The Washington press corp and Iraq, that little bump in the Neocon road to glory

Brad DeLong is shrill!

A little more than a week ago, we were sent rolling on the floor in howls of laughter after reading this sentence by Washington Post White House reporter Michael Abramowitz:

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Yet Another Washington Post Edition): It has not helped the neoconservative case, perhaps, that the occupation of Iraq has not gone as smoothly as some had predicted...

with its unmistakeable echoes of the Emperor Hirohito's surrender broadcast at the end of World War II:

Whiskey Bar: The Hirohito Effect: "Despite the best that has been done by everyone... the war situation has developed not necessarily to our advantage."

A number of Washington Post staffers told me that they thought Abramowitz intended his sentence to be read straight. But I couldn't quite believe it. So I wrote to Abramowitz and asked him whether the echoes of Hirohito were intentional, and he was being snarky.

He doesn't dare to reply.

So it is true. Abramowitz's sentence does indeed reveal how pathetically, incompetently, ridiculously weak he is: somebody who dares not do more than hint at the truth about the occupation of Iraq--that the occupation of Iraq has been a huge, horrible fiasco because of the incompetence, disconnection from reality, malevolence, and mendacity of the Bush administration--because if he does somebody might call him up and speak harshly to him. Somebody who thinks making a huge joke of himself is preferable to crossing White House media affairs in even a small way.

"Perhaps." "Not gone as smoothly as predicted." It goes beyond fear of crossing the White House, venturing into some sort of Panglossian madness. And it may be a terrifying indication that the Washington punditocracy is losing interest in the daily atrocities that mark our occupation of Iraq. At the worst -- but by no means unexpected -- time, they are changing the tone of Iraq as complete and total cock-up to one of, "Well, we've learned from a few errors in judgement and will surely do better against the next neocon target of opportunity."

It's hot, humid, and hazy in DC these days. You can tell from preznit's body language that he's depressed by all this diplomatic stuff, and it's probably rubbing off on the members of the press closest to him. I sense that many in the Washington press corps long for those thrilling days of yesteryear when we were able to convince ourselves that as the last remaining superpower, we had the ability to "create our own reality."