[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Hard Lefty Marvin Kalb, formerly of CBS. Now at some self-important "Center for the..." or some such.

Journalism as it conceives itself is a self-justifying swindle. A mutual-admiration society in which each member flatters all other members with the conceit of objectivity. To join that claque you must never discount your own perspective, and never criticize any other member because they do not discount their own perspective. To presume to be above a critque of your own perspective is to be arrogant and wise in your own conceit. A position in which Marvin Kalb glories . . .

It does look as if the Left has gotten to the foot-stamping stage in demanding George Bush do a Clarke apology and overlook Clinton's (and Gorelick's) fingerprints.
not going to happen.

Journalists believe that their second guess is just as worthwhile as the first guess of the doer of deeds. After the fact they know that 911 happened, and they therefore know what reports before 911 were meaningful and which were less significant. Before the fact they had no clue of that, but afterwards they now choose to claim that Bush should have known what they did not. Notwithstanding that, as Mark Steyn points out, you could have learned more from an old issue of The Reader's Digest than you could from the famous August PDB which Bush specifically asked for. Too bad he didn't ask for back issues of The Reader's Digest instead . . .

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I think you're on to something.