The Sunday morning shows are the "official conventional wisdom generators". They both reflect and create the prevailing narratives of mainstream political discourse. Very few people watch them.
Here are today's lineups:
Meet the Press: Newt Gingrich, Helene Cooper, Matt Bai, Peggy Noonan, EJ Dionne, Mark Halperin.
ABC's This Week: Nikki Haley, George Will, Cokie Roberts, Sheila Bair, Paul Krugman, Douglas Holtz-Eakins.
Face the Nation: John Boehner
So, let's tally the score: Elected Republicans (Haley, Boehner), Wannabe-elected Republicans (Gingrich), DC "Centrist" pundits, that is to say people obsessed with who's up, who's down in DC rather than what policy actually means to real people (Halperin, Bai, Roberts), People appointed to their jobs by George Bush (Bair), People who worked for John McCain (Holtz-Eakins), a reporter (Cooper), two left wing pundits (Krugman, Dionne) and two right wing pundits (Noonan, Will).
So, if you're scoring at home, that's seven Republicans, three DC hangers on, one reporter and two liberal columnists.
And this is at a moment when Democrats control the White House and the Senate.
I've wondered why Democrats aren't on these shows, but maybe it's because no Democratic constituencies watch them.
But then again, why would they want to?
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