Parker/Spitzer can lose

The Parker/Spitzer show debuted on CNN last night. It might as well have been called Geithner/Palin. Eliot Spitzer began the show by calling for the president to fire his treasury secretary. Then in the next two segments, Spitzer went off on Geithner. I don’t like Geithner, but sheesh. Give it a rest.

Kathleen Parker went on and on about Sarah Palin. So did every one else. Aaron Sorkin, praised by Spitzer and Parker for his fine writing, said: “Sarah Palin is an idiot.” If that passes for political discourse, include me out.

Palin was discussed in all four segments of the show, perhaps in an effort to gin up controversy in the cable news version of Google bombing. Odd that Barack Obama was barely mentioned.

Isn’t he, like, the president or something?

The show is an attempt to re-brand CNN as a middle-of-the-road network that shows both sides of the political spectrum.

The problem is neither Parker nor Spitzer is a very good representative of their side. Parker’s Oogedy Boogedy column after the 2008 election was a body blow to me and perhaps other fans of her. Many conservatives likely will not forget her mocking their religion.

As for Spitzer, he’s an ego-driven prosecutor who climbed on the backs of many people who really did not deserve to be prosecuted.

Also his call right off the bat — out of the blue — to fire a man seemed intemperate.

The inner prosecutor in Spitzer showed when he took a cheap shot at Andrew Breitbart by giving him 30 seconds to explain the Shirley Sherrod case at the end of a segment that had nothing to do with Mrs. Sherrod.

While there is a chemistry between them, neither one seemed to take charge and conversations became a bunch of chattering over one another. It seems unfair to put two people who have no broadcast experience into the fray against the real professionals on Fox News and MSNBC. You don’t have to like them to appreciate that Bill O’Reilly and Keith Olbermann put in their time to learn their craft.

I wish Parker/Spitzer luck. But the show gave me a headache. Too much talking over one another and too little focus on something other than Sarah Palin. Maybe it will improve later when I give it a second look in a few weeks.