Meet The White House Mouthpiece

It seems Howie "I'm Not A Whore" Kurtz was too busy downloading onto photos of Morgan Fairchild to report on some real media news: The fact that Tim Russert requested and received talking points from the Bush Administration prior to his Dean interview:

The Bush administration yesterday released a highly selective analysis of the cost to families of rolling back scheduled tax cuts, an early sign of the White House's plan to brand Democrats as tax raisers throughout their race for the presidential nomination.

In addition to using the issue to inject himself into the Democratic campaign, President Bush plans to make the extension and preservation of tax cuts a centerpiece of his general election campaign, senior Republican officials said.

The seven-page analysis, by the Treasury Department's Office of Tax Analysis, asserts that repealing the tax cuts enacted in 2001 and last month would mean a tax hike of $1,933 for a married couple with two children and an income of $40,000. Their taxes would go from $45 to $1,978, for an increase of 4,296 percent, the study said.

....

Howard Dean, a Democratic presidential candidate and former Vermont governor, was confronted with the Treasury Department figures on NBC's "Meet the Press" yesterday. He said they do not account for increases in property taxes because of cuts in federal services and shortfalls in federal aid to education.

"The real effect of the Bush tax cuts has actually been to raise taxes on most middle-class people and to cut their services," Dean said.

The research was prepared at the request of "Meet the Press," NBC and Bush officials said. The analysis does not include single people or lower-income couples, two groups that benefit little from Bush's cuts. Four of the examples involve married couples with one or two children making $40,000 to $75,000 a year, and the other two concern spouses who are both age 65. (Emphasis added.)

Howie was ready, however, to repeat the claim that "the politico-media establishment" views Dean as a "pipsqueak."

Dr. Alterman's assessment of Howie the Whore is much too kind.

And what other parts of Russert's script were written by the White House?

(Via the invaluable Buzzflash.)

Update (6/25):Atrios points out (4:46 a.m. entry) that there's nothing new under the sun.