I Had This Thought Percolating in the Back of My Mind...

And then I read No More Mister Nice Blog, and said, That's it. Just what I was thinking:

The first picture of Bush in the same frame with Jack Abramoff has surfaced in The New York Times and Time.

Of course, I'm suspicious about the way the photos are being parceled out. As I said last month, I think the White House wanted us all to be slavering for the pictures. We were, and now the first one comes out -- and it shows Bush (and Karl Rove) very, very far from Abramoff. Almost certainly, the White House, the right-wing press, talk radio, and righty bloggers are ready with a carefully calibrated message ridiculing our eagerness to see these pictures when what they show (or at least this one shows) suggests no closeness whatsoever between Abramoff and Bush. (Blogs for Bush gets the ball rolling tonight.) I think we're being fed this stuff very carefully, so it suggests what the White House wants us to believe, rather than telling us the truth.