On The Blitzer Identity, Wolf Blitzer told us today that he likes his orange juice “freshly squeezed.” Fair enough. But then he followed that announcement with a segment in which he gravely reported that John Roberts, according to today’s widely panned Washington Post article, wrote in a memo during the ’80s that:

Some might question whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good.

Blitzer then threw the quote to Dem strategist Donna Brazile and GOP strategist Rich Galen to squabble over. Like the Post, Blitzer failed to report the context of the quote — namely that it was a joking aside at the end of an inconsequential memo, according to memo recipient Linda Chavez herself.

Unfortunately, instead correcting Blitzer and telling CNN’s viewers that Roberts was making a lawyer joke, Rich Galen tried to argue that John Roberts was correct on the merits. That’s an argument for another time and place. Galen should have simply noted that Roberts was clearly not being serious.

This all makes me wonder what the next Roberts-related scoop will be:

It’s 5:30 in New York, 2:30 in the West, and you’re in the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. [dramatic music, whirring images]
Today, I’ll be discussing with Jack Cafferty why I prefer buttered popcorn over plain.
But first, the Washington Post is reporting that John Roberts wrote a memo to his superiors in the Reagan administration that has Democrats up in arms. Discussing the nuclear arms race, Roberts wrote that Democrats’ proposals for a “freeze” on proliferation were unlikely to succeed. “These are the same people that can’t make ice cubes,” Roberts wrote, “because they always forget the recipe.”
Senate Democrats Ted Kennedy and Patrick Leahy released a joint statement today that “this only proves that Roberts knew the recipe but refused to share it.” Joining us to discuss this growing controversy are two experts in this field, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield…