CNN's Spitzer Twice Referred to START Treaty as Being With the Soviet Union

It seems that Eliot Spitzer's mind is still in the 1980s, as he twice stated on Thursday's Parker-Sptizer on CNN that the new START Treaty was with the Soviet Union. Spitzer trumpeted "the all-important START Treaty, that will finally cement a nuclear disarmament agreement with the Soviet Union," and then noted that the treaty would deal with the "nuclear warheads that are pointed by the Soviet Union at us" [audio available here].

The former New York governor and co-host Kathleen Parker led their 8 pm Eastern hour program with the current affairs of the lame-duck Congress. Spitzer highlighted the recent Gallup poll that found that only 13 percent of American approve of the job the legislative body is doing, and bemoaned how "for the past couple of hours, they have been spending your tax dollars in a debate about- and I don't know how else to say this- how they're going to debate."

After Parker replied that the House debate was specifically about extending the current tax rates, her CNN co-host focused his attention on the Senate and made his first gaffe about the START Treaty. Parker must not have caught his error, as she didn't correct him:

[Video embedded below the page break]

SPITZER: I tell you, Kathleen, it is quite a sight. On the Senate floor right now, they're discussing what they need to do for the rest of the night. That's the only way I can think to describe it. We hope that soon, they'll be getting a debate on the all-important START Treaty, that will finally cement a nuclear disarmament agreement with the Soviet Union, and they're also talking about the budget. At least, we hope a vote will happen sometime tonight, late as it may be.

PARKER: But, you know, Eliot, even though this process seems silly to absurd at times-

SPITZER: Right.

PARKER: The content of what's taking place is not silly or absurd, it's serious. There are serious and tough ideological differences about-

SPITZER: Yeah.

PARKER: Important issues that affect the way we live our lives.

SPITZER: Well-

PARKER: Go ahead.

SPITZER: Absolutely- both taxes and the START Treaty....

Two minutes later, Spitzer raised the treaty issue again and made the same mistake. His pseudo-conservative co-host must have been slow on the uptake, as she didn't correct him this time either:

PARKER: This is the first big event where the Tea Party people are pushing- putting- pushing their weight around and- you know, it's actually- I mean, if you're just an observer without a stake-

SPITZER: Right.

PARKER: It's rather amusing to watch them sort this thing out-

SPITZER: Well, of course-

PARKER: But destructive, ultimately, if they don't figure it out.

SPITZER: But we all have a stake in this because what it is at stake is the START Treaty. We haven't talked about that. This critically important treaty to limit the number of nuclear weapons- nuclear warheads that are pointed by the Soviet Union at us, and us back to them-

PARKER: Sure, sure, sure- well, that's obvious-

SPITZER: No, but also, let us not lose sight of the fact that this is the first step in the presidential campaign in '12, and on the Republican side, a lot of the folks are positioning themselves on earmarks, on the deficit-

PARKER: Oh, yeah- oh yeah, yeah, yeah- this is-

SPITZER: And so, this is-

PARKER: This is trying to out-conservative each other and- you know, they were against the earmarks before they were for them. (laughs)

SPITZER: That's right.

If Sarah Palin had made these gaffes, you know it would have been the highlight of the day for the mainstream media.