Is Tim Russert a real Irishman?

We've long wondered what it would take to scare America's Pundit, Tim Russert, out of his utter obsequiousness towards the Establishment. As have others. Since Tim likes to play up his Irish heritage as part of his regular guy persona, we previously had mistakenly thought that the neocons having latched on to internment might jolt him.

Now comes an opportunity, via the Irish Times, where Dubya's fiscal insanity -- tiny budget cuts offered in the face of trillions of dollars of new borrowing -- collide with Russert's sentimentality:

No allocation has been made to the International Fund for Ireland in US President George Bush's proposed budget, although a spokesman for the Irish embassy in Washington said the Government was confident that an allocation would be made when the budget came before Congress for approval.

So Tim, can you look your Irish cousins in the eye this summer if you haven't given someone in the Administration a good grilling about this lapse over the next few weeks on Meet the Press?