The Rachel Maddow Show -- November 22, 2012
Guess who is going to be wrong on the Sunday shows again? That's right, Mr. Perennial John McCain. There is a truly unique sense of "failing up" that takes place within the Beltway and the Sunday shows that I don't think you could find anywhere else. If you or I in our job was as consistently wrong as John McCain has been, we would be on the unemployment rolls. But there is literally no way for a Republican or conservative to be so wrong, so out of touch that he or she will not be invited back to sit on the Sunday shows panels, especially someone like McCain. I suspect that he has a staffer whose sole purpose is to keep in touch with bookers for all the news outlets and offer his availability week after week.
And bookers, lazy little buggers that they are, don't want to work to find different and maybe better voices.
And hosts, as compromised as they are, don't want to make their golfing buddies or the guy they just sat next to at a fundraiser the night before, feel dismissed or ignored.
And executive producers, as cognizant as they are of the interests of their parent company, aren't invested in informing viewers or framing issues that follow the concerns of anyone outside the Beltway.
And so we are left with yet another Sunday with John McCain being wrong. And Paul Ryan being wrong, and Marsha Blackburn being wrong, and Newt Gingrich, being so very wrong. Thanks, Beltway media.
ABC's "This Week" -- Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and John McCain, R-Ariz. Panel: ABC News' George Will; Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz.; Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile; NPR "Morning Edition" host Steve Inskeep; and New Republic owner and publisher Chris Hughes. Zero Dark Thirty" screenwriter and producer Mark Boal and Atlantic national correspondent Mark Bowden, best-selling author of "Blackhawk Down."
NBC's "Meet the Press" -- Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.; Panel: Incoming President of the Heritage Foundation, former Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC); President and CEO of the NAACP Ben Jealous; Washington Post Associate Editor Bob Woodward; NBC’s Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell; and NBC News Special Correspondent Ted Koppel.
NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show" -- Chuck Todd, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent; Kelly O'Donnell, NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent; Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post; Chris Frates, National Journal.
CBS' "Face the Nation" -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly; Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; former Romney Senior Adviser Kevin Madden and Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter.
MSNBC's "UP with Chris Hayes" -- Ambassador Swanee Hunt, the former ambassador to Austria, now the Elizabeth Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; Robin Wright, joint fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center, author of “Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World;” Horace Campbell, professor of African politics, African-American studies and political science at Syracuse University, author of “Pan Africanism, Pan Africanists, and African Liberation in the 21st Century;” Joshua Trevino, vice president of external public relations at the Texas Public Policy Foundation; Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights; Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, author of “Ending the Iraq War;” Adam Serwer, reporter and blogger for Mother Jones.
"Melissa Harris-Perry" -- Guest list not released.
CNN's "State of the Union" -- Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal; former CIA Director Michael Hayden; Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca); Govs. Bob McDonnell, R-Va., and Scott Walker, R-Wis.; Mia Love, mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah; former Commerce Secretary Carlos Guttierez.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, King Abdullah II of Jordan.
CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- Bob Costas; Newsweek/Daily Beast's David Frum, Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page; Washington Post’s “Reliable Source” columnist Amy Argetsinger.
"Fox News Sunday" -- Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn.; retired Air Force Col. Martha McSally; retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council. Panel: Brit Hume, Fox News Senior Political Analyst; Jeff Zeleny, The New York Times; Kimberley Strassel, The Wall Street Journal; Juan Williams, Fox News Contributor.
So, what's catching your eye this morning?