Am I the only one...

...who finds the White House's tight-lipped reaction to the Wead tapes to be completely out of character?

Revelations of this type are normally met with vitriolic condemnation from the Rovian forces and inevitable smear campaigns against the issuers of such. They have always made it known what kind of premium is placed on "loyalty" with this bunch. Ask Paul O' Neill. Ask Joseph Wilson.

But, not this time. Now, we're treated to a suspicious stoicism that is deafening in its silence.

Folks, there's an odor emanating from the banks of the Potomac and I fear no one in a position of visibility is going to bring it any attention.

I haven't since I first paid attention to politics.

released to make sheep respond as if shrub was the victim in all of this -- that a trusted friend betrayed him.

I saw it as a way to divert attention from the Gannon affair.

shit as chaff in the face of the guckert thing.

as long as people are tut-tutting over Bush smoking pot (and how many of those do we know?) they're not going to be looking too closely at how White House press conferences have turned into propaganda lectures courtesy of dirty tricks plants like Gannon/Guckert, or speculating how a rough trade hustler got whisked past the secret Service into the inner chambers of power.

I'm sure they paid Mr. Wead to leak this story just for that reason.

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I read those Village Voice articles and everything about them got my radar pricked.

Also, I saw Wead on Anderson Cooper the other night, and knowing absolutely nothing about him, it struck me that he was gay. I don't know if it was because he was wearing makeup, the tone of his voice, the way he leaned into Anderson Cooper (openly gay) or what it was, but all my instincts told me he was homosexual.

The VV articles http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/ made me even more certain of this. Why? Because of his being able to put his finger on using gay issues as a political wedge. Who, other than a gay person himself, really could understand the virulence and rancour of the anti-homosexual crowd? I think there are a number of higher ups at the White House right now who understand this equally well.

This ties in to the Gannon/Guckert thing as well. To deflect attention from a creeping scandal that might burst open the whole gay culture in upper-level Republican circles, whom do they use to distract? A person who seems to be fervently religious, who is creepily "spiritual", and who has made the gay issue an agenda of his own.

Do these people just hate themselves or are they so power hungry and greedy for wealth that they will stop at nothing? Or, is it more titillating for them to participate in activities that are forbidden, if not legally, then implicitly by their public words?

It really struck me today for the first time that the reason Mehlman et al were so hyper-aware of the visceral reaction gay ballot initiatives would get is that they themselves are more sensitive to it than heterosexuals might be. I grew up in a small town with very few Catholics and was hyper-aware of criticism directed to Catholics. Protestants who grew up with me noticed no such thing.

Anyway, this post is based on intuition, not knowledge, but there is something odd going on.

really didn't reveal anything that damning. Why comment on it, if you are the WH?

...their modus operandi thus far. A Shrub/Rove hallmark has been instant villification as a reaction to the slightest transgression of "loyalty."

The conservative viewpoint I have heard have been statements of pride about what he said in the tapes.

BTW, there have been numerous editorials about the disloyalty factor. Dallas Morning News wrote one today.

The tapes were a distraction from the bushies. Put it out there and keep quiet about it and see how far it goes. Next week it'll be something else. Anything to keep Gannongate off the screens. Just watch.

as their media does the work, and all sit around talking about their quiet, they must be afraid. they arent. they are watching it play out exactly as they directed it to. there is nothing for them to do. everyone else does it for them