday comments.  So far Lott has done little more than dance around and drop veiled hints about being "independent" and not shying away from criticizing the White House if he feels it's needed.  I think the "double date" dinner party the McConnell's and Lotts had this week may have been McConnell laying down the law, for now, about who will be acting as party spokesman and what the party line will be.  We'll see how hearty McConnell's defense of Bush is and how low a profile Lott keeps in the next few days.  Snarlin' Arlen is always a reliable source of Bush bashing quotes and totally incoherent defenses of him.  He's always high on the DBM list of potential guests for Sunday shows.  Including Old Bob, that's three agin' Bush and one for him (I hope) on FTN, bringing our total to 6 anti-Bush, 1 pro-Bush and 3 who could go either way, but are leaning (or can be pushed) anti.

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace is likely continuing his liberating "I'm not a Fox right winger" crusade.  The guests are Brownback and Lieberman, which means one who is vehemently against Bush on Iraq but also criticizes him for being to far left on everything else and another who unwillingly supports Bush on Iraq but passionately opposes everything else the right wing fascist Bush is doing.  Is that Congress and the press triangulating on the President?  The other big thing about Fox News Sunday this week is how it serves as the best example of a trend I picked up on in my Google News article hits on the "pro-Bush" guests but particularly the Fox News people.  There was a preponderance of the moonbat in much of the coverage this week, but it particularly shines through in the links I chose here.  Counting Chris Wallace as anti-Bush (and not including the roundtable folks on any of these shows, by the way), I score this show as 2 anti-Bush and 1 pro, at least as far as Iraq goes.  Your mileage may vary if they drift into other issues.  That brings the running total to 8 anti, 2 pro and 3 so-so leaning anti.

CNN Late Edition eschews the usual cast of thousands and has a surprising mix of guests, all things considered.  Jay Rockefeller comes out of hiding in full dudgeon, having declared this week that "Cheney applied 'constant' pressure to stall investigation on flawed Iraq intelligence."  Do you suppose Wolfie will ask Ol' Jay about his numerous and public Clinton era declarations regarding Saddam's proven WMD programs?  Or about his own memo outlining how he planned to politicize his position on the intelligence committee to attack Bush?  Chris (waitress sandwich) Dodd is along to tout his Presidential bid and hatred of all things Bush as well as his big issue, those evil Credit Card Companies!  Isn't it sad when your only soap box in the Senate when you want to run for President is the banking committee.  So, the moonbat part of the guest list is taken care of.  The grown ups are represented by John Kyl.  Kyl, however, has some issues with Bush's amnesty plan, so watch for Wolfe to play on that to lessen the appearance that he supports the President.  I'm intrigued to see Michael Steele emerge as a force following the election and his selection to replace J.C. Watts as head of GOPAC may give him a very high profile over the next couple of years.  This may be his first tryout for the VP slot in '08 (or day I say President Steele?).  Donna Brazille intrigues me.  She's as partisan as the day is long, but I can't fault her brain and I'm never bored by listening to her.  Infuriated, but never bored.  I score Late Edition as 4 against Bush and 2 for.  The running total is therefore 12 anti to 4 pro with 3 still waffling but leaning against.

ABC This Week is playing a dance of seduction, in my opinion, with Republicans who have supported Bush through this week, but have each offered up qualifications to that support.  I expect every possible quote, clip and sound bite that Georgie Steponallofus can dig up on Lugar and Hunter regarding Iraq and this President.  I expect both to resist the temptation, but am afraid that they'll offer up enough qualifiers and "on the other hands" to provide hours of fun for the DBM editors.  Joe Biden is... well... Joe Biden.  The big question is will he be able to stay on one topic throughout an entire sentence.  Will someone give this man some Ritalin?  Oh, and Kevin Bacon is doing something worthwhile (and must hate George Bush since he's from Hollywierd).  With this show at 3 anti (including Kevin, though that's probably not fair) and 2 pro our running total of the Sunday shows comes to 15, 6 and 3. 

Now, that doesn't add up somehow, but I've looked at this 100 different ways and I can't see where I screwed up.  Chris Dodd got added late, after I came up with original totals, and I know that's part of what's screwing me up.  In my defense I did have two more stitches removed from my eye today and am "limping" along (squinting?) as I try to finish this up.  I'm already way late for the Saturday shows (Fox News Watch is on over I type) so I'm just moving on.  If one of you can find where I screwed up please save me from this narrishkeit.

About those Saturday shows.  My main take on Beltway Boys would have been that Iraq, like Vietnam, is a lost cause.  I was very pleasantly surprised that during the "Iraq=Vietnam" discussion Mort focused on the betrayal of the Vietnamese by the anti-war left and that he briefly addressed the shame of the deaths that followed.  He didn't go as far as the LA Times did in their discussion with Bill Richardson (scroll down and look at the update in this post on Hugh Hewitt's blog), but it's clear that there are some faint voices drawing the correct lessons from Vietnam in regards to our course in Iraq.  Fox News Watch (which is almost now over here) has offered up the usual apologia for the press, but there was more criticism than I expected of the "coverage" of the SOTU (except by nut job Neal).  Even Jane found fault with the "reporters" editorializing and displaying blatant bias against Bush and undisguised adulation for all things "progressive."  There was no listing for Lil Timmah's CNBC show but it has just started and has a literal round table with David (I don't need a straight jacket) Gregory,  Andrea (ignore what I said about Plame) Mitchell and Jim Miklaszewski all joining Timmah in a BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) circular firing squad.  Their hatred and vitriol along with their bias is truly amazing.  Even more amazing, it's David Gregory who actually dares to raise the question of "what happens if we abandon Iraq?"  This may be worth a perusal of the transcript, if one can be found.  Journal Editorial Report is still yet to come in the insomniac zone of the talk show ghetto.  At least I beat one Saturday show with this post (assuming, that is, that I get this finished and posted).  They have a very straightforward show with the simple question of whether or not we're heading for a constitutional show down between the Dhimmicrats (and RINOs) and the executive branch.  We face no less a test of our form of government than we did when Lincoln offered up the Gettysburg address.  Can our nation long endure, when the moonbats have taken over the opposition and are seeking the blood of their enemies list?  Can western civilization endure when these nutjobs would rather embrace the Jihadi's than see George Bush succeed at anything?

The bottom line for me this week is that I think the left has over reached and I think a few of them see that also.  These shows may well provide me a way to test that hypothesis.  So far both Beltway Boys and Fox News Watch seem to confirm that I am not alone in that opinion, though they were barely testing the waters on the subject.  Except for the Gregory comment I mentioned Lil Timmah's roundtable of "experts" is in full BDS mode, so we'll have to see how the rest of the shows play out. 

This should be cross posted to my blog at Wizards.townhall.com in a few minutes (hope springs eternal).  This post exists primarily as a heads up for who is on the weekend talks shows, what they've been invited on to push (based on their recent pronouncements) and the spin (meme) the DBM is likely trying to push based on that information. All of this is prep work for the weekly Sunday Morning Talk Show thread posted by Alas Babylon!. That thread provides a live commentary and analysis of the Sunday talking head shows, with valuable insight and exceptional fact checking. we are the Jedi Council of FreeRepublic, at least in regards to these DBM gabfests. You wanna know what was said and what it meant, as well as where they messed up? Read that thread!

Mark Kilmer has posted his excellent preview of the Sunady shows (hours ago) over at Redstate.COM.  I will try post a link to his Sunday review when it is up.