by digby
They brought out the expert this morning with this exceptional spin:
“We have this double standard for anonymous sources. The media loves to use anonymous sources for anything and everything that could possibly be derogatory, negative for this president and his administration,” she told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” Monday morning. “And yet, they refuse to give any credibility to such sources when it may be something positive or exculpatory.”
It was just last month that Trump, who has yet to identify the source for his allegation against Obama, accused reporters of inventing sources cited in stories critical of his administration. In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, he condemned the use of anonymous sources and pledged to “do something about it.”
Conway explained the president’s unsourced allegation by telling Fox News that “He is the president of the United States. He has information and intelligence that the rest of us do not [have]. That’s the way it should be for presidents.”
The other double standard imposed upon the president, she said, comes from Democrats, who have been vocal through the opening weeks of the new administration that a special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate reported ties between individuals close to Trump and the Russian government. Those lawmakers, she said, so eager to dig deeper into connections between Trump and the Kremlin, have thus far not been equally vocal in calls to investigate the president’s allegation.
That ties between Trump allies and the Russian government have been steadily reported over weeks and months while there is not yet any proof of the president’s wiretapping accusation did not deter Conway from equating the two.
“The other double standard is investigations. You have Democrats every single day saying ‘investigate, investigate, special prosecutors, investigate,’” she said. “Well then, what are they afraid of here? Let’s investigate this and see where it leads.”
She is laying the groundwork for the Republicans to “investigate” president Obama using a “fairness” argument for which Democrats often fall. They may end up agreeing to run parallel investigations just to quiet the drumbeat if the GOP can make it loud enough. Then they’ll have the foothold to “find” something they can spin into a different scandal and cover up their own. (Think “emails.” )
That’s how this works. It’s the only thing they are competent at doing. It may not work this time because Trump is such a uniquely incompetent boob but they’re going to roll it out hoping they can create a “Benghazi/email” non-scandal out of this. Whether they succeed will entirely depend on whether the Democrats hold fast and the press doesn’t start chasing shiny objects. I would have a lot more confidence that this can’t go anywhere if I hadn’t seen the spectacle of the relief and joy at Trump’s ability to read a teleprompter last week among reporters and pundits alike. They are desperate to prove they are “fair and balanced.” And that’s when things go sideways. Conway knows that better than anyone.
.