The reason the MSM is mostly silent is because they figure if the story is ignored for three or four days, it will go away.

“The End.”

Then on the fourth day…”Once upon a time, Bush lied….”

Not any more. It doesn’t matter how many Pulitzers the New York Times has.

Knucklehead -

I agree in spades. Bush is accused of every dereliction from deconstructing the constitution to seeking the resumption of lynching to removing Hussein because he wanted to avenge his dad.

I don’t think he’s used the FBI as a weapon to fire employees. Or employed an intern as a mood leveller when discussing combat deployment of U.S. troops with a senior member of congress. Or consulted Karl Rove to decide whether or not telling the truth in a criminal investigation was the right thing to do.

Those are some big stories…but they aren’t if one set is expunged from public view. That was the crux of my 10:43 post on the “… Worse Than You Think” thread. And I still maintain that the Old Way of media dictating what is news is no longer valid.

I also share your reluctance to hang a conspiracy label on too many of the relationships between the literally thousands of diplomatic and business interests that interact in D.C., or anyplace where different nations do business. Not all of them are driven by nefarious agendas – very few of them, actually. It makes sense to do what you can to improve your relationships with your counterparts. The rub is where lines are clearly crossed; I remember the rumbles in the eighties when our State and Commerce functionairies would sign off on some trade agreement and shortly thereafter show up on the payroll of the very nation or industry that they had been in charge of negotiating with. Congress critters and cabinet folks, too.

I think that retaining Tenet was a prime example of deciding that the need for continuity overruled hasty action. The mere existence of creatures like Plame and Wilson as entrenched careerists in State and CIA is a dead-bang case that systemic failure is endemic to those organizations. Better to retain Tenet and engage him AND his subordinates over time to get a better feel for how deep to cut later instead of SOP headrolling that would only motivate the remaining beuaracracy to contract into CYA mode.

We’ve got a war to fight. Bush & Co. made the right call on Tenet. I do look forward to some serious reorganization of agencies after the election. I just hope they go for lean and mean vice foisting another Homeland Security monster onto the pile.