The Middle Kingdom

            Topic A on the weekend talk
shows was China, with Campaigngate coming in second and the Microsoft tussle
with the Justice Department a distant third.

            On China,
Morton Kondracke of The McLaughlin Group staked the center ground as
usual. We should "engage" the Chinese, he said, but we should also "criticize
them." The weight of pundit opinion may have tilted ever so slightly toward the
"criticize" part of this elegant formula. Pat Buchanan appeared on both CNN's
Late Edition and Fox News Sunday to advocate punishing China for
its human-rights violations, high trade barriers, and arms sales to rogue
nations such as Iran. This Week panelist Bill Kristol said the White
House needs to "stand up for American principles" instead of "kowtowing" to the
visiting Chinese leader. Even George Stephanopoulos dissed his former boss a
bit. The United States "has gone too far to roll out the carpet." The Chinese
"are playing us like a fiddle," he said.

            But establishment heavies weighed in strongly enough to
tilt the overall Sunday balance back toward "engage." Lawrence Eagleburger
( Late Edition ) and Henry Kissinger ( Fox News Sunday ) said that
the United States should stay the successful course. Late Edition 's Tony
Blankley declared that the China issue is a debate between "activists" and
"experts," making clear he prefers the experts. "Most experts recognize that
there is a relatively small zone of policy dispute," he said.

            The latest Campaigngate angle
got chewed over with the revelation that the White House had leaned on
Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to benefit one set of Indians over
another regarding permission to build a(nother) gambling casino. Consensus:
This is a big deal, definitely special-prosecutor material. On Fox News
Sunday , Brit Hume predicted that the Democrats' "everybody does it" spin
will be unspun by Bob Dole, who just volunteered to appear before the Thompson
committee, challenging Clinton to do the same. On Face the Nation ,
Chairman Fred Thompson fended off Bob Schieffer's suggestion that the president
might be guilty of obstructing justice. Thompson graciously attributed the
administration's late delivery of subpoenaed documents to the president's
"sophisticated litigators," who know how to slow the process down.

            

               Washington Week in Review devoted the show to Campaigngate, with five
talking heads bobbing in unison for a half hour on the deplorable state of
affairs. The "cynicism is reaching a new level," said the dependably earnest
Bob Woodward. Robert Novak ventured on Meet the Press that a new
campaign-finance law would pass before the end of the year. David Broder and
Lisa Myers reacted like he was nuts.

            
Microsoft Executive Vice President Steve
Ballmer appeared on This Week to explain that everything Microsoft does,
it does for consumers. "We need to innovate," he said eight times if he said it
once. On Fox News Sunday , Hume (a part-time computer columnist) and
NPR's Mara Liasson concurred with Ballmer, citing the market's right to
determine winners. Juan Williams ( Fox News Sunday ) and Sam Donaldson
( This Week ) painted Microsoft as a company that rules with an "iron
fist" (Donaldson).

            While there was plenty of
time on the weekend shows to palaver about Hillary Clinton's emerging
child-care initiative (and her 50 th birthday), the Asian
stock-market crash, and the reform of the IRS, the shows were silent about the
Million Woman March. This was odd, seeing as each show makes it a point to have
a female panelist. Maybe the march's organizers should have held their
demonstration in Washington, where the pundits live, instead of in
Philadelphia.

            
               Uncomfortable Truth :
Both Washington Week 's Ken Bode and Fox News Sunday host Tony
Snow noted the death of ace White House reporter Ann Devroy of the
Washington Post in their wrap-ups, but only Fox News Sunday
panelist Williams was willing to disturb the dead in journalistic fashion,
saying Devroy "shouldn't have chain-smoked."

            

               --Jack
Shafer