'Rasputin' Axelrod Razzed on NPR Quiz Show

Obama adviser David Axelrod took the bait and appeared for a taping last night of NPR’s quiz show, Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me!—with by turns earnest and hilarious results, Politico reports. When host Peter Sagal asked if he’d been in on the presidential pooch decision, Axelrod demurred. “I was only called in for the final three, and one was Miss California,” he said.

Axelrod, tasked with answering questions about failed utopias, got some political points in, criticizing his analogue Karl Rove for “trying to run the Republican Party out of the White House” and saying the Obama presidency “was meant to be.” “He suffered for our sake,” responded Sagal, who jokingly referred to Axelrod throughout as the “Rasputin in this kingdom.” Axelrod played down his political influence, saying it consists of “passing a note to the person on the left.” (More NPR stories.)