Lots of online chatter this morning about the Washington Post piece that throws away the rulebook on anonymous sourcing (co-authored by Ceci Connolly, of course). The big bone of contention: these quotes, sourced only to...
"a senior White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity"
"I don't understand why the left of the left has decided that this is their Waterloo. We've gotten to this point where health care on the left is determined by the breadth of the public option. I don't understand how that has become the measure of whether what we achieve is health-care reform. It's a mystifying thing. We're forgetting why we are in this."
"another top aide"
expressed chagrin that a single element in the president's sprawling health-care initiative has become a litmus test for whether the administration is serious about the issue.
"It took on a life of its own."
"One Democratic strategist involved in coordinating the pro-reform message among many like-minded groups"
"We were always concerned about leading with our glass jaw. We felt we probably shouldn't make health-care reform be about this because it falls so easily into the socialized medicine, big-government theme."
"One Democratic Obama ally"
"In the last 90 days, it has taken on an aura much more pronounced than it did the first four months of the year," said the activist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss White House strategy. He said Obama's advisers have stoked the controversy this week by creating the perception they were abandoning the public plan.
Golly, I wonder how people came to focus on the public option as a must-have?
If all these highly placed sources are right, then the dirty f-ing hippies of the blogosphere have somehow managed to seize control of the signature agenda item of a newly-elected President, right out from under the noses of what's surely the most powerful propaganda machine (and I mean that in the nicest way possible) in the entire world.
Well hooray for you, you Cheeto-munching morons!
Unless, of course, one or more of the anonymous sources (Including an anonymous activist? Really?) is, you know, wrong.
