That's The Best They Can Do?

I watched Face The Nation yesterday, which had Joe Wilson and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO, majority whip) on. There's a PDF transcript here.

It struck me as very interesting that over on MTP, RNC SIC Ken Mehlman was sent out to peddle his lies and distractions, and here we had Roy Blunt on FTN. First, Blunt is not the sort of slander specialist that Rove protege Mehlman is. It was quaint that the GOP sent out a halfway reasonable guy to Face Joe Wilson and the nation. This tells you a couple things:

1. In classic Bush-family/Rove form, they never send the smear artist to do his dirty work face to face (remember the phantom phone calls in South Carolina in 2000, and the Swift Boat Liars last year?).
2. Second, it's notable that they had to go all the way down to the third-ranking member of the House leadership to find anyone who fits the cuddly-reasonable mold required to Face Wilson. No Hastert (too uninterested?), no DeLay (too radioactive?), no Frist (too much a caricature of a medical doctor?), no McConnell (too busy lying about filibusters?), no Santorum (too busy blaming Boston for priests who rape children?), no McCain (too busy trying to burnish his on-message credentials for '08?), and certainly no WH member (too busy speaking only on background so as not to comment during an investigation [snorting laughter]?).

Yep, Roy Blunt is it.

Just shows you how disconnected from even the appearance of moderation the upper echelons of the Republican Party are these days.

Roy Blunt.