Howie's probably not getting any tonight.

Howard Kurtz trotted out three journalism critics on his Sunday morning Reliable Sources CNN snooze-fest today, probably believing that at least one of them would provide protective cover so he could present the current wave of right wing hate speech and threats across the nation as a equivalency issue ("but...but...the Democrats doe it too"), but no such luck. All three slammed the right almost exclusively  and in particular Gov. Quitter. Howie was nonplussed.

It got worse. In a later segment, he interviewed Erick Erickson, the proprietor of Red State, a right wing blog on which he has made several, shall we say, intemperate comments. Erickson is the latest CNN legacy hire, still desperately trying to fill their Glenn Beck void (Erick's nuts, but not Beck nuts, so good luck with that) and, under very gentle questioning basically offered up the defense "I didn't know anybody read me," "I didn't know what I was saying" and/or "I'm all grown up now."

He finally did manage to slip a silly non sequitur in short segment at show's end in which he talked about the Tiger Woods "interviews" that were permitted a few fawning reporters last week. When it was pointed out that they were only five minutes long, Howie went all petulant. "Well, you know, when he talks to network reporters, President Obama sometimes limits the time to five minute too." Apparently, the standards of a disgraced serial adulterer should be measured against those of the Leader of the Free World.

That was the best he could manage, well off his weekly standards. I doubt it's going to be enough to placate wifey, who is a GOP operative and has come to expect a bit more wooing over her morning coffee.