Politicians and Trust … mutually exclusive??

Today’s Buzz ...

John King filling in once again - on what turns out to be a tumultuous evening on the neighboring LKL set ...



Murder in Italy: In addition to having some difficulty keeping a score card for all the possible suspects in the murder of student Meredith Kercher, I’m not sure why it was the lead story last night? I certainly send sympathy to the Kercher family, but other than a motive involving drug use and experimental sex – I just didn’t ‘get’ its relevance. This is one of those moments where I’d ask why the recent Bangladesh cyclone wasn’t ever the lead story, but I try to remember that there are most seasoned individuals making these programming calls ...




Holiday travel – part 2: The map hasn’t improved since last night!! And Ali Velshi was on the set to discuss the very disturbing march towards the day we see $100/barrel for oil. Ali really knows the economics game, and knows how to communicate what’s important so it makes sense!




LKL walk-on, walk-off: Perhaps I was distracted by what had happened the previous hour on Larry King Live? Dr. Jan Adams, the surgeon who performed plastic surgery on Donda West, was suppose to be the exclusive guest for the hour. He was late getting to NYC, and with just minutes before he was to go on live, told Larry and the producers that he’d just received a letter from the West family giving a very stern warning that he should not go through with the appearance, even if he didn’t speak a single word about what may have happened to Professor West. I certainly understand that Larry was disappointed, particularly since he’d come into the studio during vacation time. So the bottom line was – Dr. Adams appeared on camera for about two minutes, simply to tell Larry that he couldn’t do the interview out of respect for the wishes of the West family, took off his microphone and walked off the set. Not in anger – but a surprise nonetheless. And BTW – for those who keep ‘rooting’ for Larry to leave because he just can’t ‘handle’ it any longer – he was as cool as a cucumber – and kept the show going for the entire hour. The real surprises for me were that, (1) according to Larry, that kind of ‘walk-off’ had never happened before in his 50 years of broadcasting, and (2) why didn’t the family protest when Adams gave interviews to both People Magazine and the LA Times? I suppose it was because they didn’t know about those until after the fact? Larry came into the 360 studio after his show ended to discuss the extraordinary details of what happened with John King.




Who trusts ya, baby?: The name of the game last night for the pundits was “trust”. Wait!!! “Politicians and trust” – that combination sure sounds mutually exclusive to me!! As for the Iowa and New Hampshire voters, John King discussed new poll numbers with David Gergen and Hank Sheinkopf. I’d really like to know why the NH voters are so willing to vote for a candidate that they clearly don’t trust?? That makes very little sense to me! But sometimes, not much in politics is meant to make sense, right? The discussion did seem to be more balanced; I was particularly interested in a couple of Mr. Sheinkopf’s observations – one being that we’re holding Hillary to a different standard (than male candidates) when she’s on the attack, the second being that “If she (Hillary) doesn’t play tough and reduce trust down to experience, so that it’s a balance between her and Obama, this could be a very different race.” Reduce trust down to experience – now there’s an interesting (or disturbing, depending on your perspective) piece of advice ...





Jeffs sentenced: Warren Jeffs was sentenced yesterday to two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison on two counts of rape as an accomplice. Justice at last!!!! Elissa Wall, who testified against Jeffs, must be so very relieved. Gary Tuchman did report that she turned down $5,000 from a Utah state victim reparation fund. I was sorry to hear that – she could have donated it to one of the organizations that are trying to provide support for those girls and woman who flee from the FLDS communities. But I certainly understand her reasoning – she’s such a brave young woman to come forward and allow her story to become public, especially when her family remains devoted to Jeffs. We can only hope that the Arizona courts have the same outcome when they put Jeffs on trial very soon. And if all of the truly disturbing information that has been disclosed about Jeffs’s life hasn't been enough to infuriate you, we learned last night that not only does he have so many wives that there is no ‘official’ count, but that some of them had been married to his deceased father.



Hastert’s foul: All of the Illinois counties who must now bear the cost of special elections to find a mid-term replacement for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert – should send him a bill. Seriously. If he’s no longer having ‘fun’ and no longer wants to ‘play nice’ with his fellow House Reps – that’s OK – but there should be consequences – and not to the Illinois taxpayers!!



The Shot: I guess Erica & John haven’t had many deer leap across their car hoods in the darkness. The worst I’ve ever done was graze a possum with a tire wheel – I stopped, but he (she?) had run off by then.

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A couple of quick updates on the political front:

Scott McClellan – is writing what’s being touted as a ‘tell-all’ book, where he claims he was ‘misled’ about how Valerie Plame’s CIA identity was leaked. I’d like to know what prompted this – I never would have thought he’d have the stomach (I’m being polite) to take on the Texas mafia. He names Karl Rove, VP Cheney & President Bush, and others as well. I’d be careful if I were Scott – VP Darth Vader doesn’t take kindly to accusations like that ...

AND – we finally have a primary date in New Hampshire – hooray!!! It’ll be January 8, 2008 – and they’ll be off and running!!


Thanks so much for visiting – have a wonderful and safe holiday (if you celebrate Thanksgiving!) – the list of what I’m thankful for grows and grows each year – and to be fortunate enough to say that is one of the things that I’m most thankful for. One of my greatest desires is to continue to be able to share more and more of it with others – and to encourage others who are as fortunate to do the same. Peace to all.