The TV Zone

Old friends no more?

I love Dave Letterman - been great material for me for, like, decades. But now he's going off on this McCain feud every night, night after night after night (or at least Thursday night, too) ... and I'm wondering: Why? Or, would he rant and rave like this is Barack O did the same thing (and held an interview with Katie when he said he was actually gonna get the first flight outta town to save the world?)

And I'm thinking: No. He probably wouldn't, even though Dave is a self-styled equal-opportunity offender, who probably dumped more jokes on Bill Clinton ("...fat pantload"...) over more years than any politician ever got or deserved to get. (And did I mention Hill?) Letterman, like "SNL," doesn't seem to have a clue how to make fun of Obama, so McCain - only a slightly easier target - gave him the perfect opportunity the other night.

In any event, he goes after McCain again on Thursday's show, pretending - and it is all pretense - that the prez candidate did him wrong, and lied and weaseled his way out of Wednesday's interview (ironic, because McCain told Katie Couric in those "questions" segments with both candidates that aired the other night that he could think of NO reason to lie as president). Anyway, Dave's acting like he's the only one a politician ever lied to. Earth to Mister David Michael Letterman of Indianapolis, Ind.: That's what politicians do. It's encoded in their DNA. They can't help themselves.

Dave has every right to be annoyed - but this is all starting to smell like he's got another Oprah feud going; there's a ratings opportunity here, a vein of material to be mined, and he's not gonna miss his chance, now that "Nightline" is beating him far too often.

Here's the game Dave's playing: He gets all this press on the "feud," and then milks it and milks it and milks it ... Then, next week, he asks McCain to come on the show ... McCain agrees ... and the cover of the Post, the News and maybe even below-the-fold NYT devote splashes to the score.

Dave gets huge ratings for the show. McCain gets huge publicity.

So I'm thinking: Dave is actually a closet McCain supporter after all.

If you click on this link right now you can see do his "Don't-vote-for-this-fraud" routine in living color...

(Photo: John Paul Filo/CBS, via Reuters)