Most of The Country
May Have Moved On,
But One 70ish Scribe
Emphatically Has Not

Just when you think the impending presidential election will finally prevent the Bush White house from starting any new hostilities shortly before the scheduled regime change in the U.S., a veteran reporter named Sy Hersh tears back the curtain again on what is perhaps history's most secretive American administration and shows the unpleasant realities at the heart of the corrupt Cheney co-presidency. The Veep and his henchmen continue to collectively motor on in their path of destruction right down to the last hour, as if it were one big cyborg sent from a future century to kill everything in its path.

In recent weeks, we witnessed far too much obligatory praise of the late Tim Russert and his supposedly fine, aggressive journalism. But I ask you--did official Washington really hold him close to its bosom and elevate him to a pedestal because he was adept at digging into its dirty laundry and challenging its basic assumptions as a member of the Fourth Estate, or because he subtly served as a megaphone for the conventional wisdom?

Since Russert's death, many have observed that the most serious kinds of journalists inspire not admiration so much as fear in their subjects. Sy Hersh is of course one of those kinds of reporters, and he has been for 40 years (since he broke the news of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war, earning a Pulitzer prize in the process). This past week, he was at it again, breaking the news of secret Congressional approval of a new pot of money with which the White House can make trouble in Iran, possibly touching off a reaction that could be used as a pretext to make war on one more Middle Eastern nation. This splendid interview he did with Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air is a nice companion piece to the article. I hope you'll closely read and listen to them both when you have the time.

We've mentioned Sy Hersh several times in the past. We've perhaps implied it before, but let us be more explicit now: Seymour Hersh is a national treasure.