Slime And Defend

The White House encouraged Republicans to portray the former diplomat at the center of the case, Joseph C. Wilson IV, as a partisan Democrat with an agenda and the Democratic Party as scandalmongering. At the same time, the administration and the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill worked to ensure that no Republicans in Congress break ranks and call for an independent inquiry outside the direct control of the Justice Department.

“It’s slime and defend,” said one Republican aide on Capitol Hill, describing the White House’s effort to raise questions about Mr. Wilson’s motivations and its simultaneous effort to shore up support in the Republican ranks.

“So far so good,” the aide said. “There’s nervousness on the part of the party leadership, but no defections in the sense of calling for an independent counsel.”

[…]

With initial polling suggesting that voters are concerned about the accusations and the Democratic presidential candidates trying to make the matter an issue, the White House and its allies worked to shape public perceptions. In particular, they raised questions about the motivations of Mr. Wilson.

In a memorandum distributed Wednesday to Republicans on Capitol Hill, the Republican National Committee suggested that the party strike back at Democrats.

“Lacking a positive issue agenda to offer the American people, the Democratic Party now returns to what they have long seen as their best opportunity to defeat President Bush and Republicans — scandalmongering,” the memo said.

House Republicans distributed white paper bags with the label “Leak hyperventilation bag,” saying they might come in handy for Democrats who were having trouble catching their breath over the subject.

Well, you can’t exactly say they are being devious or Machiavellian, can you? After all, they are openly telling the NY Times about their stonewall and smear strategy and they don’t seem to feel the slightest need to pay lip service to the old fashioned concepts of adhering to the rule of law or statesmanlike conduct. They used to at least pretend to give a damn about having an image of sobriety and responsibility. This stuff is something you’d expect from a College Republican Freshman strategy seminar.

It is actually quite a dizzying admission of the corruption and impending mass mental breakdown of the Republican Party.

This line of defense is so lame that it tells me that Rove must be involved in the scandal and has completely lost his touch because of it. And, it points out that Republicans don’t know how to play defense (which is not surprising since they haven’t had to in many years.)

They can’t put this genie back in the bottle by pretending that the Democrats have morphed into Newt Gingrich and they are now the beleagered and victimized Clinton administration. (What are these people smoking?) And Joe Wilson could be Teddy Kennedy’s long lost twin and it wouldn’t make it any more ethical or legal to blow his wife’s CIA cover. It’s absurd on it’s face.

But it’s also completely misreading what’s driving the story. Don’t they get that the media itself is one of the stars of this little narrative and therefore they have an unusually clear view of the facts in this case? Obviously, they are all dying to know not just who leaked, but who got leaked to.

This is one time the media starlets are not going to be baby birds and sit in their nests waiting for the masticated RNC faxfacts to be dropped into their willing little beaks. In their minds this one is about something very, very important.

It’s about them.