It's Not Torture Guy...

...which may turn out to be Supreme Court Nominee John Roberts' strongest asset during the confirmation proceedings.

According to President Bush, Roberts has "the qualities that Americans expect in a judge: experience, wisdom, fairness and civility." Which explains why he never had a gig on Court TV.

Senator Patrick Leahy, senior Democrat on the Judicial Committee, says he envisions "full and exhaustive" hearings, and doesn't expect "any issues that go to the qualifications" of a justice to be off limits.

Hm. I wonder what Leahy's talking about. You don't think they'll ask Roberts what he thinks about Roe v. Wade, do you?

Progress for America, a conservative group, calls Roberts a "terrific nominee." Naral Pro-Choice America denounces him as an "unsuitable choice."

So it looks like Roberts will be just controversial enough to keep Yellow Cake Gate off the front pages and arguing head cable news shows for a few days.

New York Times Bush Boy David Brooks is on Imus this morning saying the Rove story is just a "ton of heavy breathing." He also parrots the White House line that Wilson's story about the Niger uranium was false (even though it was true). He also says Rove obviously had nothing to do with outing Wilson's wife (even though it's obvious that he did). He says there's nothing to the whole story (even though there's a whole hell of a lot to the story).

"I don't want to sound like a shill here," Brooks says (even though he clearly is one).

Let's get something straight here. The part of Wilson's story that's in question--who exactly sent him to investigate the Niger intelligence or whether his wife was actually "undercover"--is only marginally relevant. What's important is that the administration used the yellow cake fable to justify invading Iraq. When Wilson exposed the intelligence as false, the administration pulled out all the stops to discredit him and his story (the essence of which was true).

Brooks, a supposed "legitimate" journalist, is not offering honest opinion and analysis. He's parroting the party playbook, trying to keep the public discourse (and the public mind) away from the critical aspect of the Niger story.

My thinking right now is that if anybody deserves to get fired, it's David Brooks. Let him go to work for Rupert Murdoch. He'll fit right in at Big Brother Broadcasting.

And oh, don't feel too bad for Torture Guy. He'll have other chances.