During the Meet the Press panel discussion on the return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, for some reason, Jon Meacham felt the need to compare a hug between Al Gore and Bill Clinton after the journalists were returned home to Brokeback Mountain. WTF Jon?
He actually went on to make some good points about jailed journalists in other countries that we should care about being freed as well, but his statement about Gore and Clinton frankly left me scratching my head as to why he felt it necessary to blurt something like that out.
GREGORY: Well, I, I would be remiss if we didn't spend a little bit of time on one of the images of the week, and it's such a great political story, and here it was in Burbank, California. You had a former president and a former vice president, Clinton and Gore, with the two journalists from North Korea coming home. And there was the much commented on lingering hug between the two.
Jon Meacham, a fascinating political story.
MEACHAM: Oh.
GREGORY: They were together in the '90s, after the 2000 race they were estranged for a while. They seem to be back together again.
MEACHAM: Yeah. It, it's the new--it's like the Bush-Clinton "Brokeback Mountain." You know, we're back, we're back to that. I, I think the--what's so terrific, in a way, is Clinton was able to get these reporters out. That's a very serious matter. We are--North Korea is a, a, a foe of almost epic--possibly epic dimensions, and anything that gets us in there to get a sense of who these people really are is a good thing. Sending the--sending Bill Clinton, whose emotional intelligence is off the charts, was really lucky for us. If anyone can come back and paint a character sketch of what's going on with those people, it'll be Bill Clinton. And I just want to say, if, if it's all right...
GREGORY: Sure.
MEACHAM: ...there are two places where this is going on right now. Newsweek has a correspondent, Maziar Bahari, who is being held in custody without access to a lawyer and without a formal charge in Iran. There are a number of show trials going on in Iran as that regime, like the North Korean regime, tries to hold onto power. And would urge all of us to pay attention to the situation in Iran, in that we have people who are being held without due process, which is personally tragic but also a significant political story, because it's about a regime trying to fight history.
