MSNBC's new weenie (hint: he wears a bow-tie and his name's not George Will)

Of course, it's Tucker Carlson, formerly Crossfire's "dick" (according to Jon Stewart -- click here for that oldie-but-goodie clip), and now, after much ado, he's in prime-time on MSNBC (which, for the sake of my own mental health, I try not to watch too much) with The Situation* (stupid name for a show, eh?). That he's up against CNN's Larry King Live and FOX's Hannity & Colmes, and hence is doomed to relative failure, is neither here nor there, but, speaking of Slate's Dana Stevens (which I did a few posts ago), check out her excellent (and quite hilarious) review of the show's first week.

Funniest passage: "Tucker Carlson comes off as your ultimate nightmare of the college roommate you might be assigned on the first day of freshman year: a smug yuppie smartass with a drawerful of perfectly folded pastel polo shirts. But there's something sneakily subversive about him, too -- he might surprise you by smuggling a bottle of bourbon under those shirts and sharing it with you over a late night of raunchy talk. The Situation is shallow, but far from unwatchable; it zips along at a healthy clip, getting in a few good digs along the way, and next thing you know it's over, and you're no worse off than you were before."

* Actually, it's The Situation with Tucker Carlson (here's the website, if you must). And Tucker's got a blog coming. Great. (Is this a Sign of the Apocalypse? Tucker, the show, the blog -- the whole to-do? Tempting... but no, not yet. I'll give it some time. Besides, it's just MSNBC. In the end, who cares?)