Maybe, in what now appears to be my apt long-form 3 Stooge metaphor for Bernie Kerik’s peccadilloes (or maybe dicc-apelloes), there is now the likely possibility of, who else, certain members of the national press as a 4th Stooge in this messy pie fight.

First, I must confess to watching, last evening, a few seconds of the normally unwatchable Hardball hosted by short-fingered vulgarian (to use Spy magazine’s old phrase) Tweety Matthews.
Shockingly, Tweety was almost endurable.
And, perhaps, not so shockingly if one reads her sometimes-curious work, it was Washington Post reporter Dana Priest who embarrassed herself with her laughable and enabling defense of the administration’s indefensible actions in the nominating process for a head of Homeland Security.
Sadly, Tweety’s crack staff, no doubt emulating their presidential masters over-reaching slip-shoddery, hasn’t uploaded last evening’s transcript.
No matter, for the always entertaining Elizabeth Bumiller has penned another in her long series of schizophrenic ramblings about things hubristically Bush in this morning’s New York Times.
Despite Ms. Bumiller’s best efforts, anyone marginally skilled at reading the English language cannot be anything other than appalled by the antics of supremely powerful men who appear to be most dangerously beset by their own self-important bravado.
This morning, within the Kerik fallout, it appears the President and, of course, we the American people simply cannot afford major Kerik vetter Alberto R. Gonzales as the next Attorney General overseeing the federal government’s vast and troubled investigative bureaucracy.
Beginning with the Times’ lead sentence:

Despite hours of confrontational interviews by the White House counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, the Bush administration failed to get a full picture of the legal and ethical problems of Bernard B. Kerik…the White House did not consult with the one person in the West Wing who knew the most about Mr. Kerik's background, Frances Townsend…the White House did not have the benefit of any F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Kerik's past…Kerik also failed to complete a required federal financial disclosure form in May 2003.

To any American ever having any direct contact with the vast, grinding and normally impersonal federal machinery, these excerpts from Burmiller’s reporting are simply stunning!
According to Burmiller, though Gonzales “spent hours grilling Mr. Kerik…everyone at the White House knew that Mr. Bush liked Mr. Kerik, placing him in the special category of ‘this guy's our guy.’”
This Keric fiasco and its wide swath of collateral damage along with Rumsfeld’s slow meltdown, the obvious unrest among the ranks of our bravely soldiering sons and daughters and the media’s deceptive and enabling game of 3 Card Monty along with far too many other critical global issues does not bode well for America’s security.
Friends and the truly loyal don’t let Presidents drive drunk on the heady wine of limitless power no matter the consequences.
I’ve had some fun with this Keric story due to the convenient Christianity of Bush priggery, but, the game is far more serious one than the one, seemingly, these boys are playing...enough is enough.
America's well-being is at stake.

Photo: Dith Pran-The New York Times

- posted by Sean @ 9:32 AM