The Bird and the Box

It must have been a late spring up north because the golden plovers were all over town; not above the artic circle where they belonged. As a little boy growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, seeing wild life was nothing new, but this sea of birds that washed over our fields and forests was wonderful. Hunter instincts raged in the hearts of my buddy, Lawrence White and myself, and we set about to ‘catch us some birds’! The plan was to carefully balance a pasteboard box on a stick attached to a long string. A trail of bread bits would lead the unsuspecting plover into the trap, then a yank on the string and he would be ours. We sat in the bushes for hours watching the clouds of birds come down to cover the lawn around our box. They would come like falling rain, in squalls of tens and twelves, then explode into the air all at once like a hurricane of beating wings and erry calls; spooked by some too quick move or careless sound. Over and over again they churned between earth and sky, but not one paid the slightest attention to our box. There were so many birds that it seemed the mere force of the building mass would push one into our snare, but not a bird showed any interest in bread or box. At last I lost it and stood up. The plovers were gone in a roaring cloud. I kicked the box and headed home. Lawrence called bitterly after me; he cried warm tears. Why wouldn’t I stay? How could I abandon him? Surly, with so many plovers, one would be ours if we would just wait long enough. I went and got my 22 and shot a few. We didn’t speak for weeks.

For two years the media and their stoolies in the Democrat Party have crafted and tended the Valeri Plame trap. Now, after failing to coax in any birds and with nothing to show for their years of casting their bread upon the waters, Bob Woodward has kicked out the stick and left the Left with nothing but bitter tears.

Perusal of Fox News reports for Friday, November 18th (referenced here in my attempt to reach up to recent standards in the Agora) shows the falling out of media buddies.

Woodward, once the patron saint of investigative journalists, is now the subject of angry and pouting disappointment. Critics charge that Woodward has become too cozy with Sources. One wonders where such media wise-guys were when Woodward was wooing Deep Throat. Colleagues at the Washington Post sob that “people feel let down!” Why; because Woodward told the truth and crushed the carefully crafted snare the media had built for President Bush?

Close Woodward friend, Walter Pincus (I couldn’t have made up a more fitting name) insists he can’t remember that Woodward told him about Plame two weeks before Libby is alleged to have blown her cover. How convenient for media types, they need have no memory of the facts. Too bad the poor souls they ensnare aren’t given an equal latitude of tolerance. By the way, Pincus is already in contempt of Court for failing to disclose a leaker, but that is only a crime if you’re a bird slated for the box.

It seems Woodward is already in trouble for telling the truth about the Scooter (where do they get these names) witch hunt. Woodward has claimed that this tea pot tempest is a pretty crumby case and not at all significant. This degradation of the carefully crafted box trap; dropped Woodward from media hero to Bush flunky in a wing flick.

Woodward’s revelation has kicked the sticks out from under the box of Prosecutor Fitzgereld’s teetering trap. The prosecutor’s clam that “He [Libby] was at the beginning of the chain of phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter”, has not only fallen flat, it has been stepped on.

In his own defense, Woodward states, “People want reporters to use information as a political weapon. I won’t do that. I’m just trying to find out what happened and report it as accurately as possible.” Woodward’s memory is a little foggy. Those outside the media box have a better memory of the political ramifications of Watergate, or has all that Deep Throat stuff started stinging Woodward’s conscience. Let’s hope so!