Meet The Press may be taking a break this week, but we're not. Unfortunately for Meet The Press, the only news it seems to be making lately is how poorly it's doing in the rating battles with other Sunday programs. We even read about a rumor that Meet The Press will convert from a Sunday news program to a daily political gossip program... a horrible idea. The 'program of record' would cease to be just that.
Since there is no show this week, we'll take the liberty to produce our own and address what should have been covered today, had the program aired this week.
We'd start with an on-the-ground- report from Ukraine and the latest on the referendum vote.
International consensus says that the end result of this referendum vote will see the Donetsk and Eastern region of Ukraine wanting to break away, but this vote has also been widely condemned as illegal by the world community. Even Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has asked for a postponement. Military skirmishes have already broken out in eastern Ukraine and all this referendum will do make a civil war official.
And if full-scale civil war breaks out in Ukraine, President Putin will have no reservations about assisting the eastern separatists so the question is to what degree the west will help the Kiev government.
Meet the Press at this point could introduce in-studio guest.. say... Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, and ask what the west is prepared to do?
The west could impose even harsher sanctions on Russia but now you just have another situation like that of Iran and Syria. Sanctioning one country when all the death is occurring in another, where there is no willingness to stop it. And the only outside troops Mr. Putin wants on the scene are his own because he wants as much of Ukraine as he can get. All this rules out international peacekeeping forces instantly.
We understand Mr. Putin's motivations, those are pretty clear. We can also understood Europe's collective trepidation about retaliating against this subversive Russian behavior because of differing agendas and energy reliance. We can even understand the U.S. not wanting to get involved simply because of foreign intervention fatigue.
But here's what we don't get. A Ukrainian national (regardless of what language you speak) that had been oppressed by a dictatorial centralized government for decades then went through the Orange Revolution to gain independence, now wants to go back under the control of the former oppressor. Separatists would say that that is not what they want, but to become an independent state with the right to become part of the Russian Federation again.
The past is always comforting because we choose to remember the simpler and gentler things about it, but trying to go back to it is a fool's goal because of new reality that exists, the conditions are never the same for some wishful return to 'how it was.' If the separatists truly wanted independence that would be one thing, but to 'vote' yourself back into Russian is easy cowardly way forward.
Deputy Secretary, what is the United States prepared to do to prevent bloodshed in the Ukraine? That's the question and then we'd follow it up with two members of the roundtable with opposite perspectives to comment. We'd repeat this with a second topic - interview followed by two more of the members of the day's round table, then sitting them all down to close everything out.
And for today's second topic, that would be about domestic issues, focusing specifically on the debate of a minimum wage increase, the repeal or continuation of the Affordable Care Act, and as a transition start with the new select committee hearings on Benghazi, which is related to both foreign and domestic politics.
Invite Congressman Trey Gowdy (R-SC), head of the select House committee, on the program to ask him how this committee investigation will differ from the previous hearings. In our estimation, these new Benghazi hearings are purely political on the part of Republicans, but what is different is their target. It used to be President Obama but who they really want to damage now is former Security of State Hilary Clinton. As we always say, if we can see this from where we're sitting then its pretty obvious. You could also Mr. Gowdy why he called these new committee hearings a 'trial' earlier in the week. That doesn't sound like an investigation to find out what happened but a targeted prosecution of individuals.
After this short interview, invite two congresspeople from opposite sides to debate that and answer the questions of the minimum wage and the ACA.
[This column has spoken on both these topics and our short answers, once again, here are that the minimum wage should be increased - at the very least an immediate compromise between Republicans and Democrats as to how much, and then go from there. As for the ACA, no repeal, fix what needs fixing and let's all move on.]
Two good foils for such questions could be Representatives James Clyburn (D-SC) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), legislators that both buck the stereotypes of their respective states' political leanings who also give serious answers.
As for the members of today's fictitious round table... since we're calling the shots... (the non-B.S. crowd): The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson, Correspondent for The Atlantic and Bloomberg View
Columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Editor Paul Gigot, national editor
of the Cook Political Report Amy Walter
What a show today!
Happy day for all Mothers in the United States and everywhere in the world.
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