Your pop quiz on politics for today
Let’s see what’s on the front pages today…. hey, what do you know, both the New York Times and the Washington Post have stories on the fact that: 1) The Cheney hunting mishap story has some surprising legs; 2) The Bush White House staff would have handled the story a bit differently; and 3) There’s ...
Let's see what's on the front pages today.... hey, what do you know, both the New York Times and the Washington Post have stories on the fact that: 1) The Cheney hunting mishap story has some surprising legs; 2) The Bush White House staff would have handled the story a bit differently; and 3) There's some new tension between the POTUS staff and the VPOTUS staff Here's my pop quiz. Beyond the obvious, what do these stories reveal? A) Bush's staff is delighted to highlight one of the few arenas of press coverage -- presidential foibles -- where they've been perfectly forthcoming; B) Bush's staff is trying to get as far away from this press debacle as possible -- by leaking to the Times and the Post as much as Brangelina insiders leak to People and Us Weekly; C) Bush's staff apparently has so little influence with the Vice President that rather than simply, you know, ordering the VPOTUS staff to do what they're supposed to do, they're leaking more than Boston's Big Dig; D) I really, really like lame leak metaphors similes; E) The press is overjoyed that they've been able to convert what should have been an inside-the-fold-one-news-cycle story into a story that appears to symbolize how Bush's stonewalling on other issues has made their jobs very frustrating; F) Cheney has generated absolutely zero loyaly among the Bush 41 team (see the Marlin Fitzwater quotes dotting the media landscape; G) This event symbolizes two facts that, in combination with each other, are distrubing -- Cheney is the most powerful vice president in recent memory, and Cheney is also the vice president who cares the least about public feedback; and H) All of the above.
Let’s see what’s on the front pages today…. hey, what do you know, both the New York Times and the Washington Post have stories on the fact that:
1) The Cheney hunting mishap story has some surprising legs; 2) The Bush White House staff would have handled the story a bit differently; and 3) There’s some new tension between the POTUS staff and the VPOTUS staff
Here’s my pop quiz. Beyond the obvious, what do these stories reveal?
A) Bush’s staff is delighted to highlight one of the few arenas of press coverage — presidential foibles — where they’ve been perfectly forthcoming; B) Bush’s staff is trying to get as far away from this press debacle as possible — by leaking to the Times and the Post as much as Brangelina insiders leak to People and Us Weekly; C) Bush’s staff apparently has so little influence with the Vice President that rather than simply, you know, ordering the VPOTUS staff to do what they’re supposed to do, they’re leaking more than Boston’s Big Dig; D) I really, really like lame leak
metaphorssimiles; E) The press is overjoyed that they’ve been able to convert what should have been an inside-the-fold-one-news-cycle story into a story that appears to symbolize how Bush’s stonewalling on other issues has made their jobs very frustrating; F) Cheney has generated absolutely zero loyaly among the Bush 41 team (see the Marlin Fitzwater quotes dotting the media landscape; G) This event symbolizes two facts that, in combination with each other, are distrubing — Cheney is the most powerful vice president in recent memory, and Cheney is also the vice president who cares the least about public feedback; and H) All of the above.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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