The physics of unaccountable power

What did he know and when did he know it?
In a metropolis of bureaucracy, in which everything runs on documented communication — lunches, phone calls, memos and now e-mails and even text messaging — the operative question is the one Sen. Howard Baker made famous during Watergate. The Rove disclosures are the first to begin filling in the timeline in the Plame Game — a threat that could unravel others.

It's not campaign season
It’s a paradox that key issues often aren’t fully explored by the Mainstream Media in the midst of a presidential campaign season, which, if you think about it, is when there is the most urgency to do so. Why? Because the MSM doesn’t want to be accused of taking sides, especially when the story they are looking into involves a sitting administration.

I know that this sounds ridiculous to Bushies on the inside of the White House gates — they see enemies out here everywhere on Pennsylvania Avenue — but it’s true. The situation is different now. It’s the second term. Think Clinton and Monica.

Rivalries within the MSM
There is a civil war brewing within the MSM, and the Rove story is exposing it — and is fueled by it. Until now, the rivalry between the Fox and non-Fox worlds has been confined to cable, where Rupert Murdoch’s forces have all but overwhelmed the competition.

But now the broadcast networks are in the game, with some non-FOX reporters openly complaining about the White House’s effort to defend Rove by offering its legal spin to certain preferred reporters and news organizations. By dividing the press corps into Red versus Blue — and talking only to the Red — administration strategists are inviting attacks from one side.

But that might be precisely what they want. After all, they won two national elections that way.

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