You Know its Great to Have the Daily Show, Until You Realize Something... Tonight Jon Stewart, in the name of comedy, performed two simultaneous acts. First, he took down Dick Cheney (again) and the fact that Dick Cheney's biggest sin is not that he simply lies, but that he lies so incredibly badly -- so stridently and brusquely. Cheney had an interview with typical media whore Gloria Borger last week on CNBC when he specifically denied ever saying it was substantially proven that there was a meeting between Mohammad Atta and an Iraqi agent in Czechoslovakia prior to 9/11 (ed: well, before 9/11 is pretty obvious isn't it?). The Daily Show played the expressed clip of Cheney saying exactly that back in 2003 on Press the Meat. Second, he eviscerated third-rate freeper hipster Stephen Hayes without mercy on a guest booking that could not have been any more ill timed for the latter's part. Hayes was just a bumbling bafoon forced to admit that his book didn't really do much and that the Bush Administration has fucked up royally. It was a thing of beauty. And therein lies the problem. The Daily Show is a comedy show about news, it is at essence a show that parodies both politics and the media. Yet, this parody show does hard news better than the actual news media, particular the broadcast form. If Cheney is on Pumpkinhead's show will Russert press this issue? Nah, Cheney will cock his head, jam his chin into his chest, and mumble out to Russert (and when reading this I suggest you, the reader do so as well): "Uh, Tim, I just want to say that ...ah, hmmm, I read your book, Big Russ and Me, and ah, ah-hmmm, which is, ah, available at most bookstores and at www.amazon.com. I found the ah, book, ah-hmmm, to be an excellent bit of writing about a child's, ah-hmmm, love, ah-hmmm, for his um, father. If I had tear ducts I ah-hmmm, might have contemplated secreting, ah-hmmm, saline fluids from the ducts contained behind my, ah, visual apparatus." And it will be over, Russert will spend the next twenty minutes talking about Big fucking Russ, Little fucking Russ, lit'ler fucking Russ, and all the fucking Russ's yet to be; Russell Means, Russell Johnson ("the Professor"), Rosalyn Russell, Nipsy Russell, Russet Potatoes, ad nauseum. And then the show, after a touching message from ADM and General Electric, will be back with the roundtable to talk about why John Kerry's message isn't making it out to the public at large. The panel is comprised of Bob "Russ" Novak, William "Russ" Safire, and Peggy "Russ" Noonan. The panelists can obviously see this from their imperious perch atop the beltway food chain with a self-satisfied intimate knowledge of the rest of the nation and how it thinks. Remember if its Sunday, "Big Russ and Me is available at Borders and Barnes & Noble stores between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. across the nation."