Mercury Rising

Once again, the Strib shows why it's one of the best papers in America. Its editorial staff cuts loose on Bush's bogosity -- both in his budget and in the shills posing as reporters to whom he turns to bail him out of jams. Here's the Strib on Bush's budget:

Every politician resorts to gimmicks now and then, but these gimmicks have consequences. Just three years ago, President Bush promised to balance the federal budget by 2005. Instead, the government will run a deficit of more than $400 billion this year. Two years ago the president promised to cut the deficit in half by 2007. Now his target year is 2009, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says that using more realistic assumptions, Bush's fiscal policies mean deficits keep going on forever. Meanwhile, the debt load on future taxpayers keeps going up and up. Bush, of course, won't face reelection when the price for this recklessness comes due. But members of Congress from Minnesota will be asking voters to continue them in office. Those voters are counting on them for more responsible stewardship.

Indeed -- which is why Bush is having a tough time getting all but his most loyal (or stupid) vassals to back his plan to destroy Social Security. And here's the Strib on Gannon/Guckert, pointing out that he's not the only paid hack who the Bushies have used to corrupt our discourse:

So the question becomes, just how did this character get White House press credentials, despite supposed post-Sept. 11 security requirements? Bruce Bartlett, a conservative columnist who worked in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, says that "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." In other words, the White House wanted him at those briefings and wanted him to ask his softball questions, most likely to divert attention when legitimate reporters were getting too pushy. This is part of a pattern by Bush's minions to construct a phony reality in news coverage. Consider: • To promote Bush's Medicare prescription bill, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) paid for phony "newscasts" that were distributed to television stations nationwide. • Columnist Armstrong Williams was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. • Columnists Michael McManus and Maggie Gallagher were paid to "advise HHS on the Bush administration's marriage policies." • Every Bush "town hall" forum during last fall's campaign was carefully limited to supporters who would ask fawning questions. No demonstrators -- indeed, no one wearing an offensive lapel pin -- were allowed in. • The Bush Pentagon launched an Office of Strategic Influence to provide "news" to foreign media. When it became known, it was shut down in embarrassment. The pattern is clear: This administration will do pretty much anything to shape reality to fit its agenda.

A-yep. And as the Strib goes on to note, when the Bushies can't buy you off, they try to scare you off:

Another powerful tool in its arsenal is intimidation. This is by far the most vindictive administration since Richard Nixon's. Ask the wrong question or write something the White House doesn't like, and your access is cut off. Unfortunately, too many of the real journalists have gone along meekly. As columnist Michael Kinsley observed, if this White House said two plus two equaled five, there would be no shortage "of media to report both sides of the question."

Like I said: One of the best papers in America.