Gah, I was distracted by dinner during the interview. Transcript, anyone?
From memory:
S: Who said that Kerry was more liberal than Kennedy?
B: A bunch of groups keep tyrack of votes: labor Unions, conservative groups, business groups.
S: But who specifically ranked Kerry more liberal than Kennedy?
B: A bunch of groups…
S: But who specifically?
B: A bunch of groups…
(repeat several times)
S: OK, it was the Congressional Report… (or some such, I can’t remmeber)
B: It can’t be, they are just a magazine. (WTF does that mean???)
S: And they said that over their entire career Kerry is more conservative than Kennedy and that Edwards is to the right of the median of Democrats.
B: Well it was a bunch of groups…
The fact that I’m learneding more from a half hour of The Daily Show than from two and a half hours a Sunday morning shows is a bit frightening. I always wanted to know who put the “most liberal” list together. The way the congressman was talking it sounded like a BCS type system.
There’s a transcript here.
That’s incredible.
You know what I thought was priceless?
The “homonausic” candidate and his “double intenuendos.”
You can’t make that shit up.
Oh, yeah, the guy who was concerned about lesbians predetorializing straight women was great. Think he’s a long-lost Bush sibling?
I wish all interviewers would call their guests out on their bullshit. I think we could have a much more honest and responsive government if that were the case.
Not to hijack the thread, but when did Franken ever denied having a team of students do research for his last book?
Heck, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them even has a group photo of “Team Franken,” along with a writeup of each member. That’s the worst-kept secret Al’s ever kept. 
Problem is, gov’t officials would never be interviewed if they didn’t expect softballs.
And the downside here is what, exactly?
That and him being Tom Davis’s boy-toy.
You have to understand how awful “mainstream” journalism has become in the US. Spinmeisters go everywhere and say things that are blatantly ridiculous and no one challenges them. Stewart has become a respected journalist by virtue of having hardly anyone else around that actually does journalism.
Russert is a perfect example of this. He very rarely challenges direct lies and only those of people of the wrong political persuasion. He’s one of the biggest log-rollers out there.
I still say Jennifer Love Hewitt got it worse.
Sorry for my absence (I’m sure you all noticed… heh)-- router is actin’ up…
Thanks for the transcript, squeegee. I was just about to go searching around for one.
Exactly. I especially liked that about this interview-- at the end of it, Stewart shook his hand in a (seemingly) light-hearted manner.
I think that was the beauty of it-- he is “supposed” to be the comedian host of a fake (not Faux) news show. As such, a lot of people (politicians, actual newscasters, etc) give the impression that they think he’s full of crap, and just throws things out there for a quick laugh - without doing a lick of research. IMHO, this interview (and occasional comments by Stewart) caught these people off guard, putting the idea of “This guy actually has a good grasp on what he talks about” into their heads.
And regarding the “GOP” on the bottom of the boots… I remember thinking “awwww how nice of him” when he first presented them to Jon… but when he showed the letters on the bottom, I knew the interview was going to get juicy. I just didn’t have any idea how juicy. 
LilShieste
I’m not sure that’s true. They still have to get their messages out there. If anything, the reason the news anchors go so damn soft on their guests because they need them for the ratings.
Perhaps. If officials knew that they could avoid the tough questioners they might go to the ones who toss softballs. However, if all the interviewers were tough then they wouldn’t have any other options and therefore very little leverage.
I watched it last night, and I didn’t think he was very hard on the guy. In fact, I thought Jon let him of easy, probably because of the boots.
Yeah. He reminded me of a parent who knew his kid was lying. “Are you sure you want to say that? Really?” He gave him every chance to back off to a more respectable position, but the dude just wouldn’t take the hint.
Then they’d just have press conferences, and only subject themselves to questions there, and avoid actual interviews.