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Do you think this has any validity?

Why did the White House choose this moment to pick a fight with Fox News? This wasn’t a slip of the tongue by one person up there, it seems more like a concerted effort. So what are they trying to distract the media’s attention from this particular week? Or, more ominously, why is the White House throwing such political red meat to their base at this particular time? Is it to distract progressives from something the White House is doing behind its back?

My guess (which could ultimately prove to be wrong, of course) is that this whole fake (but shiny... oh, so shiny!) distraction was waved in front of the media in order to give some elbow room to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as they are doing the toughest work yet on healthcare reform legislation. That has been the real story of the week, even though it is mostly dueling rumors and leaks (so far).

Obama showed a masterful ability to distract Republicans earlier this year, by pushing so many issues simultaneously that the Republicans couldn’t react to all of them with sufficiently indignant rage, because there were just too many things for them to focus on. Rage diluted is rage denied, in other words.

You could even call it a variation on Ailes’ “orchestra pit theory.” In Roger Ailes’ own words:

“If you have two guys on a stage and one guy says, “I have a solution to the Middle East problem,” and the other guy falls in the orchestra pit, who do you think is going to be on the evening news?”

Providing a center-ring tiger fight for everyone in the Washington media circus to focus on has taken the spotlight off the closed-door negotiations which will ultimately decide what the healthcare reform bills from the House and Senate will look like. This is serious, serious horse-trading, and the last thing Pelosi and Reid need right now is screaming Republicans with nothing better to talk about. Hence, the Fox News tempest in a teapot was served up instead.

As I said, I could be wrong about that, but it seems like the most logical answer at this point. We’ll see... we’ll see. Maybe it’s all just Ailes contemplating a run for president, who knows?