All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

Lawyer Andrew Cohen analyzes legal affairs for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

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Let’s play a game this Tuesday. See if you can guess who/which organization offered this gem: “The rule of law, the very foundation for a free society, has been under assault, not only by criminals from the ground up, but also from the top down. An administration that lives by evasion, coverup, stonewalling, and duplicity has given us a totally discredited Department of Justice. The credibility of those who now manage the nation’s top law enforcement agency is tragically eroded. We are fortunate to have its dedicated career workforce, especially its criminal prosecutors, who have faced the unprecedented politicization of decisions regarding both personnel and investigations.”

Is the answer: 1) A Democratic loudmouth on the Senate Judiciary Committee? 2) A smarmy Democratic presidential candidate? 3) The relentless folks from moveon.org? 4) That guy on HBO who is less funny than he thinks he is? Nope. The correct answer is, surprise surprise, the 2000 Republican National Platform. That’s right. The platform upon which President George W. Bush first ran for and won the presidency contained precisely the sort of language that his most strident critics might be tempted to use today as the U.S. Attorney scandal swirls downward to a whole new level.

I found the quote researching Monday’s news from the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which issued a draft report highly critical of the White House’s use of Republican National Committee email accounts for official business. Worse, many of those emails now apparently are missing, which means that White House officials were effectively able through use of their RNC accounts to make an end-run around the Presidential Records Act. Their communications now are not part of the historical record of the Bush Administration, circa 2001-2009, despite the federal law that requires the maintenance of such records...

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A registered nurse wrote us about Armen Keteyian's report last night on trouble at assisted living facilities:

I agree that it is important to make the public aware of the many concerns facing people that are trying to care for their loved ones or are looking for an appropriate place for their loved one. But. . . .

Placing an Alzheimer's person in an assisted living facility is the wrong decision. If a person is having problems to the point that they can not be cared for at home - they need more than "assisted" living. They were essentially living in the "assisted" environment at home. And the same accident could have happened at home. Too often families have promised a Mom or Dad that they would not place them in a nursing home. People still believe that nursing homes are just one step above going to Hell, and/or the last place to go before dying.

I work in a nursing home. I am an R.N. and an MDS coordinator. I have worked in the same facility for the past 25 years. I love my residents and for the most part they love me. We are close to all our residents and their families. Of course we live in a small town in a small community. I am always irritated when in the effort to keep an elder person happy, family makes the wrong decision about where to relocate the person. Hence we end up with residents living in elder housing complexes - supposedly independent or assisted - but watched by other older persons (the residents all watch each other and make sure stoves are shut off, doors are shut and falls have not occurred).

Families need to make themselves responsible for making good choices and not wait to blame a facility. We need to support the fact the good choices are not necessarily popular choices.

You can read more on the issue here.

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The other day, we put in a plug for our friends over at Public Eye and their new newsletter.

But we neglected to mention, ahem, that we have something similar at the CBS Evening News. Every day, you can get an e-mail from Katie delivered to your “in” box, describing what’s coming up on that night’s broadcast.

Curious? Check out this link to explore how you can subscribe. It’s quick, it’s painless and it’s absolutely free. Who could ask for anything more?

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Garrison Keillor likes to say, “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone.” Whereupon he unwinds another of his elegantly crafted monologues, proving that the week has been anything but quiet.

Well, it’s been a quiet week at “Couric and Co.” And it’s only Wednesday.

The mailman nearly suffered a hernia hauling in sacks of comments over Monday’s “freeSpeech” segment. (We took a few packages that were ticking and threw them in the creek…) Surf around the CBS News website and you’ll find all sorts of ideas and opinions about this. A tell-tale sign that this was going to be an especially interesting week: nearly every comment, on every post, for the last three days, has had something to say about “freeSpeech,” no matter what the topic.

Personally, I was struck by how many of the people who posted began their comments with one word: “Shame.” As in “Shame on you, Katie Couric.” (I might mention here that the majority of people wagging their fingers and using that word would proudly label themselves free-thinking, tolerant, progressive, maybe even liberal. Tolerance, it seems, has its limits.) I was also struck by how the tide seems to have turned. Over the last 24 hours, a growing number of e-mails and comments have been in support of Brian Rohrbough and his views. A friend of mine who runs a conservative blog says that’s not surprising. She told me that most people who agree with Rohrbough would not be inclined to watch CBS, and when they heard through the blogosphere grapevine that “freeSpeech” was causing a kerfuffle, and that abortion and evolution and Christianity were being mentioned, they wandered over to take a look.

Now it’s hitting the papers. Media maven Howard Kurtz (who, I swear, should be played by Ray Romano in the movie version of his life) has written about the controversy in this morning’s Washington Post.

And you’ll find more down the street, where Vaughn is busily corralling kittens at Public Eye.

Take a look, and then take a look around. We’re continuing to get comments all over the place.

And it’s still only Wednesday.

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Okay, maybe that's not a good example.

But we're still looking for great questions for Katie. We're gonna tie up the mailbag and carry it home this weekend to pore over the contents. We hope to post the first questions and answers Monday.

To drop a line to our Couric & Co. e-mail, just click on the menu item at the upper left corner of the page. The mailman will do the rest.

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We're starting to sift through the e-mails for our little "Dear Katie..." project. The "C&C" staff is heartened by the response.

In fact, to reward all our regular readers for your loyalty and ingenuity, we have a small scoop: we're hearing some buzz around the newsroom that the big question on everyone's mind -- what will the signoff be? -- could be answered as early as tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

And keep the questions coming!

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A very attentive reader writes:

Since Katie took over as the quotidian nightly news anchor at CBS some have attempted an animadversion in their paroxysm on Katie by claiming she is a pentimento of past news anchors who lacks gravitas, seemingly in an attempt to destroy her panoply, and thus ensue her threnody at CBS. This brouhaha is no more germane to me than what relation a cerulean sky has to the olfactory senses of a jackass. Being nonplussed, I would like to ask the seemingly ubiquitous Katie if her propinquity with other news anchors hinders her and is her perspicacity her true advantage in the media realm... or is it her great looks???

Joe Mancini
West Hartford, CT

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A teensy reminder, to follow up on our "Dear Katie..." post from yesterday...

If you'd like to send a question to ask Katie, kindly send it via e-mail .

Just click the "E-mail Couric & Co." listing at the top left corner of this page. Or you can drop a line to: couricandco@cbs.com.

Thanks.

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Is there a question you’re burning to ask Katie? This is your chance.

Send us an e-mail with your question – one question per e-mail, please – and over the next several days we’ll sift through them and ask Katie to answer them.

A few ground rules:

Questions must be serious and substantive. (But witty and substantive will also be accepted.) No questions about hair, makeup, shoes or wardrobe. Please. Pretty please.

Questions must be brief and to the point. We may edit them for length, clarity and, yes, grammar.

To keep our e-mail box from being overwhelmed, we’re going to ask that you limit yourselves to one e-mail per viewer.

We would appreciate it if you would include your name and hometown . They may be used if your e-mail is chosen and posted.

Got that? So take a moment, scratch your chin, chew on your pencil, and then drop us a line.

We’ll post your questions -- and Katie’s answers -- in a few days.

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