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New What, you're just hearing about this?
I *KNOW* I read an article about exactly this kind of thing at least three years ago, if not more.
Odoru aho ni miru aho!
Onaji aho nara odoranya son son!
New Josh Marshall addresses your point
Nothing new here? True enough. [link|http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/009824.php|But...]
I know that sounds flip, but there really is something going on here worth noting. For instance, any reasonable person's reaction to the Post story will be a variation on, "Duh!" Bush placed a premium on political fealty rather than competence and effectiveness? Who is surprised by that? No one. So you read the piece for the anecdotes, like the fact that the Pentagon official responsible for screening political appointees is Jim O'Beirne, husband of conservative commentator Kate O'Beirne.

Isn't it usually the other way around? Reporters, and their readers, look for the facts in order to construct a larger picture. Ideally the facts are pieced together into a mosaic in which discrete bits of information that may otherwise be meaningless standing alone now contribute to a greater level of understanding.

Not so with many Bush era stories. The President's modus operandi is so well established, but the cloak of secrecy so tightly closed, that the broad outlines of a story may be known months or years before the particular facts are uncovered to flesh out the details. The closest thing I can compare it to is reading the next day's sports story after watching the game. You read not to learn who won, but for colorful anecdotes, and at some level to confirm what you have already seen and know to be true.

Of course this Administration's record--or, more precisely, the recording of that record--is a far more serious undertaking than a ballgame. The effort is similar in some respects to what people grappled with in the 1990s in post-communist Eastern Europe and post-Apartheid South Africa. There is something fundamental about knowing the details. I'm not sure that journalism as we now know and practice it is particularly suited to filling in the details well after the fact, but I don't think we can afford to wait for the historians.
cordially,
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
     To help rebuild Iraq you needed the "right" stuff - (rcareaga) - (16)
         What, you're just hearing about this? - (inthane-chan) - (1)
             Josh Marshall addresses your point - (rcareaga)
         Laid out in painful detail - (JayMehaffey)
         you missed the point, to make the great steal happen - (boxley) - (12)
             You must be a fan of Naomi Klein - (jake123) - (11)
                 hell with them, it was OUR money -NT - (boxley) - (10)
                     Oh, they took their money too - (jake123) - (9)
                         difference between legitimate loot and theft - (boxley) - (8)
                             Oh, it's OK to invade a country for no reason and loot them - (jake123) - (7)
                                 almost 1/2 trillion dollars so far -NT - (boxley) - (6)
                                     Sorry, that does not compute - (jake123) - (5)
                                         Does it really matter? - (Simon_Jester) - (4)
                                             You can bet that it does to the Iraqi citizenry - (jake123) - (2)
                                                 actively aided and abetted by that Iraqi citizenry - (boxley) - (1)
                                                     Hey, there's no doubt that some of them made out like - (jake123)
                                             It's only money - (rcareaga)

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