Let Me Count the Ways

Arianna Huffington: Russert Watch: Let Me Count the Ways - Yahoo! News: "After all, even though the accounts, one by the Times and one by Miller herself, are full of holes, it's at least obvious that the the Times has taken a big first step in trying to deal with these facts: (a) the Times is a major news outlet, (b) the Plame saga is a huge news story, and (c) one of the Times's own journalists is a participant in the story.

Well, the exact same conditions exist at NBC: Tim Russert is a participant. He was interviewed under oath by Fitzgerald. And, like Miller, he has an obligation to explain to the public just exactly what he knows as a result of his involvement in the story.

So now that Judy Miller and the New York Times have spoken (however incompletely), what about Tim Russert and NBC?


(Two other interesting Russert-Rice exchanges, via Pre$$titutes and Crooks & Liars.)

I'm sure Tim would just love to tell us about his testimony, but every week there's a new person on the show, and whenever there's a new person on the show, it's apparently mandatory that Tim ask his hard-hitting "Are you going to run for president?" question. By now, it's as much of a “Tim thing” as those bow ties are a “Tucker Carlson thing.” What would Tim be without the "Are you going to run in the next presidential election" question? Sure, it's never been answered, nor has the inevitable non-answer to it ever been in the slightest revealing of anything, but it's Tim's "thing."

Will NBC at least make Russert explain why he won't explain?

Who knows? Right now, like Secretary Rice, he just doesn't "know how many ways to say no."