Not Your Sweetie

DU Post:DrBB (1722 posts) May-11-03, 09:35 PM (ET)
Massive ROVE MISSTEP?
The Abe Lincoln photo op may have been a major misstep, but not for any of the reasons I've read so far.

I'm thinking about the timing and apparent (if still nascent) traction of Graham's 9/11 story. Suddenly Graham is on the pundit shows big time, Karl doesn't seem to have been ready for it, and suddenly the ultimate buzz-provoking words "cover-up" are hitting the mainstream media in regards to 9/11.

Why do I think the Abe Lincoln Photo Op was a misstep in regard to this? Simple. Because--get this--Rove just declared a moratorium on the "criticism of President in Time of War" meme!

Oh yes he did. And he knows it, too. He tried to back pedal, this week, because I think he saw what could happen. "War not over," he said when someone mentioned this at a speech he gave. "Battle of Iraq, not War of Iraq," he admonished, "get that straight." Oh but we DON'T have it straight, Karl, and it's far too late to "correct" that perception. Big world-thumping victory speeches don't come after Battles, Karl, not the way this Iraq thing was hyped, not with Bush flying in and his hard-on showing through the flight suit. Oh far too late to put that genie back in the bottle.

And so Karl getting all cold sweaty and hoping nobody notices. But somebody does. Graham has somebody smart on his staff, or maybe he's a smart man himself. I hope to effing god he is. But any rate, what we got here is an an open door. We got, Go ahead and charge the castle boys cuz they just lowered the bridge and raised the portcullis! and it was Karl's own hand hauling down on the hawser.

Another DUer noticed how many AWOL stories and editorials we're suddenly seeing, some of 'em in some pretty unlikely places. Salt Lake City f'rinstance, not known as an anti-Bush bastion (even if the piece was a little lilly-livered, it's an index of the story's new legs).

We're talking traction potential here, and it's happening not in the befuddled consciousness (if any) of the General Public, but in that much more essential and critical spot, the news room

We got no Iraq to cover just now, say the reporters. Well, what DO we got? say the Editors. Well, we got a little Bush AWOL stuff. Not bad, sez the editor. What else you got, you no-longer-embedded good for nothing slackers? Well, there's this here 9/11 Cover Up story, how's that sound?

Sounds good, sez the editor. Sounds real good.