How do you bump Cheney from Politico's top headline?

Let's say you're in the White House and a certain publication is stenographically touting attacks from the previous administration's Vice President. Sure, that publication might be pushing self-contradictory double standards, but everybody reads it, and you know whining about it won't get anything accomplished.

So what do you do to get them to lower the volume on the attacks against you? You give them an exclusive. Now you are in control of the message, at least for a little while, and your critics have been pushed aside.

But the only problem is, when you wake up tomorrow, you're going to face the same problem when that publication goes back to some other random schmuck to line up an attack against you, forcing you to once again feed the beast, fueling the vicious circle.

You really don't have much of an option other than to play the game, but man, does it ever suck. Big time.