Ken Starr Gets "Rathered"

Are we beginning to see a pattern here?

Brother Hinderaker sets it up:

Today's hottest media story relates to a CBS News report on the judicial filibuster by Gloria Borger that aired Monday night. The segment included an interview with Ken Starr, in which Starr, seemingly in reference to the Republicans' effort to end the filibuster, said: "This is a radical, radical departure from our history and from our traditions, and it amounts to an assault on the judicial branch of government."

Imagine Judge Starr's surprise when he saw how CBS had "creatively edited" his comments. It must have been considerable to send out the following email:

I sat on Saturday with Gloria Borger for 20 minutes approximately, had a wide ranging, on-camera discussion. In the piece that I have now seen, and which I gather has been lavishly quoted, CBS employed two snippets. The 'radical departure from our history' snippet was specifically addressed to the practice of invoking judicial philosophy as a grounds for voting against a qualified nominee of integrity and experience. I said in sharp language that that practice was wrong. I contrasted the current practice and that employed viciously against your father with what occurred during Ruth Ginsburg's nomination process as numerous Republicans voted, rightly, to confirm a former ACLU staff worker. They disagreed with her positions as a lawyer but they voted - again rightly - to confirm her. [my emphasis]

I guess the question left bouncing around my fertile brain is why any Republican would ever agree to do an interview with CBS News in the post-Rathergate era. The blatant stonewall following the fabricated documents fiasco should have made it beyond obvious that the "Tiffany network" will never, ever deal squarely and fairly with anybody on the other side of the aisle from them. True to form, CBS is (reportedly) blowing off a terse request from Judge Starr for a copy of the videotape of his interview. And from their point of view, why not? They got what they wanted from him. If they had to screw him to get it, that's sloppy seconds for them.

Let the lesson be comprehensively learned: Blackrock is a den of vipers. Don't talk to them at your own risk - don't talk to them at all.