Do you have to be crazy to criticize Bush?

Fox's Chris Wallace says his father has "lost it."

Published December 12, 2005 4:49PM (EST)

Say what you will about NBC's Tim Russert, the man has the whole "honor thy father" bit down cold. Fox's Chris Wallace? Not so much.

As we noted last week, Wallace's father, legendary "60 Minutes" reporter Mike Wallace, was asked in a recent interview what question he'd put to George W. Bush if he were given the chance. Wallace's response: "What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military ... The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have ... Why do you think they nominated you? ... Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?"

Now, from Newsmax via AMERICAblog, Chris Wallace is weighing on his father's words. "He's lost it, the man has lost it," Wallace said of his father in an interview with Boston radio station WRKO. He didn't stop there. He noted that his father is 87, that "things have set in" and that the family is planning to have a "competency hearing" for the senior Wallace soon. The son said that he doesn't know why his father said what he said, except for the fact that he has "problems with the war."

Having "problems with the war" makes Mike Wallace a lot like a majority of Americans, but apparently not in his son's eyes. "He's checked out," he said. "I don't understand it."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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