Missed it by That Much

This morning's predictable news renders goofy this post-Fitzgerald White House spin strategy, as reported by the L.A. Times:

White House officials and allies are hoping that intensive news coverage of the Fitzgerald investigation will be short-lived. On Nov. 7, they predicted, attention would shift to the Senate confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Harriet E. Miers.

"Let's say something happens in the next 48 hours," said one official. "It will dominate the news cycle until the 7th of November. Then a new cycle begins: Harriet will be the news."

Comments

[Matt]

The spinners got spun.

[Hakluyt]

Nominating someone new will tweek the news cycle (at least for a little while).

[theCoach]

Can Bush nominate someone without taking questions from a pool of reporters?

[Jeff P.]

Somebody photoshop a shot of the Bush twins hangin' with the Prussian Blue girls, that'll get some outrage brewin'.

[JustinSane]

Fitxgerald who? The guy that just rented more office space in DC [Drum] to coincide with his wrapped up investigation?

All I've been hearing about today on the news channel is this Miers chick. I think maybe she was the one that dumped her kids in the SF Bay.

[brucem]

Bush's pardoning of Rove and Libby will dominate the news cycle for the foreseeable future, once it happens in a week or two.

[panurge]

Really, I feel bad for Sandra Day O'Connor. She wanted to quit so she could spend her remaining years in peace and tend to her ailing husband, and now she will probably have to serve another full term on the court.

[guy in the back row]

Can't they just keep O'Connor alive indefinately, like they were doing with that Sciavo chick?

[independent worm]

So the question is: what's going to make a better move?

(1) Another innocuous Roberts-type to try and create some kind of positive momentum?

(2) Or a polarizing maniac like Luttig (or Roy Moore!) who will simulateously (a) win the backing of the so-called Bush "base", while (b) infuriating the left so insanely as to create a massive media circus in the hopes of drowning out Plamegate?

I'm thinking it'll be somebody from Group 2.

[Murphy]

No is asking the question, are Rove and Libby guilty? And did Bush and Cheney know? If so, this administration starts to rank up there with Nixon. Lets see, Clinton lied about sex. Who really cares? That is a family matter. This administration lied to get us to war, then did whatever it took to quash any dissenting voices including outing CIA agents. Ignore the spin. That should be the message. Good reporting (assuming any is left at the major news outlets) would push past the Democrats and Republicans spin to get to the heart of the matter.

But I guess I live in a different world.

[Al]

Murphy- you certainly do.

[keith]

Maybe Bush should visit China to bolster his image, a la Nixon. Or North Korea. I'd like to see him attend one of Kim Jung-il's military rock operas.

[joe]

Disgraced Nixon hatchetman Robert Bork was on CNN. Man is he bitter.

[peachy]

Does anyone else have the feeling that Fitzgerald is only waiting until Friday to screw with the White House? He's probably had his indictments ready for weeks...

[drf]

joe - c'mon. Bork looks like a hairy dingleberry covered turd with halitosis. you betcha he's bitter. probably a bit nutty, too.... 🙂

peachy - that'd be keen of him. actually sounds like the tactics used by my boss: play mon-thu, have firedrill on fri, work all weekend. oh yeah. tuna town.

[Adam]

So I guess we never get an explanation of what's up with her, the Prez, and public scatology? That's good. As much as I sympathize with the complaints about Bush's secrecy habit that pop up here from time to time, some things I'd really rather not know.