Donna Brazile Still On CNN
January 25, 2008 -- 10:14 AM EST // //

As I reported here yesterday, CNN has barred Hillary supporters James Carville, Paul Begala and Robert Zimmerman from offering any more political analysis on the network until the Dem primary is resolved. CNN's political director told me that this applied to all commentators "aligned" with any campaign.

This prompted a number of you to write in and ask why it is that Donna Brazile is still on the network, given her positive commentary about Barack Obama and her criticism of the Clintons on race. It's a fair question.

Brazile, for instance, recently hit Bill as follows:

"For him to go after Obama using 'fairy tale', calling him a kid, is an insult," she said. "As an African-American, I find his words and his tone very depressing."

But in fairness, Brazile did subsequently walk back her criticism:

"Obama represents reconciliation, while Hillary represents equal rights, civil rights and human rights for all," Brazile said. "You have a champion who's been on the front line and you have someone like Obama who has successfully navigated American politics without using race as an issue."

"I am calling on them both to let the moment pass," she said. "Instead of attacking each other, let's attack the problems we face as Americans, like poverty and the 47 million Americans without health care."

Brazile is not openly affiliated with any campaign. And I have to say that it's understandable that the network would ban commentators who are openly aligned with a candidate but would simultaneously keep people -- like Brazile -- whose rhetoric perhaps tilts in one direction but who aren't affiliated with a campaign. After all, if the network were to get rid of anyone who ever said anything positive about one campaign or negative about another, the result would be some pretty boring TV.

So I'm not seeing that there's any issue here with CNN keeping Brazile, though I'm happy to be persuaded otherwise.

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