THIS WEEK ON THE SUNDAY CHAT SHOWS

Needless to say, the Middle East crisis and the prospects for a cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah will continue to be the main focus again this week on all the network shows.

ABC / This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns will discuss the status of diplomatic efforts to end the violence. Also, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Daniel Ayalon will talk about the current battle against the terrorist organization. And the roundtable will include Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria, Time's Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Jay Carney, his wife Claire Shipman of ABC News, and conservative columnist George Will (does he live there or something?)

CBS / Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer: Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and Israeli Deputy PM Shimon Peres will discuss the current situation between Israel and Hezbollah.

CNN / Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer: This week's programme will be live from Jerusalem. No guest lineup has been presented as of early Saturday morning. I'm sure Blitzer isn't going to fill 60 minutes on the fly or with prerecorded packages, so look at least for plenty of back-and-forth with CNN's correspondents throughout the region. Please check back later for a guest list.

FOX / Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns appears here, too. And Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, will discuss efforts to end the escalating violence in Baghdad as more U.S. troops are being assigned to the Iraqi capital city from other assignments across the country.

NBC / Meet the Press with Tim Russert: Tim will begin by checking in with NBC's correspondents around the Middle East and beyond reporting on the crisis. Then, two key diplomats --- Israeli's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman and Lebanese Special Envoy Nouhad Mahmoud --- will appear. And New York Times columnist and Middle East expert Tom Friedman will share his views, having just returned from the region.

Syndicated / The Chris Matthews Show: The new threat from Hezbollah and the Democrats' new 2008 primary calendar's effort on a possible presidential campaign by U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D - NY) will be bantered about by Chris and his panel: Newsweek's Howard Fineman, Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News, Time magazine writer Andrew Sullivan, and Gloria Borger of CBS News.

Bay News 9 / Political Connections: Republican U.S. Senate Candidates Will McBride of Orlando and Peter Monroe of Safety Harbor will be the guests.

One other note of interest here: In two weeks (August 13) at 11:30 AM, Bay News 9 is promoting what it calls the Florida Senate District 10 Great Debate. It actually will be recorded August 10 at 6:00 PM at the Riverview High School auditorium. Political Connections co-hosts Al Ruechel and Adam C. Smith will moderate the debate which will feature lone Democrat Stephen Gorham and Republicans Sandra Murman and Ray Young. GOP candidate and Hillsborough County Commissioner Ronda Storms is choosing not to attend (I wonder why...). They are soliciting questions from the public for the debate. You can send your ideas on what to ask to District10Debate@tampabay.com or by snail mail to:

St. Petersburg Times
District 10 Debate
426 West Brandon Boulevard
Brandon, Florida 33511