The unbearable inanity of Tim Russert.

• Author: Yglesias, Matthew
• Position: TEN MILES SQUARE

On May 27, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson appeared on Meet the Press hoping, no doubt, to get a question about Iraq policy. Richardson was advocating the complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces, an important policy distinction at a time when his rivals all favored retaining a substantial "residual" presence in Iraq. Soon enough, the host of the show, Tim Russert, turned to the topic:

On your Web site you say this: "Troops out in '07. We should get our troops out of Iraq this year. No residual forces left behind. We must remove all of our troops. There should be no residual U.S. forces left in Iraq." Now, I want to compare that to what you said in your book, Between Worlds, which just came out about eighteen months ago. You write this: "At this point ... we must see this mission through. We mustn't stay in Iraq past the point where the new government asks us to leave, but neither can we unilaterally pull out before the Iraqis have achieved control over their own internal security. We owe them the opportunity to make their democracy work. We must not undermine their efforts now." That's exactly what you're doing, undermining their efforts. Russert apparently meant this as a question. For some reason, we were supposed to be astonished that Richardson's view of what would be good policy in the spring of 2007 wasn't the same as his view of what would have been good policy in the winter of 2005. One imagines FDR getting a question about how he could favor the Normandy landings when he'd refused entreaties for operations in France just eighteen months earlier. "Now, I want to compare this invasion of France to what you said in your fireside chat in late 1942."

Still, Richardson made what he could of the opportunity, answering that things in Iraq had changed. "There's a civil war, there's sectarian conflict," he said. "I believe we must withdraw all our troops by the end of this calendar year with no residual forces because our troops today are a target." Richardson then began to explain his reasoning, "We are viewed--," only to be interrupted by Russert, who came up with, "To be sure--that's totally contrary to what you wrote in your book."

If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press, where newsmakers go to be grilled by one of television news's most respected figures. If moments like the above exchange between Russert and Richardson seem unhelpful-even ridiculous--to you, rest assured that Washington thinks otherwise. Tim Russert, it is...