Hotline After Dark -- My Name Is Wolf

Everyone may hate Chris on UPN, but he's much loved on cable, debuting a new feature last night. MSNBC's Matthews: "Tonight on 'Hardball,' it's the debut of 'Hardball' plaza. We're talking to the people." What's interesting is that the plaza was in the courtyard of the same building that houses Fox News' DC bureau and C-SPAN. It's possible Brian Lamb has already named the courtyard the "Road to the White House Plaza" (4/20).

A DIPLOMATIC OOPS

Chinese Pres. Hu's visit, and the problems in the welcoming ceremony, got a lot of attention last night:

FNC's Cameron: "In a very rare occurrence, the White House welcome was disrupted" ("Special Report," 4/20).

CNN's Malveaux: "This really was a diplomatic disaster" ("AC 360," 4/20).

MSNBC's Olbermann: "This country managed to look like the least security-conscious place in the world, and a nation where protesters are dragged away by ominous-looking guards, and the place where an antimedia White House will still give anybody a media pass, and all at the same time, mind you" ("Countdown," 4/20).

NSA Stephen Hadley: "It's an unfortunate incident. It's really not about freedom of speech. You know, freedom of speech is what you're seeing in Lafayette Park right now. But it was a journalist accredited to the delegation, the journalistic delegation, who decided rather than reporting news, they would make the news" ("Situation Room," CNN, 4/20).

IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW, GAS IS EXPENSIVE

And the media diligently reported gas prices are up.

FNC's Bill O'Reilly, in his "Talking Points" memo, offered a solution: "Talking Points has suggested a symbolic protest of not buying any gas on Sundays. ... Americans should wise up and buy less gas. We can control this, if we all begin to conserve. ... Let's fight back. Buy less from those people. Send them a message they won't soon forget. 'The Factor' boycott of France impacted that country greatly. A cutback in gas consumption in the USA would immediately scorch the oil companies" (4/20).

NOT SOUNDING THAT ENTHUSED

Tony Snow was on the "O'Reilly Factor" and asked about the WH spokesperson job (and never said which way he was leaning): "You got a massive cut in pay. You have a lot of inconvenience. You don't have as much time to yourself. There's a lot of stuff going on, plus there are no guarantees after you get out of the White House whether there's any landing place."

More: "You've got to be talking about an official administration policy. You got to talk about an official this or that. You can't opine. You can't even make predictions unless they've already been cleared in advance" (FNC, 4/20).

CHEAP LINE TRICK DOESN'T WORK

Donald Trump was in the "Situation Room" to talk about events of the day.

On what he would say to Donald Rumsfeld if Rumsfeld worked for him: "I know what you want me, you want me to say 'You're fired.' But I wouldn't necessarily say that."

Although Wolf Blitzer seemed to really want him to say that because he asked Trump repeatedly: "Why wouldn't you fire Donald Rumsfeld, if he worked to you, and helped get you into this mess, as you described it, in Iraq?" And "Let me press you. Would you [fire him]?"

And Trump was also asked about donating to both John McCain and Hillary Clinton: "I'm not hedging my bets. I know both of them, I respect both of them. Hillary Clinton is a fantastic woman who I've known for a long time, and I know her husband very well. And they're, you know, terrific people. And John McCain, I think I was the first person ever to contribute to his campaign when he was running years and years ago. A friend of his asked me to make a contribution, I did. I heard it was the first contribution, political contribution, he ever got" (CNN, 4/20).

AND WE'LL END ON THIS NOTE

Ex-WH adviser David Gergen: "Timing is everything in politics, just as it in is love" ("AC 360," CNN, 4/20). [EMLY GOODIN]