Chris Wallace is rocketing to the front of the hack pack in television journalism. His bias and arrogance is thrusting him to new heights of disrepute.

The latest embarrassment occurred during an interview with President Bush for Fox News Sunday. In an exchange revolving around the Bush administration’s use of torture and wiretapping, Wallace sought to capsulize the question for the President.

WALLACE: …are you ever puzzled by all of the concern in this country about protecting [the] rights of people who want to kill us?

I don’t know when I’ve ever heard a more obsequious inquiry from a supposedly professional reporter. The question is swathed in a fawning concern for whether the poor, put upon President is puzzled by treasonous civil libertarians in league with the enemy.

For the record, Chris, we’re not concerned about “protecting the rights of people who want to kill us.” We’re concerned about protecting the rights of Americans and the innocent who are harmed by the administration’s over-reaching. We’re concerned about preserving the Constitution.

You know that you’ve sunk to pitiful depths when the stupendously idiotic premise of your question is rephrased more fairly by no less a fabulist than George W. Bush:

BUSH: That is an interesting way to put it. I wouldn’t necessarily define some of the critics of my policy that way. I would say that they want to be very careful that we don’t overstep our bounds from protecting the civil liberties of Americans.

This concept is so simple that even George, the C-minus Yalie washout, is able to articulate it. But Wallace doesn’t exhibit the slightest awareness that his query is the sort of premium grade suck-up that demeans his profession. This is the same third-rate miscreant who sought to persuade Democrats to participate in Fox-sponsored debates by calling them “damned fools.”

His father must be so ashamed.