Anatomy of a Bush Scandal

If you missed Salon's Daou Report, published on Dec. 20, 2005, here's your scrivener's condensed version:

The Dynamic of a Bush Scandal:
How the Spying Story Will Unfold (and Fade)

Peter Daou
December 20, 2005

1. POTUS circumvents the law.

2. The story breaks.

3. The Bush crew floats a number of pushback strategies and shred poorly prepped Dem surrogates on cable news shows.

4. Rightwing attack dogs maul Bush's critics as traitors.

5. The Republican leadership plays defense for Bush, and John McCain minimizes the scandal.

6. Left-leaning bloggers and online activists go ballistic; several newspaper editorials echo these sentiments but quickly move on to other issues.

7. A few reliable Dems, Conyers, Boxer, et al, take a stand on principle, but Bush uses his three favorite weapons: time, America's political apathy, and make-believe 'journalists' who yuck it up with him and ask fluff questions at his frat-boy pressers.

8. Reporters and media outlets obfuscate and equivocate: "Bush firm, Dems soft."

9. Polls will emerge with 'proof' that half the public agrees that Bush should have the right to "protect Americans against terrorists."

10. The story starts blending into a long string of administration scandals; Bush weathers the storm and moves on.

Rinse and repeat.

It's a battle of attrition that Bush and his team have mastered.

Read the entire piece for Daou's astute observations and analysis of the BushCo attack machine.


File this under: Too many BushCo scandals for any single one of them to stand out, damn it!