Sunday shows: Beck and Katrina

Signs the economic recovery is softening continued to emerge this
week, including a dismal report on the housing market, but the weekend’s
focus will turn to events commemorating two very distinct anniversaries.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Fox News host Glenn Beck will
headline a Tea Party rally Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial, 47 years after Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech there,
while President Obama will be in New Orleans on Sunday to mark the fifth
anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

{mosads}Restore Honor Rally organizer and Fox News host Glenn
Beck will be featured the morning after his event on “Fox News Sunday,” where he’s expected
to discuss speeches by himself and
Sarah Palin, among others. Beck has said he expects 100,000 Tea Party advocates to show up to the rally.

NBC’s
“Meet the Press” will tackle Katrina head-on with a lineup featuring Sen.
Mary Landrieu (D-La.), New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and actors
Brad Pitt and Wendell Pierce of HBO’s “Treme.” Also appearing will be
Professor Douglas Brinkley of Rice University, author of “The Great Deluge:
Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.” The
panel will discuss not only the aftermath of Katrina but also how the
Gulf Coast has been impacted by the recent BP oil spill.

ABC’s
“This Week” will focus on schools after the Department of Education
announced the winners of the second phase of the “Race to the Top”
grant program. Each of the 10 winning states (including the District
of Columbia) will receive a portion of more than $3.4 billion set aside
for grants to encourage states that have shown creativity and
innovation while improving their school systems. Guests include
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, American Federation of Teachers
president Randi Weingarten, D.C. public schools chancellor Michelle
Rhee and celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.

Florida
Senate candidates Kendrick Meek and Charlie Crist will appear on CNN’s
“State of the Union” without their Republican counterpart Marco Rubio,
who delivered this week’s GOP address. The three are locked in a tight
race for Florida’s vacant Senate seat; Crist dropped out of the
Republican primary earlier this year once Rubio established himself as
the clear favorite. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan will also be
interviewed.

Meek will be pulling double duty by
appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with Alaska Republican Senate
candidate Joe Miller, who this week appeared to have narrowly edged
incumbent Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary. The results remain in
doubt as electoral officials tally the remaining votes. Mississippi
Governor Haley Barbour, chairman of the Republican Governors
Association and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), vice chairwoman
of the Democratic National Committee, will also appear.