Doug Ross @ Journal

Couric uses brass knuckles on Howard Dean

Someone slap me on the butt and call me Sally. Katie Couric just pounded Howard Dean into a tiny spit-shaped drop of Vermont maple syrup on GMA. The topic? NSA international wiretaps. And I don't know what's gotten into Ms. Couric lately, but I like it .

Couric: "If this potentially stops another terrorist attack like 9/11, why not give the White House some latitude? ...Have you seen any evidence, Governor Dean, have you seen any evidence that this is happening, that the administration is somehow poking into the private lives of Americans?" Dean: "...We don't believe you ought to spy on American citizens without some third party looking at this. That's what makes the difference between America and other countries like Iran." [Ed: uhm, yeah, that's the difference between us and Iran: international wiretaps... not threatening to wipe other countries off the map, torturing homosexuals, repressing people of other religions, funding suicide bombers, ...] ... Couric: "You know a lot of people say the Democratic party at this point in time criticizes all and literally stands for nothing. Even James Carville and Paul Begala - you can't find two more hard-core Democrats than that, Governor Dean - in their book wrote that the Democratic party needs a backbone and a spinal transplant. So what do you think the Democratic party stands for at this point in time?" ... Couric: "A new CNN/USAToday/Gallup poll shows 51% of registered voters say they would definitely not vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton for president if she runs in 2008. She's the front-runner among Democrats. Is that bad news in your view?" ... Dean: "That's absolutely false, that did not happen. Not one dime of money from Jack Abramoff went to any Democrat at any time." Couric: "Let me just tell you. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Abramoff and his associates gave $3 million to Republicans and $1.5 million to Democrats."

Wow. It's really kind of amazing to see the mainstream media grilling a leading Democrat, isn't it? I could really, really get used to this.