Insurgency in Washington: Washington Green zone under mortar fire: "Why have the newspapers and TV news opened the floodgates this way on the spreading Abu Ghraib scandal? There's a question to ask yourself as you slog through daily four-page sections of news about the latest photos, the latest charges, the latest ramifications. Where there was next to nothing, now there's complete glut (if not pattern) – and that seems a rather familiar pattern in itself. You could, of course, say that the photos did it, but that hardly seems sufficient. In its coverage, the press is generally agreeable to moving either to the edge of where the mainstream of the oppositional party is willing to go or to wherever intra-bureaucratic and intra-governmental in-fighting will allow it to take cover. In this case, the mainstream of the Democratic Party remains largely nowhere at all. Insurgent Republicans in Congress -- John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Richard Lugar, to name but three -- have been doing much of the heavy lifting lately.

"When it comes to infighting, however, that's quite another matter. After three years of muttering and misery, it looks like a near insurgency has broken out in various parts of the government previously swept aside by this administration, including the military itself, and the press is feeding off it -- starting with the striking New Yorker pieces by Seymour Hersh that forced the Abu Ghraib scandal into the open.

"Tom Lewis, a former New York State speechwriter, politico, and generally smart guy sent the following summary of the present situation out to his own private e-list:

"'Hersh's [most recent New Yorker] piece is a drive-by [shooting] on [Secretary of Defense] Rumsfeld sourced by the Agency [the CIA] and this stuff is starting to stick. The Agency would not take on Rumsfeld so openly if they weren't talking to their allies in Congress. Tenet comes from the Congress. The Republicans in Congress are getting very nervous. They're hearing from their constituents and local Republicans who are saying, 'Shut this thing down, it's going to kill us in November.' Some of the House and Senate races the RNC [Republican National Committee] thought were a lock are starting to loosen up. Two of the five seats DeLay stole from the Democrats in Texas are now in play. Kerry is working to co-opt Nader. Buckle up.'"

Insurgency in Washington: Washington Green zone under mortar fire: "Why have the newspapers and TV news opened the floodgates this way on the spreading Abu Ghraib scandal? There's a question to ask yourself as you slog through daily four-page sections of news about the latest photos, the latest charges, the latest ramifications. Where there was next to nothing, now there's complete glut (if not pattern) – and that seems a rather familiar pattern in itself. You could, of course, say that the photos did it, but that hardly seems sufficient. In its coverage, the press is generally agreeable to moving either to the edge of where the mainstream of the oppositional party is willing to go or to wherever intra-bureaucratic and intra-governmental in-fighting will allow it to take cover. In this case, the mainstream of the Democratic Party remains largely nowhere at all. Insurgent Republicans in Congress -- John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Richard Lugar, to name but three -- have been doing much of the heavy lifting lately.

"When it comes to infighting, however, that's quite another matter. After three years of muttering and misery, it looks like a near insurgency has broken out in various parts of the government previously swept aside by this administration, including the military itself, and the press is feeding off it -- starting with the striking New Yorker pieces by Seymour Hersh that forced the Abu Ghraib scandal into the open.

"Tom Lewis, a former New York State speechwriter, politico, and generally smart guy sent the following summary of the present situation out to his own private e-list:

"'Hersh's [most recent New Yorker] piece is a drive-by [shooting] on [Secretary of Defense] Rumsfeld sourced by the Agency [the CIA] and this stuff is starting to stick. The Agency would not take on Rumsfeld so openly if they weren't talking to their allies in Congress. Tenet comes from the Congress. The Republicans in Congress are getting very nervous. They're hearing from their constituents and local Republicans who are saying, 'Shut this thing down, it's going to kill us in November.' Some of the House and Senate races the RNC [Republican National Committee] thought were a lock are starting to loosen up. Two of the five seats DeLay stole from the Democrats in Texas are now in play. Kerry is working to co-opt Nader. Buckle up.'"