SHOCKED

Jayson Blair seemed shocked and unprepared to deal with hardball questions on MSNBC's Hardball earlier today.

Hm.

Nobody ever said the guy was a genius. O wait! They did!

To make matters even zanier.... The guy who once pretended to be a journalist is now pretending to be a superhero.

Not enough pain for you?

In his book, Blair blames his problem on "drug and alcohol addiction, undiagnosed manic-depressive disorder and the pressure of being a young, black reporter at a large, competitive newspaper." On Hardball, he said he was at home sick when he was first lured into fabricating stories. If he would mention the depravity of man he'd have a straight flush.

Blair ducked and weaved through the interview attributing all he could on the "old" Jayson Blair, even looking like he had never thought about how he had shown a total lack of respect for the NYT readership.

The moment of the Hardball interview when he shook Chris Matthews hand and said with a smile, "Thanks for having me here," made me physically nauseous.

If the New York Times has done one thing right, ever, it's currently refusing to acknowledge that Blair exists as a media figure.

Update! Bookslut caught a tidbit on Slate with another Blair excuse "He was do-gooding. He had visited a man in prison, taught at an inner-city school, and visited his girlfriend's childhood weekend home in Morris, N.Y. Also, he was tired."