Shut Up, Tim Russert

The other day Michael Chertoff said he was surprised that the levees broke when they did, because they thought that after the levees made it through the initial blast from the hurricane, they would be OK. Tim Russert didn't understand this, though.

MR. RUSSERT: I want to stay on this because this is very important. You said you were surprised by the levee being broken. ... [delete rambling about how everyone knew that the levees could break in a storm like this.]

...

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: No, Tim, I have to tell you, that's not what I said. You have to listen to what I said. What I said was not that we didn't anticipate that there's a possibility the levees will break. What I said is in this storm, what happened is the storm passed and passed without the levees breaking on Monday. Tuesday morning, I opened newspapers and saw headlines that said "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet," which surprised people. What surprised them was that the levee broke overnight and the next day and, in fact, collapsed. That was a surprise.

That seems reasonable to me, but even if it doesn't seem reasonable to you, at least it's obvious that Chertoff is saying what he meant is different from what Russert is saying. Yet later in that same broadcast, Russert asks a scientific expert:

MR. RUSSERT: So when the president and Secretary Chertoff say, "We were surprised that the levees were breached," were you surprised?

When Russert intentionally misrepresents quotes, are YOU surprised?