Fox to Comedy Writers: Let's Try This at Home

Former White House adviser Rove seemed unfazed by critics' questions in re whether having someone with his "political baggage" hurts the credibility of Fox News Channel, for which he is a contributor.

Congress subpoenaed Rove in May to get him to talk about whether he had a part in prosecutors' decision to pursue cases against Democrats, or in the firing of federal prosecutors considered disloyal to the Bush administration, the Associated Press reported.

Rove told TV critics that in letters to the House Judiciary Committee, "my lawyer has offered for me to go up to visit with members of Congress, visit with the staff or respond to written questions without foreclosing any future action by Congress."

Fox News Executive Vice President John Moody answered the question by saying the situation is between Rove and Congress and does not involve the cable news channel. At which point Rove sprang into action, insisting it's not personal at all.

"It's not between me and Congress. I've not asserted any personal privilege -- this is between the White House and Congress," he said. It's about "the ability of the president to receive advice from senior advisers and for those senior advisers not to be at the beck and call of Congress for testimony."

Rove and Howard Wolfson, Sen. Hillary Clinton's former campaign strategist, came to the press tour to talk about Fox's election coverage. But they never seemed to get around to that. Mostly they defended just being there.

Wolfson acknowledged he wants Barack Obama to become the next president.

Rove said he's not formally working with Sen. John McCain's campaign but that he has frequent contact with those who are. Moody jumped in and said Rove wouldn't get information any quicker than the channel's correspondents covering the presidential race anyway. Critics seemed to buy that one, but when he said, "I don't think Karl would cross the ethical line like that," it set off guffawing in the Beverly Hills hotel ballroom.

Moody was asked about the reference by one air-talent, a while ago, to a possible "terrorist fist jab" between Democratic contender Barack Obama and his wife. Moody said he wished that had not happened, calling it "regrettable."

Wallace, who was on the panel, got kind of knicker-knotted by the end of the session, which was surprising, given the general softball-ness of the questioning.

"I think sometimes there's a double standard here," Wallace vented. "I think that MSNBC and its coverage of this campaign went so far over the line in terms of being in the tank for Barack Obama it lost a lot of credibility." He noted Keith Olbermann's involvement in that competing cable network's election news coverage; Olbermann is also "delivering 10-minute screeds against President Bush, telling him to shut the hell up and Hillary Clinton to get out of the campaign," he said. "The fact is that there was something of a firewall" on FNC, and a reason why "Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity don't anchor the election coverage at Fox.

"Our feeling is the opinion-makers should deliver their opinions and the journalists should cover the news."