Must Read: White House Watch
Dan Froomkin changes the name of his column to "White House Watch." It is an old and honorable name: that is what the New Republic called John Osborne's column back when it was a real magazine. And Dan Froomkin is a worthy heir to John Osborne:
Dan Froomkin - How This White House Operates - washingtonpost.com: From the first time the White House was asked about allegations that senior officials had exposed a CIA agent's identity as part of a plot to discredit an administration critic, the answer was consistent. As spokesman Scott McClellan put it as early as July 22, 2003: "That is not the way this President or this White House operates." But in the course of the Scooter Libby trial, one thing has become quite clear: That is precisely the way this White House operates. Faced with accusations that they had marched the country to war on evidence they knew was suspect, White House aides evidently responded with little if any restraint in attempting to discredit their critics.
That lack of restraint, now exposed for all to see, is likely to leave a bad taste in the public's mouth. But generally speaking, it has served Bush and his aides well. The White House's ferocity -- compounded by an easily distracted press corps and a Republican-controlled Congress not the least bit interested in oversight -- successfully kept crucial information about the administration's use and abuse of prewar intelligence out of the public sphere through the 2004 election and, arguably, to this day.
White House Watch As of today, this column's name is changing from "White House Briefing" to "White House Watch." I am delighted with the new name -- in fact, it's what I originally proposed this column be called when it launched three years ago. My editors at washingtonpost.com feel that the new name better conveys the column's mission -- that is, to take a critical look at the White House and its media coverage. They also feel that renaming the column will head off any confusion that some users might have about its relationship to " Capitol Briefing," a new blog that just launched in washingtonpost.com's revamped Politics section. That blog will apparently not contain the same sort of opinionated analysis that I bring to my column. Nothing else is changing: Not my approach to the column, not the support of my editors, nothing...
