Ifill Shower

Maybe I am naïve, but I was never certain whether Tim Russert was a Democrat or a Republican. Watching him over the years on Meet the Press, I didn’t know where he stood, nor did I really care - as a moderator his role was to facilitate the discussion with his questions. He was not the story. The controversy over Gwen Ifill as moderator has attempted to make her the story, while clearly she is not.

John McCain took the high road yesterday, praising Ifill and her professionalism, which was a prelude to light criticism from Palin and Rudy Giuliani. Outrage from the right has focused on the lack of disclosure of Ifill’s upcoming book “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama.” The fact that she was writing the book should have come as no surprise, as the first notice of it appeared in a Washington Times article on July 23 entitled “Smiley Faces Blog Anger.” "We have an awkward history about how to talk about race in the nation and in newsrooms," says Gwen Ifill, senior correspondent for PBS' "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer" and author of "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama," slated for publication early next year.

The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the four moderators on August 5, and articles about Ifill, which included references to her book appeared in the Washington Post on September 4.

Why is the right crying foul two days before the Vice-Presidential debate? Where was their criticism back in August? Or September? Presumably Jim Lehrer, Tom Brokaw and Bob Schieffer were selected for their journalistic credentials, and no less should be said of Ifill. If the right truly thought there were bias issues, they did not have to look any further than the 2004 Vice-Presidential debate, which was also moderated by Ifill. Criticism from the right followed that debate as a result of an exchange between Ifill and Vice-President Cheney:

Ifill has been criticized in the past by political commentators for her performance as a moderator -- most notably in 2004's vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and ex-Sen. John Edwards. Edwards lashed out at Cheney's ties to Halliburton, to which Cheney responded: "I can respond, Gwen, but it's going to take more than 30 seconds."

Ifill shot back: "Well, that's all you've got."

Where was the outrage in August? They had four years to foment. Now, as the debate approaches and the polls are moving in the wrong direction, it’s time to “work the refs” so there is a ready narrative if Sarah Palin fails to score in the debate. If the right is right, maybe both Ifill and Palin should have been better vetted.