'Uranium From Africa' Doesn't Have the Smell of 'I Am Not a Crook,' but It Has at Least a Whiff of Flap
People in the nation's capital don't use the word "scandal" lightly. Here, a scandal is an almost sacred thing. It has formal structures. It has institutionalized traditions. Corruption at the highest levels -- its ritualized exposure and punishment amid a media frenzy that humbles the mighty and turns obscure government employees into cult figures -- is a cherished part of our community heritage.
If certain criteria aren't met, the thing in question is not a scandal, but merely a controversy, or a furor, or something even more trivial than that: a flap.
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Those who perceive a scandal will argue that the stakes are high, even if the details are sometimes a bit dry.
William Rivers Pitt, managing editor of the online journal Truthout, says: "This doesn't have sex, this doesn't have the definition of 'is,' it doesn't have stained dresses. What it's got is an increasing number of dead American soldiers."The president's defenders say there's nothing here at all, except a desperate attempt to undermine the president and his war policy. One former Republican political appointee said yesterday, "It's a nothingburger."
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