"Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer"

Bob Schieffer has been a fixture for decades as the chief Washington correspondent for CBS and host of "Face the Nation" on Sunday mornings, and his profile rose recently when CBS tapped him to fill in for the retiring Dan Rather. I jumped at my friend Betsy’s invitation to join her to watch "Face the Nation" live and meet Schieffer yesterday in Washington D.C.

There’s no studio audience, but the show permits occasional guests to observe from chairs in the back of the busy control room. (Betsy won this opportunity thanks to the Duke alumni club in Washington). With the exception of an introduction taped about an hour before the 10:30 a.m. show, every bit of it was live, including the closing credits, meaning there’s a cacophony of people yelling into microphones and earpieces to keep things on schedule during the show.

The guests were U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, who oversees the committee conducting the baseball steroid hearings; Rob Manfred, Major League’s exec VP for labor relations (talking via live shot from elsewhere); and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the joint chiefs, to talk about the second anniversary of the Iraq war.

A noteworthy aspect of the baseball discussion: Davis revealed undercover investigations are being conducted within baseball, which was news to Manfred and likely displeased whichever agency is conducting the investigations. With Myers, we were struck by how he looks much more imposing on TV than he does in person.

Schieffer himself came over for a nice little chitchat before the show – not too long, and I didn’t get a chance to ask how the weekly New York-D.C. commuting is treating him. He looks younger in person than he does on TV. Upon finding I was from Charlotte, he said he’s visited the city frequently and likes it. His take: "It’s Atlanta, 30 years ago."