MORAL BANKRUPTCY: When a future Edward Gibbon sits in the ruins of Washington, D.C., and is inspired to write a history of the decline and fall of the American democratic republic, he will have to answer the question of why we allowed the dictatorship to take over. He will conclude that a key factor was the treasonous dishonesty of the sycophantic media. One of his best examples to prove the thesis will be this article: "Embedded Crony": Bob Woodward Shows His True Colors.

WILL WISHING MAKE THIS SO?: The Sideshow spotted Hullabaloo discovering this waking dream:

I.Scooter Libby, the chief of staff of Vice President Richard Cheney, and chief presidential advisor, Karl Rove are expected to be named in indcitments this morning by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald.

Others are to be named as well, these source said. According to U.S. officials close to the case an bill of indiictment has been in existence before October 17 which named five people. ...

But federal law enforcement officials told this reporter that Fitzgerald was likely to charge the people indicted with violating Joe Wilson's civil rights, smearing his name in an attempt to destroy his ability to earn a living in Washington as a consultant.

The civil rights charge is said to include "the conspiracy was committed using U.S. government offices, buildings, personnel and funds," one federal law enforcement official said.

Try not to get your hopes up too much, but, oh!! wow!!, read it all at Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005.

THE WELL-TRANSPORTED INDICTEE:

DeLay's staff disclosed that he flew to Houston on Thursday morning on a corporate jet owned by R.J. Reynolds, a longtime contributor that has flown him to Puerto Rico and other destinations; they said the jet was "used in compliance with regulations." The company, which has also given $17,000 to DeLay's legal defense fund, did not comment Friday.

(Found at FloridaBlues who spotted it at Think Progress.)

WUV, TWOO WUV: Hail Dubyus sums up the Miller martyrdom at Why, Oh, Why Didn't You Return My Calls, Scooter??? (spotted by firedoglake).

WASHING HIS HANDS BEFORE THE MULTITUDE: It seems that the Catholic Diocese of Dallas, having already paid out huge sums for its own robed criminals, doesn't want to be associated with Bush's Latest Folly.

The Roman Catholic diocese of Dallas is setting the record straight: Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers has never been a Catholic. A review of records for such sacraments as baptism, first Eucharist and confirmation found no evidence that Miers or anyone in her immediate family was Catholic, Bronson Havard, a spokesman for the diocese, said Friday. ...

"We don't normally check records for things like this," said Havard, who also is editor of Texas Catholic newspaper and a deacon, "but this was a prominent situation, we wanted the record to be set straight." The Catholic church does not keep records of people who may occasionally attend their services.

No, but they do count as church members anyone baptized there who hasn't set foot in one since, which is why they continue to claim to be the single largest church in this country. I wonder if this is the same "Bronson Havard" who was such a jerk years ago in our local media? He certainly sounds just as much a loving Christian.

What is interesting is how even the very conservative diocese, obsessively anti-choice (and even anti-birth control, not that most of the membership pays them any attention on that), does not want to be associated with this impending embarrassment to the Prez when her nomination flops like a dead fish. Hence Bronson's imitation of Matthew 27:24, as in the title of this piece.

PIN HIM TO THE WALL: The often irate Hesiod proposes a strategy for chipping away at the well-tailored de facto Emperor.

If and when Patrick Fitzgerald issues his indictments against high level members of the White House staff, the first and foremost quetsion uttered by every single White House reporter until it is answered must be:

"Will the President pardon any of the indicted members of his administraioon?"

They should hammer Scott McLellan with that question, and every single Bush official who goes on Sunday talk shows, and even Bush himself when they get their precious few opportunities.

They should never let up until they get a straight "Yes," or "No" answer. It has to be definitive. No caveats, or escape hatches.

And, every single member of the Democratic party, and we bloggers, must ask this question every single day OF the news media. Force them to ask the question.

The Democrats must demand that Bush say whether he will pardon anyone every time they go on a talk show, or are interviewed. Period.

Read why, and how this is a lose-lose proposition for the Crawford Coward at "Pardon the Interruption".

PARALLEL UNIVERSES: Steve Clemons (who was the left side of the blog world's point person on the Bolton nomination) is stunned by research showing "Echo chambers, on the right and left, remain amongst book readers in America." By looking at "Customers who bought this book also bought" on the top 100 political books at Amazon.com, a social network analyst produces a revealing chart of a great divide. His chart looks like two unmatching geodes facing off against each other. Almost no purchasers from either side bought books from the other. We are not reading the same things, and we might as well be living in different worlds.

I suspect the same applies to the websites we visit. We are all busy giving our own views positive reinforcement. That explains why the right wingnuts are so willfully blind to reality, but it points out a danger to the rest of us as well. A lesson I learned in college, minoring in history: If you really want to know the truth, you have to make an extra effort to seek out alternative viewpoints. You may find out many of them were only morally-challenged special interests after all (like the ex-slaveowners who denounced Reconstruction as oppressive looting of the South), but if you don't look you will never be sure.

FOOD FIGHT: Bruce Reed sums them up.

But in recent weeks, Washington Republicans who used to do as they were told have started acting up like a junior-high study hall. Thanks to screw-ups and scandal, the usual disciplinarians — DeLay, Rove, and Bush — are in detention themselves. So, after five years of sitting up straight and folding their hands, the class is seizing this brief window of freedom to throw spitballs in every direction.

On the right, the Miers nomination has unleashed a fury of honest introspection—in other words, name-calling.

I'VE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE: The single best blogging source about the ongoing implosion provoked by the Plamegate investigation is firedoglake. Read the whole site. One beautiful comment there on the passing the buck the usual suspects are engaged in now that indictments may loom:

This is obviously the third act of Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

THE BELLOWING OF GORED OXEN: James Wolcott (whose permalinks seem unworking at the moment) quotes in "Cries And Whimpers" from a great post at Sic Semper Tyrannis:

The idea implicit in statements of this kind by people like Christopher Matthews, David Gergen and Pat Buchanan is that there is nothing wrong with using the power of the executive branch of government to manipulate the press to destroy the reputations and livelihoods of political opponents. The belief seems to be that pressurizing or seducing media executives to accept false and misleading statements about critics of the policies of the government of the day is just a form of "contact sport" and that, in fact, all is truly fair in love, war, and now politics. It seems that the "wise men" also believe that it is just part of the game to "recruit" reporters for the national print media and then use them as instruments of propaganda to deceive the public and contribute to the destruction of the "loyal opposition."

If it is true that the politics of personal destruction are so widely accepted by the political establishment in the city named for one of the most honest men who ever lived, then perhaps we should change the name of the place. Maybe "Nixon City" would be more realistic....

Wolcott then adds for himself:

If it looks as if Cheney has to resign and Bush himself enters the Nixon danger zone, we'll hear the same frets and cries from the pundit shows about the country being torn apart and Americans losing faith in their government. But it isn't the country that will be torn apart by Plamegate any more than the country was torn apart during Watergate...; it's the Washington establishment that will be torn apart. And it should be torn apart. It's failed the country, and it's played by its own rules for too long, and "criminalizing politics" is exactly what should be done when political criminals deceive a nation into a war with Judith Miller serving as the Angie Dickinson to their Rat Pack and Richard Cohen auditioning for the part of Joey Bishop.

MISSING IN ACTION: Joe Gandelman, writing about the conservative rebellion over Harriet Miers, asks

And the Democrats? Each day they resemble a 7-Eleven employee who has been told that if there's a robbery, don't resist but give them what they want because resisting could only make things worse.