A Fair and Balanced Judgment

The Nation reports the following question was asked of potential jurors in the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby:

"Would any of you have any difficulty fairly judging the believability of former or present members of the Bush Administration?"

While I know that I would have been immediately ejected from the jury selection, I believe that I am a fair, balanced, and -- more importantly -- accurate judge of this Administration's believability. Though I do realize that some still haven't acquainted themselves with the White House Spin Machine.

But, fortunately for all of us who prize a functioning democracy, fueled by an informed electorate, we got a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the Bush/Cheney disinformation operation from a first-hand insider testifying at Libby's trial:

A smorgasbord of Washington insider details has emerged during the perjury trial of the vice president's former chief of staff.

For example, when Dick Cheney really needed friends in the news media, his staff was short of phone numbers.

No one served up spicier morsels than Cheney's former top press assistant. Cathie Martin described the craft of media manipulation - under oath and in blunter terms than politicians like to hear in public.

The uses of leaks and exclusives. When to let one's name be used and when to hide in anonymity. Which news medium was seen as more susceptible to control and what timing was most propitious. All candidly described. Even the rating of certain journalists as friends to favor and critics to shun - a faint echo of the enemies list drawn up in Richard Nixon's White House more than 30 years ago.

[Thanks to AMERICABlog for the tip]

The level of intrigue and obsession with Joe Wilson on the part of Cheney's office is neither unexpected from Cheney nor necessarily surprising for politics in general - but that political gamesmanship and 'dirty tricks' exists in Washington isn't the point. Rather (once again!), it's the level to which this Administration obsesses over its enemies and suppresses and attacks any source of information that disagrees with its own. Take, for merely one example among many (e.g. 'stove-piped' Iraq intelligence), this report on the Administration's efforts to control what government scientists are saying about global climate change:

Federal scientists have been pressured to play down global warming, advocacy groups testified Tuesday at the Democrats' first investigative hearing since taking control of Congress.

The hearing focused on allegations that the White House for years has micromanaged the government's climate programs and has closely controlled what scientists have been allowed to tell the public.

"It appears there may have been an orchestrated campaign to mislead the public about climate change," said Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif.

You can read the press release and full report from the Union of Concerned Scientists here.

Such actions are anti-democratic and (despite personal hyperbolic risk) are profoundly un-American.

--Actions which, in themselves, are rather believable about former or present members of the Bush Administration, even if the members themselves lack any semblance of personal credibility.

Case closed.