ALEC BALDWIN AND CHRIS WALLACE

I don't watch Saturday Night Live like I did years ago, but this week I had to watch. Our good friend Alec Baldwin was hosting for the 12th time. I suspected the script would be laden with anti-Bush administration and Iraq policy slams. And, I was right.

At one time, this show was so funny it would cause discomfort from laughing so hard; now it's just painful to watch.

When they made fun of presidents it didn't get any better. If they ran out of stuff about Jimmy Carter, they'd just add something about his idiot brother, Billy. Gerald Ford, who couldn't walk 3 feet without bumping his head or falling down the stairs of Air Force One, was too good to be true. The material they did about Ronald Reagan was true genius--Johnny Carson made a living off the guy, too. Bush 41 and his choice of words provided another 4 years of great comedy. Bill Clinton, though, was the Atocha of comedy material for the SNL staff, and they mined it for all it was worth. If the Clinton material got a bit old, enter Janet Reno--the material practically wrote itself.

Bush 43 is difficult for them because he doesn't provide SNL with the really good stuff the previous presidents did. Yes, he trips over the English language all too often, but it's hard to play on that for long and still have it be funny. What's clear about the show today is that SNL hates Bush and his Iraq policies--it was crystal clear last Saturday.

Anytime you try to make jokes about policy, it won't be funny. Policy just isn't funny; falling down the stairs is funny. I don't remember any attempt at humor regarding someone on the left. However, they did do stuff on Bush, a major piece on Dick Cheney, another major one on Bill O'Reilly's show, and Weekend Update had several items about the Iraq war. The lowlight was a piece about Cheney and our soldiers that was in poor taste.

All the bits had one thing in common: They weren't funny. And it was obvious to anyone that the show was doing its best to get an opinion across, and with Alec Baldwin as the host, it didn't surprise me in the least. Trying to be funny, while injecting opinion into humor, is like trying to force the square peg through the round hole--it won't work.

Admittedly, I only watched the show for one hour, so if they went to town on Howard Dean, Murtha, and Dick Durbin, I missed it. However, I think it's safe to say they didn't.

I'm liking Chris Wallace more and more. Previously I posted about him admitting that there was a bias in the MSM.

Last Friday he went off on his dad, Mike Wallace. He thinks his dad has "lost it." No joke. Read the story here. Chris mentions a term that I think should be used more often when referring to the MSM: Tokyo Rose.