I watched the McLaughlin Group Friday evening. I try to watch it whenever I can. I think it’s the best talking heads show, all in all. Of course, it is known for its freewheeling format, and always, several times during the show, it ends up in a shouting match with everyone shouting at once trying to get a word in edgewise. It is the hallmark of the show. I find it interesting that I grew up thinking McLaughlin was an arch conservative, but I don’t think that anymore.

This week was interesting. The panel was, of course, Buchanan and Clift, Page and Crowley. Crowley, the token blonde, is becoming increasingly isolated in her neocon views, even with Buchanan.

The most interesting discussion was the first and longest segment – about the Russia/Georgia conflict. Buchanan was adamant that Georgia had stupidly been the provocateur, and that Bush knew about it. He also said that there was no way out for Bush, and that Bush would not be able to extract any serious concessions from Russia because of his lame duck status.

Clift agreed with Buchanan, and said that it wasn’t in the U.S. interest to get involved over the independence of distant disputed territories. Crowley, in her usual neocon ways, took the hard line, saying that we needed to kick Russia out of the G8. Page said, correctly, that Bush was too weak to do anything.

Buchanan noted that if the U.S. tried to “isolate” Russia, they would just shift to trading with China, Iran and the like, insinuating that we and the west would be the losers of that strategy. McLaughlin himself suggested that the disputed territories should have referendums on whether or not to stay with Georgia.

Then the discussion shifted to the U.S. and Polish response to the Georgia issue by agreeing that the U.S. would put missiles in Poland, which is no doubt a provocation to Russia. Buchanan said that the Polish people should not be the ones to decide whether or not the U.S. confronts Russia so blatantly.

They also discussed, briefly, the presidential race, but I’ve already talked about that enough recently. I just had to comment about the Russia/Georgia discussion, however.