Don’t let anyone use the “pregame” about Bush’s appearance with Tim Russert to assert that the NBC host is some “right-leaning” pushover. Among my colleagues, the bias Russert is best known for is his repeated pounding on the need for repealing tax cuts. The best example is his slate of questions to Reps. Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Tom Davis (R-VA) on September 1, 2002: “Should the Democrats be in favor of freezing the Bush tax cut?…Would it be better to freeze, postpone, the Bush tax cut?…Why not freeze the tax cut rather than spend the Social Security surplus?…Democrats are reluctant to say, ‘We have to freeze the tax cut,’ because you’re afraid it’s politically unpopular…As part of a budget summit, would you be in favor of freezing the Bush tax cut?…But, Congressman Davis, you did come to office with a $5.6 trillion surplus, and it’s gone, and a third of that can be directly attributed to the tax cut.”