The Situation Room leans right

"We're going to try something a little different today," says CNN's Wolf Blitzer. That something different was a chummy "strategy session" featuring Bill Bennett, Tori Clarke, and JC Watts, giving some friendly advice to the Administration (when they weren't slandering journalists).

There they were, the leading lights of CNN's conservative movement, slapping each other on the back, laughing about each other's football prowess (Watts) or how good a press secretary they'd be (Clarke), spinning the problems in the White House as merely communications-based, not structural.

"There are so many cabinet secretaries doing great things, they're just not getting out there," said Watts. "The White House just needs to pick four or five things and harp on them, like pornography, that's a big issue for families," noted Bennett (what about gambling addiction?). "I hate to criticize these guys, because they're working so hard," said Clarke. This took up ten minutes on the flagship daytime news show on CNN.

The other topic regarded the firing of a CIA employee for blowing the whistle on the illegal CIA secret prisons to the Washington Post. That, of course, wasn't good enough for Bennett, who wants reporters fired for doing their job. Even Tori Clarke couldn't get behind that. It was the only moment of disagreement in the segment.

"Down the road, we're going to bring in our Democratic analysts to offer their advice..." Wolf said at the end of the segment. Then they teased to the "House Democratic corruption scandal" non-story featuring Allan Mollohan. Every time a conservative group charges a Democratic member of Congress with a crime, see, it's major news. That Mollohan was stepping down as head of the Ethics Committee was "breaking news."

I was a healthier person when I wasn't watching CNN.