THE BENEFITS OF BOLD, AUDACIOUS WRONGDOING

The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq.

What would have received a cry of outrage so great it would shake the pillars of the Capitol Building during the Clinton years now gets a mild interview question or two on Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer and the other Sunday morning news interview shows.

I've come to believe that the Bush administration escapes, time and again, the consequences of its actions to an extent that never could have been imagined pre-9/11 simply because what would have been called "scandals" pre-Shrub burst upon the American consciousness at a rate that precludes time for reflection upon any single outrage. Weekly, sometimes daily, we are awakened to another example of BushCo lying, law-breaking, laziness and/or lack -- of competence, of knowledge, of compassion, of morals, of vision, of democratic principles.

It's too much for Americans to absorb. So they disbelieve. And tune out.