If you can't beat 'em, distract 'em.

Note: US News and World Report is owned by Zuckerman.

Still we all can't deny the obvious:

Throw us a curve. We're easily distracted. It's true.
We're not interested in what we can do for our country.
We're interested in what we can do for us. This is a
thoroughly corrupted culture, we love blood and guts,
psycho cops, crime, and shoot-em-up!!! And we LOVE
WALMART... And Nancy Grace, Yeah!!! Get em GIRL!!!

Or, we can try Cheney and Wolfowitz for treason. \

Instead.

Just watch the 9/11 tapes of George and My Pet Goat.
http://politicalhumor.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thememoryhole.org%2F911%2Fbush-911.htm
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/bush-911.mov

Or maybe we can just outsource the torture of Cheney
and Wolfowitz to Iran??? We *love* this kind of stuff.

Maybe these Muslims can even send us back pictures of the
two of them in their underwear, in their cells, so we can
squeal with delight.

==============================
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10046

The Summer of Short Attention Spans

If you can't beat 'em, distract 'em.

By Terence Samuel
Web Exclusive: 07.25.05

Print Friendly | Email Article

Where have you gone, Lightning-Bolt Bolton?

It was not so long ago that he was the most important man in town. He
was the right man at the right time, going to New York to rescue the
United Nations from its slide into historical obsolescence. Or he was
going to further ruin America's reputation in the world with his
Molotov-cocktail brand of diplomacy. But then the Gang of 14 stuck its
deal and killed the "nuclear option," and that changed the subject.
Anybody remember the nuclear option?

Which, of course, brings us to Karl Rove, who was the man of the moment
until the mantle passed yet again to John Roberts, who will soon pass
it on to someone else. It would be cynical in the extreme -- and I an
neither cynical nor extreme, except in the way I feel about the New
York Yankees (not telling) -- to suggest that President Bush would have
chosen a nominee for the Supreme Court with an eye toward deflecting
the political beating his chief political adviser is taking in the
press. So I do not suggest it. Though the possibility has been on
people's minds. Ted Kennedy, for example, has even said he hoped the
president did not rush the nomination in order to shift the focus away
from Rove.

There is no denying that working at the White House these days has to
be better than during the time when Rove was Unavoidable Topic A. At
the time, Rove seemed glum; the president seemed glummer; and Scott
McClellan seemed ready to go off the 14th Street bridge. But as
Keats' old men say, "Everything alters."

I remember the summer of 2002: Enron and corporate-accounting scandals
galore. The business-friendly White House was taking a hit, the Senate
was in Democratic hands because of Jim Jeffords, and the midterm
elections loomed large.

Late that summer, I asked a GOP aide how Republicans were going to
handle the corporate scandals and whether he was worried that it would
hurt them at the polls. His response was partly what I expected: "The
election is five months away. A lot could happen in five months. We
could be talking about something completely different in five
months."

Then he said something I found utterly improbable. He said, "We could
be talking about Iraq." And in November we were.

I have never figured out whether I had been leaked the plans for the
war in Iraq or whether the guy was just a political seer. In either
case, he understood the importance of changing the subject.

Sometimes it doesn't work, because some things never go away, and
that is what must be of most concern to the White House. Some special
prosecutors never go away. Grand juries seem to sit forever; disband
one, empanel another. And television tape, Mr. McClellan, never goes
away. Yet now we have the congenial and photogenic Roberts leading the
Good News Bandwagon.

In August, all of these issues could come to a head. John Bolton could
get a recess appointment. Democrats could figure out what they don't
like about Roberts and begin taking him down a bit. And who knows
what's going on with Patrick Fitzgerald as he probes the Valerie
Plame leak, if that's what he's still interested in.

Frankly, I hope all the drama takes off in August, because for my
money, the best story in Washington all summer has been a surprising
little pastrami sandwich of a baseball team called the Washington
Nationals. In their first season in Washington, the former abominable
from Canada have lifted the spirits of this often dismal city, and they
have given us something to care about that doesn't have to do with
the future of the republic. They are a largely faceless bunch of guys
who know how to hit and run and make great plays in the outfield.
They've been great to watch, and when real-life conversations
(politics) get too ridiculous, we can now say, "How 'bout dem
Nats?"

At first we were just happy to have baseball, a team to call our own.
Then we liked that they were winning. But they have spent much of the
first half of the season at the top of their division, and that has
given us hope. Now we want to win every night. Alas, things are not
going as well as they have been. The hitting is not holding up, but we
have just traded for a big bat named Preston Wilson. He may be the
right man at the right time. If they fall too far behind, though,
I'll change the subject.

Terence Samuel is the chief congressional correspondent for U.S. News &
World Report. His column about politics appears each week in the
Prospect's online edition.
Copyright © 2005 by The American Prospect, Inc. Preferred Citation:
Terence Samuel, "The Summer of Short Attention Spans", The American
Prospect Online, Jul 25, 2005. This article may not be resold,
reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior
written permission from the author. Direct questions about permissions
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