Issue Number One!

Well, John McLaughlin died last night.

For you goddamn foreigners McLaughlin was a Washington insider type who hosted a political round table on Sunday mornings. It was a precursor to the modern and unwatchable cable news shout fests, but much more interesting.

Here is an old episode and a guarantee I saw it:

There they are, Fred Barnes (conservative writer, future editor of the New Republic, a lib mag, btw, and co-founder of the Standard), Morton Kondracke (New Republic, later Roll Call and moderate Dem, Jack Germond (old school liberal columnist but well liked and respected), and Patrick J. Buchanan (you'll find the Uzi and the Rosaries under the seat, McLaughlin used to tell guests).

These are Washington insiders who had lots of contacts, would provide analysis, but not consensus.

There was John McLaughlin in the middle of it, presiding over the melee. 'Issue number one!' he would complain. He could end the debate with a single word, 'The answer is no!'

My favorite, and he would only do this once a month or so, was to end the discussion with a question, 'What is the likelihood of the nominee going though on a scale of zero to ten, zero meaning none ten meaning Metaphysical Certitude!'

Metaphysical Certitude actually made it into my first novel, A Line through the Desert.

In 1988 I was a bored 15 year old decked out in mullett and dayglo, flipping channels one Sunday morning when I stumbled upon this show. I was hooked.

McLaughlin's style could be easily parodied. SNL had a ball with it:

I can't find the clip, because Lorne Michaels ruthlessly enforces SNL copyright, but in 1992 they did a Japanese version of the McLaughlin Group, The Hakawa Group.

'Issue Number One: Why are all Americans Fat and Lazy!'

By the early 90's McLaughlin was something a celebrity. He hosted an NBC special with the cast of the then number one sitcom, Cheers. He and the group do a cameo in Independence Day.

He even  did a walk-on during an SNL parody skit of him.

For me the act got old, and I hopped of the McLaughlin train by 1998 or so. But it was fun.