I know I probably shouldn't be piling on Richard Cohen for writing the dumbest column ever...and really, I was going to resist the temptation...until I got to this bit:
I have no idea what Fitzgerald will do. My own diligent efforts to find out anything have come to naught. [emphasis added]Well, that's what this is all about, isn't it? Ken Starr was spoon-feeding the press corps tender juicy gossip nuggets every goddamn day, but this guy has the temerity to take all that grand jury secrecy shit seriously. It's almost as if Fitzgerald thinks the press corps aren't part of the club.
Cohen is really making two related points here. The first is that yes, goddamnit, the political world does revolve around my ability to get inside gossip. The second, more imoportant point is that if the Washington press corps doesn't write about something it has no value or importance, and that by failing to keep his investigation in the news (by strategically leaking information) Fitzgerald has rendered it trivial.
This, as Bob Somerby keeps reminding us, is really how these people see the world.
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