Mission Accomplished

July 20, 2005

The strategy wasn’t exactly subtle. Karl Rove’s role in a massive White House scandal was dominating political discussion in Washington and causing real concern with the public. We weren’t supposed to see a Supreme Court nominee until next week, or perhaps even early August, but, as one Republican strategist put it, an earlier announcement “helps take Rove off the front pages for a week.”

So, did it work? Yep.

After substantive articles and coverage of Rove’s scandal in the major dailies in each of the last nine or so days, here’s the rundown from today’s papers:

* Washington Post articles about Rove’s scandal — 0

* New York Times articles about Rove’s scandal — 0

* Los Angeles Times articles about Rove’s scandal — 0

* Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and Boston Globe articles about Rove’s scandal — 0

* USA Today articles about Rove’s scandal — 1

We were getting close to a feeding frenzy there, and the results of that ABC News poll looked to reinforce beliefs that this is a scandal that deserves the attention.

Looks like the sharks have been successfully distracted.

Look, one day’s headlines–even headlines for the rest of the week–on this nominee are no big deal. What BushCo needs is a fight big enough to steal headlines for weeks. I don’t think they got that.

  • Yes, but this distraction seems warranted (at least for today). The news for today is the nomination.

    Now – if, say by Monday, Rove-erotics hasn’t started to make the return; well,then the alarm bells should be rung.

  • I suspect that once Congress leaves on its August hiatus, the media will return to Rove if for no other reason than to have something to do when D.C. shuts down that month. It may be even sooner, too. After all, there is only so much speculation that can be done about a nominee with such a thin track record.

    Besides, I also suspect that Fitzgerald will announce in August that he has wrapped up his investigation and that indictments have been handed down by the grand jury (although the indictments may not be unsealed until a later time). When that happens, all bets are off regarding the resumption — or intensification — of the media feeding frenzy.

  • I don’t understand this whole issue at all. It isn’t like this is a media-driven scandal that is just going to go away if the media is successfully distracted. Once the grand jury wraps up and Fitzgerald makes his announcements (and hopefully indictments) Plame-gate will once again be front page regardless of whether Bush announces last night, next week or the week thereafter. Why let media and media-manipulation be the story rather than concentrating on the actual sto- OH LOOK!! SHARK ATTACKS!!! MISSING WHITE WOMEN!!! GAY MARRIAGE!!!!

  • Did you hear about the beautiful blond Dutch girl, so distraught over her ex-fiancees marriage to her male canadian cousin, who, while on vacation in Hawaii, ignored reports of shark sitings at the beach, went for a quick dip and hasn’t been heard of since. >

  • Not a good analogy, CB–a better pick would be wolves. Sharks attack indiscriminately. Wolves, on the other hand, know what they’re going after.

  • Well, Rove knocked the Duke Cunningham embarrassment off the front page, which displaced the Ohio Coingate scandal, that pulled the public’s eye away from the DeLay affair, that was a distraction from Bush’s dismantling of Social Security, which subsumed the whole budget deficit deal and our growing debts to China, which is a diversion from the whole Iraq war disaster. So many Republican f-ck-ups, so little space on the front page.

  • Peter R,

    Good recounting of the sequence. Everything, of course, knocks the Iraq Quagmire off the front page. This morning on Air America I heard some cost figures for that which make a rather dazzling chart. I had to stretch it as wide as it is in order to get the early, low estimate to even show up.

  • Hopefully only for a day or two, CB. Like Matt and AL said, there’s not much meat on the Roberts bone, and until hearings start there won’t be enough to sustain coverage for very long. Besides, the Rove thing is sexier, and if Fitzgerald wraps this up during the recess, it’s all anyone will be talking about…unless we catch bin Laden (yeah, right), Brad or Jen remarry, or a baby falls down a well.

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