Just got off of a McCain campaign conference call, during which some reporter (I’ll update with his ID in a minute) started playing “gotcha” with Rudy Giuliani and Randy Scheunemann.

Kids, don’t ever do this. If you want to bust somebody’s chops in print, bust ’em. But on a conference call, or in a press conference, a reporter should never start grandstanding and lecturing or otherwise trying to embarrass his hosts. This is why David Gregory and Helen Thomas are so widely hated.

It’s one thing to ask sharp, tough questions, but this idiot on the conference call went on for about three minutes, being an insufferable hot dog and wasting everyone’s time. A press conference isn’t the comment field at Daily Kos, and it shouldn’t be an opportunity for former class clowns to relive their middle-school years.

UPDATE: Listening to my recording of the call, I can’t make out the reporter’s name — sounded like “Ron Campia” — nor could I make out the name of his organization, but his “question” (actually a lecture) was a 2-minute diversion in which he embarrassed himself.