Axelrod On Wait Wait

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Mr. Axelrod – or, as host Peter Sagal called him, “the moustache behind the throne” – was on to play “Not My Job,” in which notable people face pop quizzes about subjects they are totally unfamiliar with. (In Mr. Axelrod’s case, that meant failed historical Utopian movements – or, as the show dubbed it, “No, We Can’t.”)

But before that, Mr. Axelrod played a different kind of mental gymnastics, displaying a barbed wit while both answering and deflecting questions from Mr. Sagal and the Chicago-based show’s panel – the comics Mo Rocca and Paula Poundstone and The Washington Post’s Roxanne Roberts.

At times, the “Rasputin in this magic kingdom,” as Mr. Sagal also labeled him, was dismissive of his predecessors in the White House, such as when he was asked about comparisons to Karl Rove, a chief adviser to former President George W. Bush.

“I always reject that,” Mr. Axelrod said. “I would like to think we’re better than that.”

And when discussion turned to the more liberal dress code of the Obama West Wing, a tieless Mr. Axelrod brushed off criticism from members of the previous administration, saying the country “saw how things went” under those more buttoned-up wardrobes. Read more at NYT