Countdown Tuesday: The Chicago Way
Posted: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 8:59 PM by Countdown
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Blogging the Countdown
Own a Piece of History:
Even in Illinois, where votes cast by dead men are the stuff of legend...Even in Illinois, where a horse path once built by a corrupt Chicago mayor cost a million dollars...Even in Illinois, where three of his six elected predecessors wound up going to the penitentiary... Even in Illinois, when Governor Rod Blagoya-vitch was arrested today with trying to sell the right to succeed the President-Elect in the Senate, and trying to muscle the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Cubs...Even in Illinois -- in our fifth story tonight -- there rings out, one single question, raised in unison on a million lips... Is this guy the dumbest SOB on the planet, or what?
3 Car Pile-Up:
Even at virtually the drop-dead hour for the American auto industry...The Republicans are ready to let 'em crash... for the sake of Big Oil. Our fourth story on the Countdown: a mini-bailout for Detroit seemingly imminent, but the GOP reportedly still demanding that Democrats excise the environmental part of the deal, the language that would demand automakers drop lawsuits challenging tough emissions standards in several states.ODDBALL: Runaway Rhino and an athletic mouse.
Bush is History:
President Bush tells interviewers he does not care how history will portray him. But in our third story tonight, the Los Angeles Times has obtained an internal White House memo giving cabinet members talking points for painting history a rosy portrait of Mr. Bush... even though his image will only get worse, as new, damning facts emerge. What does the memo say? And how are we obliged to correct its bizarre claims? To start, it says Mr. Bush, quote, "...promised to raise standards and accountability in public schools -- and delivered the No Child Left Behind Act."
Worsties...see below.
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Sean Hannity, Billo and George Will vie for tonight's top honors.
Jay Leno Interview: One show, five nights a week, in prime time, on network television. It's never been done before. Unless you count all those mutations of Law + Order, or C-S-I, or, if like me you're old enough to remember this: the ABC Sunday Night Movie... and the ABC Monday Night Movie... and the ABC Tuesday Movie... etc. Our number one story on the Countdown, Keeping Tabs: original and radical and yet possibly the safest thing a broadcast t-v network has ever done... Taking the highest-rated late night program -- The Tonight Show -- and morph it into a prime-time series.Jay Leno at ten p-m eastern, Monday through Friday... He'll join me, presently.
