Russert Blows Interview with Dean

I think Tim Russert is a decent guy, but as an interviewer, he's terribly weak. While interviewing Howard Dean yesterday, he didn't follow up any half-witted answer with a difficult question. For example, after Dean answered that "Bush lied" about Iraq, Russert got Dean to admit that he, too, thought Saddam "probably had WMDs," but then Russert simply changed topics for him. I'm not the only one who noticed the softballs.

"It definitely wasn't your typical 'gotcha' interview by Russert," says the DNC staffer. "On just about every issue: Social Security, the filibuster, DeLay, Bolton and Iraq, Dean basically just put out what we gave him: Bush is privatizing Social Security, DeLay should be in jail, the filibuster is un-Democratic, Bush is a liar, Bolton is a liar. Russert never called us on a single thing. We got lucky."

Ankle Biting Pundits has the follow-up questions a competent interviewer should have asked.