Last week, Harry Reid, of all people, managed to force the issue of the way the Bully Boy and his administration manipulated intelligence. With Ted Koppel and others in the media dismissing the importance of the indictment of Scooter Libby, it fell to the least likely to underscore the connection between the outing of Valerie Plame and the invasion of Iraq. Fortunately, Harry Reid proved up to the task.
The Republican response? Kitty killer Bill Frist, currently under investigation for possible insider trader, just can't trust Harry Reid anymore! Rick Santorum is shocked that politics would be played in the halls of Congress. (What? He was hoping for a round of slap and tickle instead?) And the Republicans screamed "Partisan!" while the media followed suit.
Who's playing partisan? We doubt Harry Reid's motives are selfless but is asking for a needed investigation partisan or is the refusal to conduct one against the oval office holder from your same party?
While the GOP plays footsie with Bully Boy and nudges and winks, Michael Smith reports in The Sunday Times of London that "MPs unite for inquiry into Blair’s conduct over Iraq." Considering that the supposed "clean" charter election narrative is already coming undone, see Gareth Porter's "Witnesses Describe Ballot Fraud in Nineveh" (IPS), that October saw the deaths of 96 American troops in Iraq and that on this sixth day of November the fatality toll is already 17, the GOP's continued reluctance to ask any serious questions about the continued occupation grows more and more pathetic.
Bully Boy had what Time described as "a week from hell" two weeks ago. Seems like he's still having it. His poll numbers continue to drop, support for the war continues to decline and he got punked in Mar del Plata with Hugo Chavez standing in for Ashton Kutchner.
It's not been good times for the Bully Boy. And how has the press reacted to this? With serious investigations and hard questions? No, they offer advice on how Bully Boy can turn it around. The tide has turned, as Mick Jagger once sang, but the mainstream press can't figure that out.
David Gregory makes excuses for Scotty McClellan and vouches for his character on national TV. Does the working press not get that it's not their role their vouch for the "goodness" but to explore stories?
The people have caught on and at a time when even Harry Reid can sense the change, it's rather shocking to see that the mainstream press still hasn't as they continue to pimp their "everyone thought Iraq had WMD" lies and their false claim that "we were all wrong."
As disgusting as it is to watch the GOP play footsie with the Bully Boy and try to clamp down on any truths regarding how we ended up in Iraq, it's more distressing that the mainstream media does the same. We weren't surprised to see the GOP responding to Reid in a partisan manner; however, we were bothered to see the supposedly "objective" press follow the Republicans lead.