Jack Shafer, known as the Slate writer who tried to boycott the D.N.C. so there would be a little less "essing" of some "dees" in the journalist field, is now trying his hand at advice to network television hosts. Specifically, the insuferable David Gregory, whose two left feet will be filling in Tim Russert's shoes on Meet the Press starting this Sunday.

Invent a great gimmick. Russert had a dozen gimmicks. He had the flip-flop graphic. He had Buffalo. The Bills. His blue collar. The whiteboard. His dad. Gregory needs a similar signature, and I've got just the thing. Good politicians are evasion artists, able to field a difficult question without answering it and making it sound as though they did. When confronted with such maneuvers, Gregory could pursue his prey with three follow-up questions. If the politician didn't answer satisfactorily, Gregory could give his best grin and say, "Senator, that's three and you're out" and move on to the next question. If deployed artfully, "That's three and you're out" could become the most feared phrase in political reporting and just maybe it could get politicians to respond truthfully.

Heh. We're sort of getting the impression that Jack is actually giving Gregory bad advice in the hope that he'll be kicked off the air. Because if there is one thing needed in Sunday morning political talk shows, it's more gimmicks.