I wish political reporters were as hard hitting with their interviews as sportscasters.

On New Year’s Day, during all the bowl games, I saw two interviews with incoming new head coaches (Rich Rodriguez with Michigan and Rick Neuheisel with UCLA). Rodriguez, ex-head coach at West Virginia, was asked what was different about being offered the head coaching job at Alabama last year and turning it down, and being offered the head coaching job at Michigan this year and accepting it. He somewhat skillfully avoided answering the question. He was also asked if West Virginia had been in the national championship game this year (which could have easily happened), would he have left WVU. Again, he didn’t answer. Neuheisel was asked about his rather checkered past at Colorado and Washington, which included a rather overblown gambling scandal, where he was involved in betting on the NCAA basketball tournament. To his credit, he said that he made mistakes in his past, they were his mistakes, and he wouldn’t make them in his upcoming job. Whether that is true remains to be seen. I wish him luck. (I met him several years ago, as he is a friend of my brother. It was a bit awkward, as he had just lost his job at Washington. I think I said something like, "Sorry about how the Husky thing turned out." He replied, "Yeah, me too." What a lame thing to say on my part....)

My point is this. Those are very pointed, potentially very embarrassing questions being asked of college football coaches on live national television. I suppose that, because of their visibility and large salaries paid for by state taxes, those are fair questions.

I wish, oh how I wish, that our national political media would be as hard hitting and probing with our politicians. Specifically, why do they let George Bush and his minions get away with breaking the laws, subverting the Constitution, stacking the Dept. of Justice with political cronies and ideologues, such that the DOJ became an arm of the Republican party, and let them get away with it without calling them on the carpet when they get a chance? Don't the people who run our nation, who have shown that they consider themselves to be above the law, deserve at least as much scrutiny as football coaches?