Rove Rage: Day Two Coverage

Media Bistro's summary of this morning's Rove Rage coverage gives an indication of just how hungry the media is for a story that might ding the as-yet undingable president, or at least score a point or two against the much-hated Rove:

DEMS CONTINUE TO PILLORY ROVE OVER LEAK (WAPO) Amid calls for Karl Rove's dismissal, President Bush is standing by his top political adviser, whose role in the leak of a CIA officer's identity has plunged the White House into controversy. NYT: Loyalty has long been the most hallowed virtue in the Bush White House, but rarely has it been tested the way it has this week. WaPo: GOP mounts aggressive and coordinated defense of Rove. CJR Daily: The press came out firing yesterday with stories that reflected the frustration that prompted an exasperated NBC's David Gregory to tell McClellan, in the press conference, "This is ridiculous." WhiteHouse.gov: Text of yesterday's press briefing. NYO: To expect swift comeuppance for Rove is to gravely misread how the state and the press do business in the new media age, writes Chris Lehmann. LAT: The architect of Bush's success, known for detail work, has kept close ties to the media.
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A particularly good passage is found in Lehmann's NYObserver piece (link above):

Hounding a suit as empty as Mr. McClellan's into submission is far from a ringing vindication of the press' power. Indeed, like virtually everything else in the ghastly, backwards-spooling Plame saga, it exposes the press' sallow, retiring weakness in affairs of state. Just consider the other damning revelations in the e-mail from Mr. Cooper to his editor: the routine deference that a correspondent for one of the nation's largest-circulation weeklies shows in toeing the administration's line as it sets about its routine course of casual character assassination—even to the point of inadvertently compromising national security by exposing the identity of a C.I.A. operative.

Eliciting comment from President Bush's senior advisor “on double super secret background for about two mins [sic] before he went on vacation,” Mr. Cooper sounds, in corresponding with his bureau chief, more like a teenager armed with an Encyclopedia Brown novel and a decoder ring than a reporter determined to uncover the dirt on a brewing White House scandal.

This entire story is too complex to play out well for the press and the Dems. The DC press corps enjoys zero sympathy and near-zero credibility among the American people. And besides, no guns were sold to Contras, and much more significantly in terms of public attention, no blue dress was found.

More importantly, Rove was doing what everyone in DC does, and was doing it with an appropriate degree of care: a hint, not a name. Not one of his accusers in the Democratic party can cast the first stone in this battle.

The story won't die, though; the media will gum it until there's hardly a complex protein left. And in the process, they will lose credibility, trust and significance ... and Rove? He will simply go on about his business.