Weekend Watchdog Wrap-Up

The Sunday shows start off the New Year going 0-for3 for the Watchdog.

While CBS' Bob Schieffer and NBC's Tim Russert did ask Sen. McCain about his support for staying in Iraq "100 years," they did not ask him how such a stance directly contributes to destabilization of the region.

That allowed McCain to assert unchallenged that a permanent presence is possible without suffering casualties.

From Meet The Press:

RUSSERT: In November, you go the American people and say, “I’d be all right with having U.S. troops in Iraq for the next 100 years”?

McCAIN: Most importantly, so would the American people if Americans aren’t dying. We have a base in, in the neighboring country of Kuwait, very large base. We have a base in Turkey. We have a base in Japan, Germany. We’ve had bases there. It’s not American presence that bothers the American people, it’s American casualties...

...So what I believe we can achieve is a reduction in casualties to the point where the Iraqis are doing the fighting and dying, [and] we’re supporting them...

Let the Iraqis keep dying. Freedom! Stability!

Russert did ask if McCain would support permanent bases. McCain's response: "If that seems to be necessary, in some respects. It depends on the threat."

Neither ABC's This Week or Fox News Sunday asked Watchdog questions to other leading GOP candidates Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee was not asked about his flip-flop on immigration. That was the #1 issue of Iowa Republican voters, and Huckabee's pandering to nativists is a largely unreported reason why he was able to win the caucus.

Romney was not asked about his narrow appeal to Republicans who earn more than $100,000 a year, leaving underreported the brewing class war within the GOP.