'Scandal' has media digging -- in the wrong place

[Feanorcurufinwe]

By Walter Shapiro

Washington and the reporters who cover it adhere to a curious definition of what constitutes a full-blown scandal.

Dating back long before Watergate, the ingredient usually needed to trigger breathless scandal coverage is that some law, no matter how minor, may have been broken. All that are required are a few key words like ''Justice Department'' and ''investigation'' -- and suddenly the press and the politicians are caught up in a furor of righteous indignation and desperate spin control.

<snip>

Democrats, of course, are reveling in the latest Bush pratfall. About the only Democrat not to call for an independent prosecutor in the case is Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. Presidential contender Joe Lieberman went so far as to advocate a new special-prosecutor law, even though the prior legislation entangled the Clinton administration in an endless web of investigations.

But there is a danger of losing sight of the real scandal amid the search for the administration
leakers. And that is the president's continued inability to explain why we invaded Iraq based on seemingly faulty intelligence and unarguably without a well-developed plan for reconstituting a war-torn nation.
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20031001/5548865s.htm

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I trust that

things are starting to come out

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. I agree with both of you.

He is right in that the real scandal is in plain sight but it is also true that "drip... drip... drip..." has brought them down before.