A bit too Rich for my thoughts

In his (understandably) emotional charge to trash everything about the Bush Administration, I believe that Frank Rich has at times taken leave of his thinking senses. He has always been a bit "over the top", so this is to be expected, I guess. Nevertheless, this bears commenting upon, since there are certainly other villains of this piece besides Bush, Cheney & Co. In his column($) in today's New York Times about the commuting of Scooter Libby's sentence, he says
"But if those die-hards [in Bush's base] haven’t deserted him by now, why would Mr. Libby’s incarceration be the final straw? They certainly weren’t whipped into a frenzy by coverage on Fox News, which tended to minimize the leak case as a non-event. " But his last sentence runs counter to his argument. If they viewed the leak as a non-event, then they would be more likely to be whipped into a frenzy by Libby's incarceration.

In last week's column, "When the Vice President Does It, That Means It’s Not Illegal" , he says that "hiding in plain sight was the little-noted content of the Bush executive order that Mr. Cheney is accused of violating. On close examination, this obscure 2003 document, thrust into the light only because the vice president so blatantly defied it, turns out to be yet another piece of self-incriminating evidence illuminating the White House's guilt in ginning up its false case for war. " But why was this executive order "hiding in plain sight"? It wasn't kept a secret, it's just that few people took note of it or realized its importance.

Later on in his column Rich says "Because of the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation, we would learn three years later about the offensive conducted by Mr. Libby on behalf of Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush. That revelation prompted the vice president to acknowledge his enhanced powers in an unguarded moment in a February 2006 interview with Brit Hume of Fox News. Asked by Mr. Hume with some incredulity if "a vice president has the authority to declassify information," Mr. Cheney replied, "There is an executive order to that effect." He was referring to the order of March 2003."
Now, how does Rich know that this was an "unguarded moment"? My feeling all along has been that the Bush Administration was not really hiding its ginning up of the war. It's just that few people were paying attention to the signs of this, and those who did were not listened to. I'll never forget Paul Wolfowitz being quoted as saying "We've decided to go with WMD's as the best reason," or something to that effect. This was the subject of the infamous "Downing Street Memo," but it wasn't a surprise to me when that memo surfaced.

The sad truth is that Bush, Cheney & Co. have had plenty of enablers -in Congress, the media, and the mostly apathetic American public when it comes to anything other than entertainment, celebrities and sports. I applaud the efforts of Rich and others to get people better focused on the important issues as we deal with the fallout from the "Mushroom Cloud" of the Bush-Cheney Calamity.