Fineman: When White House spin, spins out of control (Indictments coming?)

[sabra]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9751606/

When White House spin, spins out of control
Lessons from the special prosecutor's office

That will be the lesson if Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald indicts anyone in the Valerie Plame leak case. Poetic justice is a concept as old as drama, but it applies time and again in the theater of presidential politics. Traits and tactics that lead to power lead to overreach, and ruin. In our day, justice is administered (and balance restored) by law, not by gods. Still, the idea is the same.

You don’t have to reach far back to find examples. Richard Nixon’s rise was made possible by his calculating, outsider’s mind. He knew how to use fear in the service of power because he was so full of fear himself. But this perfect instrument for Cold War and diplomatic realpolitik metastasized into Oval Office paranoia, CREEP and Watergate.

Bill Clinton’s gift was his rogue charm and ability to convey a sense of empathy. But his personal story — “The Comeback Kid” who still believed in a town called Hope — became all too personal when Monica Lewinsky walked through the door. Winsome became tawdry, charm became mendacity — and Clinton nearly was booted out of office.

...

Will Fitzgerald indict anyone?” Well-placed insiders, including two I’ve talked to in the last two days, think that he will. And then the gods, or rather the law, will begin to speak.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

1. Clinton was never even close to being removed from office

He was impeached with approval ratings in the 60s. His senate trial was just a show and a waste of time. He didn't even come close to being convicted.

If Bush was impeached today, it would be a different story.

[Vincardog]

2. Did they go over the line in doing so? We found out in the DSM.

As if we needed more proof. To all those nay Sayers who insist
"We do not even know a crime has been committed".
BULLSHIT read the DSM. Several crimes were committed and continue to be committed in our names every day.

[EST]

8. It is disconcerting, isn't it?

Watching one of them - who should know better - telling the same old limbull that is two months gone in debunkville. They either know the truth and don't give a rat's parka, knowing they can still move the dubya types with it, or, like the 'christian' bb-brain on cspan, sticking her fingers in her ears so as not to be challenged with the facts, they consciously avoid avoid any reality, thinking that will keep their integrity intact.

[EST]

3. Well said.

The biggest problem I have with Washington is getting my brain wrapped around the concept of truth being relative. The hardball that they play demands lieing and cheating, with the line separating legal from illegal having its own apparent motivation.

[TacticalPeek]

4. Fineman is overdrawn at the metaphor bank.

What gibberish!

:shrug:

[pennylane100]

5. As a journalist, Howard Fineman should know better.

Clinton was never close to being indicted. People were willing to overlook the Monica episode because he was set up be a bunch of coniving neocons.

Unfortunately the mainstream media was not concerned about that, they just wanted to sell papers and magazines.

[PurityOfEssence]

6. Fineman carefully leaves himself out of the cabal

As someone who curried favor and fame by being a faithful apologist and propagandist, he's of the same ilk as others who betray this mob. The rats leave the ship first, and this little rodent is doing his best to try to fake being impartial.

Woe be to him and others if the Bushies can contain something like this. If they can, there's going to be a series of reprisals like those after the failed July 20, 1944 plot on Hitler. Many journalists, Congresspeople, pundits, lobbyists and others are busily jockeying for position now, and the stench of fear must be overwhelming.

Fun as it is to see Fineman turn on his former masters, it's disgusting to think he might escape with less damage than he richly deserves.

[Rob H.]

10. I agree wholeheartedly

Sure, Fineman's being critical now, but that doesn't mean much--it's easy for him at this point because everyone else is being critical, too. He obviously thinks people have forgotten that he was so willing and eager to spread propaganda for (and suck up to) ShrubCo that he was voted "Whore of the Year" not once, but twice on the late, great mediawhoresonline.com.


Edit: words oops, transpose some did I.

[merbex]

7. This type of connection is better left to historians

not so called journalists

[Bob3]

9. Fineman reminds me of Harvey Corman at the end of High Anxiety

when the evil plotting of Nurse Ratchet has been revealed - Corman goes from being her toady to a sniveling little rat "I never liked her, she never bathed"

God does he think we have no memories? That nobody ever read a word he wrote?

[SittingBull]

11. Too bad

more than 2 years too late...