Has any story ever fizzled out as quickly as the pathetic case of Mr. Padilla? With ruthless efficiency, the media, having been cowed into silence for nine months, have finally begun to not simply question, but ridicule, the Administration.

You could also see this phenomenum at work over the coverage of the GAO report on the Clinton "vandalism" report, which at a cost of a cool quarter of a million dollars to the taxpayers, was able to show that there was about $19,000 worth of damage (namely, to buy new "W" keys for typewriters). When Alberto Gonzalez, the President's counsel, protested that the report didn't specify some of the dirty words written on the walls, the reaction was one of eye-rolling contempt. When the story initially broke in January 2001, the media focused on how typical it was for those Arkansas vulgarians to trash the place on the way out, totally consistent with Lewinsky and Marc Rich. By the time the story died, the focus wasn't on the vandalism that was actually discovered, but on the mendacity and pettiness of the Bush Administration in leaking and exaggerating the story. Oh, yeah, I forgot, there's a war going on.
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