No wonder they call him Fast Eddie

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Image Pennsylvania’s back-slapping, gaffe-prone governor, Ed Rendell, was the guest of honor on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me this past Saturday. The first episode of NPR’s always-funny quiz show since the Eliot Spitzer story broke, it was as entertaining as you might expect. Host Peter Sagal glossed an earlier Rendell comment on Spitzer’s ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
595943_080317_rendell2.jpg
595943_080317_rendell2.jpg
WASHINGTON - FEBRUARY 25: US President George W. Bush poses with Governor Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) (Left of Bush), Governor Ed Rendell (D-PA) (Right of Bush) and other members of the National Governors Association in the North Portico of the White House February 25, 2008 in Washington, DC. The association of the nation's governors is in DC to hold its annual meetings and celebrate its 100th anniversary. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images)

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Image

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Image

Pennsylvania’s back-slapping, gaffe-prone governor, Ed Rendell, was the guest of honor on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me this past Saturday. The first episode of NPR’s always-funny quiz show since the Eliot Spitzer story broke, it was as entertaining as you might expect.

Host Peter Sagal glossed an earlier Rendell comment on Spitzer’s fall from grace as, “Out of the 50 governors [likely to be caught frequenting prostitutes], he’d be fiftieth” — referring to Spitzer’s well-known penchant for sanctimony. Rendell noted that there are actually 10 women governors, so Spitzer would actually have to be fortieth. Sagal then asked Rendell, “Where would you put yourself on the list?”

“In terms of the style of the person, I’d put myself in the middle of the pack,” the Pennsylvania governor responded. Good to know.

The rest of the segment, in which Rendell weighs the merits of such Madonna film classics as Shanghai Surprise, is pretty funny too.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

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