As soon as Abramoff was indicted, the Bush administration said in a very public way that they were worried about pictures of Bush with Abramoff. It seemed logical that the White House would be worried. But it seemed weird that this secretive White House was so open about their concerns. However, it makes perfect sense, and I can't believe we fell for it once again. In a strange, Rovian way, this public worrying legitimizes the White House's efforts to keep any pictures under wraps. Since they aren't hiding their efforts, it must be acceptable behavior.
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But this public concern had an even more nefarious dimension to it. With one press briefing, the White House communicated to the media, and to all Republicans, that "handling" the pictures story properly was a high priority. Not just keeping the pictures from being published, but the entire game that needed to be played - all the hoopla of the "search". And the media fell in line. While the Democrats are falling over themselves trying to find pictures, the traditional media is showing no enthusiasm to do this. Yet, the media is also full of coverage on the search. Hmmm, seems a little schizophrenic. But this just shows the plan worked; it was supposed to become a circus.
As it stands now, actual pictures of Bush and Abramoff are not important. But having the media follow the White House script, now that is important. And given the relationship between the Republicans and the traditional media, the Democrats have already lost this battle, regardless of what is published. So, we need to stop all searches for, and talk about, Bush-Abramoff pictures. Instead, we need to put our energy into finding out how these two clowns are associated. And we need to do it quick. Otherwise this entire chapter will be about photos. And then Bush wins this one, too.