The CNN/TIME Politics '08 conference kicked off yesterday with Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes saying, "There has never been and never will be a substitute for quality."

TVNewser twittered the first panel, moderated by Campbell Brown, and featuring this line of from Vanity Fair's Graydon Carter that got the biggest laughs (on trying to book Gore Vidal on TV): "They want him to talk about Marilyn Monroe, he wants to talk about James Monroe."

The second panel, moderated by the New York Times' Frank Rich, featured CBS' Jeff Greenfield, journalist/author Peggy Noonan, CNN's Jeffrey Toobin and others. Greenfield brought up the way the journalist-politician trust has changed. He reminisced how Lyndon Johnson once said, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I've lost the country," regarding Vietnam. "Who could you say that about today?" he asked.

Noonan used some descriptive language to talk TV news options. "If you want to take a warm bath in George Bush's greatness, you will go straight to Fox," she said. "If you want to take a cold shower in 'George Bush is the devil,' you will go straight to (Keith) Olbermann."

After the panel, Greenfield grabbed a few of the panelists, including moderator Rich (pictured) for a potential CBS package. We also turned the tables and interviewed Greenfield (after the jump).

Two final notes about the TVNewser twittered final panel, featuring a lively interview between Anderson Cooper and Lewis Black (and the audience). If there is a way to get video of Black's total excoriating of an audience member who blamed big government for the country's problems, we'll search for it. Black later somewhat apologized, and said he only got so worked up because of something that happened earlier in the day. But it did leave Cooper slightly uncomfortable. "This isn't awkward for me at all," joked Cooper.

Also, an audience member asked the CNN anchor if he ever wanted to just scream his opinion about an issue he was covering. "The last thing anyone wants to hear is some overpaid, blow-dried news anchor giving their opinion," Cooper said. "I think there's enough of those already."

Click continued to see TVNewser's interview with Greenfield, who talks about the CBS web cast, his prediction for a potentially-long Election Night '08 and more...