Nixon's Shadow

And Bush's Hiding Place?

Astute political analyst Craig Crawford made this observation this week:

"Bush’s insular White House, known for an unprecedented control of leaks and a neutered Cabinet, makes it seem unthinkable that he could be undermined by anyone inside his government. But that is what we thought about Nixon early into his second term. His power was unassailable, earning his office the name Imperial Presidency."

"Yet, just like Nixon’s, this presidency could be one Deep Throat away from unraveling. Not that anyone suspects the Bush White House to be running anything remotely similar to the criminal enterprise of Nixon’s crowd. But the revelation that Deep Throat was a well-placed mole inside the administration might encourage the media to hunt down that one killer source from within the beast itself."

Meanwhile, when Newsweek magazine asked if he thinks a new Deep Throat could “materialize in the shadows" of the Bush Administration, Bob Woodward said: "I believe so. And I think they know in the Bush administration that it's always a real possibility."

And this from broadcaster Keith Olbermann reporting this afternoon:

“Failed presidential candidate John Kerry said that he intends to confront Congress with a document touted by critics of President Bush as evidence that he committed impeachable crimes by falsifying evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
The memo purports to include minutes from a July 2002 meeting with Tony Blair, in which Blair allegedly said that President Bush's administration "fixed" intelligence on Iraq in order to justify the Iraqi war.”

It seems to me that, given the high profile critics of this administration, there would certainly be some insiders willing to blow this whistle on abuses of power (oh, yeah-if there are any) in the high levels of government.

The question is: Are there other journalists with the patience of Woodward and Bernstein, and are there other editors with the courage of Ben Bradlee, out there?