Who's to blame for the economic mess? Not CNBC, says CNBC anchor Erin Burnett! "Everyone in this country knew there was a housing bubble," she told Bill Maher last night. Is she the new Santelli?

CNBC pulled reporter Rick Santelli, infamous for a blame-ordinary-Americans rant, from Jon Stewart's Daily Show, saying the network had "moved on" to the next story. Burnett's appearance, though, was clearly a damage-control effort. And it may well have succeeded: Burnett is so much more watchable, viewers may not notice that she's saying the exact same noisome things Santelli said, in more palatable form.

"It wasn't just Wall Street, it was everybody," Burnett went on to say, insisting that we shouldn't "soak" the rich with higher taxes. Why? Because they'd already taken such a hit from Wall Street's meltdown.

"If you're looking to TV commentators to solve our problems, you're looking in the wrong place," says Obama-esque Newark mayor Cory Booker. He's got that much right.