Must... see... scandal porn
It's alito bit nutty watching the Abramoff/Bush photo hunt go on. It's perverse actually. It's scandal porn.
Those photographs aren't going to tell us a single thing we don't already know about George Bush or Jack Abramoff. Everyone involved deep down has to know this, but the thinking goes, "A vivid image of Bush shaking hands and smiling with Abramoff would provide fuel for news coverage and commentary, even if such 'grip-and-grin' shots are commonplace for most politicians." Another eager porn freak writes, "The photographs have not been made public yet, but you can be sure they will be on front pages as soon as they are. They are too compelling not to be."
In other words, when They -- all those people -- see those pictures, man is it going to hurt. And it's going to appear on DNC letterhead, and...
And then that's where it starts sinking into the sand. If those pictures are going to do something, then we must be living in a world where we've already hung, drawn and quartered all those assholes who helped us to get into Iraq. That's a bigger deal than these photographs, right? Iraq. Or the politicized intelligence officer who told the public yesterday that "probable cause" isn't in the 4th amendment.
I do wonder about situations like these at the moment after the photographs are revealed. After the lights come back on. What's it going to feel like to see that you have both hands stuffed deep down the pants of a story about five photographs with Abramoff. Do you slink toward the exits and engage in a self-loathing sesh, or do you put your nose right back to the ground, hot on the trail for the rotten scent of fresh scandal porn?