TWICE HUMBLED

May 4, 2006 -- IF Anderson Cooper isn't just a little embarrassed, he should be. Sure, he made the cover of Vanity Fair - but inside is a creepy photo of the CNN dandy in a mama's-boy pose with real-life mother Gloria Vanderbilt that has media types snickering. Worse, Cooper was sucker-punched with his April ratings that had his prime-time show down about 36 percent with younger viewers he's supposed to attract. Aaron Brown, whom Cooper ousted, was actually doing better this time last year.

Why do people always act so surpised when liberals fail? I'm only surprised when they succeed. Before the media forced me to, I had never heard of Anderson Cooper, other than a glowing story Maureen Dowd wrote about how she wanted to do him. I've still never seen his show. I've seen Seth Meyers play Cooper on Saturday Night Live, but that's as close as I've come. Face the facts. This is America. We're all too busy watching American Idol.