Our worthless press: praise Roberts, blame Wilson

The GOP stance on Roberts' confirmation hearing is simple: shout down anyone who wants to ask him about issues. The press is being pretty compliant. There have already been breathless mentions of his "small-town upbringing" and "work in a steel mill." What they're actually cutting from the final versions of these stories is that Roberts grew up the son of a wealthy Bethlehem Steel executive. So it wasn't so much a case of working hard as a Main Street kind of American-- his pop gave him summer work. Now that's a man after Bush's heart.

At the same time, the GOP is trying desperately to keep attention from Rove and Libby's probable criminality in the Valerie Plame affair by discussing Joe Wilson instead. One of the main talking points is that Wilson falsely claimed that Cheney sent him to Niger. This is simply a lie. But in spite of the fact that it has no bearing on the case (and is a false accusation as well), it's being repeated endlessly by "journalists" whose job it is to know better.

Love that Daily Howler. It should be required reading for anyone going by the name of journalist. And everyone else, besides. They do great work, and they call Democrats on their bologna, too. It's just that these days there's a lot more lunchmeat coming from the right.