No. They [The press corps] is not the least curious. Curiosity means having to work, ask questions, do legwork. It is much easier to be a White House stenographer. Then you get invited to the choice events, get good seats at the Kennedy center, and never work overtime.

Ask Helen Thomas what it means when you ask a hard question. Not one single other reporter in the Press Pool has the testicular fortitude to ask any tough questions that she once asked. And none other will: They had to have their spines (and other parts) surgically removed in order to get their jobs, and transplants will not arrive in time for the Bush Administration to be accountable.

And the White House knows this, which is why (along with 100% protective obedience from Republicans in Congress) they will get away with it.

If Newsweek keeps examining "Teflon John" too closely, they'll lose their invitatio to the next McCain family barbecue.

We'll see how quickly the rest of the Mainstream Media tries to bury this one, perhaps with another story about Barak Obama's "secret" Muslim oaths.

Baloney.

The Evangelicals will, just like George Will, declare from now until October that "This election year is different! We are staying home this time!"

Not a chance.

In October they will "see the light" and in November they will obediently march to the polls and vote 100% Republican. Just like every election year.

Now and forever.

Talk of other outcomes is either "wake up calls" to Republicans to remember to obey the party line in their policies and/or Liberals living in the land of delusion.

That won't make any difference. Republicans will still run voter surpression campaigns against African Americans and Hispanics, no matter what the outcome.

They can't help it.

Dirty tactics and surpressing non-whites, non-Christians is what Republicans do. It's what they stand for. It's what they are.

The reality that the pundit's words are nonsensical (attack and game) will not stop it from being repeated on Conservative outlets nationwide and echoed in the Mianstream media for weeks, without the slightest skepticism.

It is what we have come to expect from the Fourth Estate: Consevative Stenography masquerading as Journalism.

And it will work to perfection, until the day our reporters receive a spinal transplant: Which I do not expect to see in my lifetime.

Why are our media elites giving air time to the man who gave us President George W. Bush in 2000?

Ralph Nader hates the Democratic Party almost as much as Joe Lieberman, and will try to do as much damage to the Democrats as is Senator Joe.

Meanwhile the Republicans are busy counting the votes that will be siphoned off so that "independent" John McCain(who will receive free passes from Ralph AND Joe through November) can sail into the White House.

John McCain's "base" comes through for him again.

Re: "I'm always struck by how weak the wingnut right thinks Americans are. They assume we'll just curl up and die the minute an Islamic terrorist shouts "Booga booga!" at us. "

Conservatives won't curl up. They will, however, crumple up the Constitution and hand it over to the Radical Right, just as they've done to the Bush Administration.

However the neoConservatives have discovered one thing: That sneering at the facts is sufficient to win elections over the shor run. And winning those elections means power and money for NeoConservatives.

Until the "true" Conservatives stop voting for neoConservatives in every election, and supporting them when they recite factually incorrect claims on FoxNews or in Congressional testimony, the NeoCons will contiue to win, one election at a time.

As long as power is the only goal of Conservatives, we can expect to see the "worst case scenarios play out (with NeoConservatives, due to their power and money, exempting themselves from any of the consequences).

Of course John McCain's "base" (the Media) will come out and defend him squarely, as they so blatantly did not for John Kerry.

As the wealthy media elite, the Bush Administration has been very good for them: Both for providing "access" in return for uncritical stenography and for relieving them of the necessity of paying significant taxes to support the war our reproters cheered (and contine to cheer) on.

If John McCain is not elected President, it will not be for want of support from our "Mainstream" Media.

John McCain's "Base", the Mainstream Media Reporters, will put this story out to pasture in no time. All it will take is another good old barbecue, at any of the McCain Family residences, and we will never hear of this again.

D and Mike.

There you go again!

Pestering Conservatives with facts and information.

Can't you see that Conservatives do not need facts. As that Bush White House aide was once quoted as saying, "we make our own reality".

You are just seeing it in action here. If a Conservative declares that:

There is no Global Warming

God created the universe in 4004 BC, and there is no such thing as evolution.

We have found the WMD's in iraq.

Then you are supposed to believe it, without question, just like NY Times reporters.

Keep trying to introduce actual facts and real information to the debate and you'll wind up in Guantanamo.... which is somewhere near the edge of the Earth, if I read the Flat-Earthers at all well...

But, will the Media report these facts? Or will they be theri usual stenographic selves and echo George W. Bush's and John McCain's comments as though they represented "truth".

My betting is that John McCain's "base" will come throgh for him again and talk about Senator's McCain's "tireless" efforts on behalf of the Gi's.

Re: "So, the war in Iraq created an opportunity for al Qaeda to recruit more terrorists, and at the same time, made it harder to go after al Qaeda terrorists."

Add to that the war in Iraq diverted assets that cold have been used against al Qaeda and I'd say that George W. Bush has scored another "trifecta"!