PressEthic

Slate blogger Mickey Kaus is wondering whether President Bush intends to sign a bill passed by Congress that would construct 700 miles of wall along the Mexican border (I make the liberal case for a border wall here.)

Here's an excerpt from the Kaus post:

If I were paranoid, I would notice that even though WaPo and other MSM outlets have reported that Bush "has indicated that he will sign" the bill, he hasn't really. His alleged promise to sign took place on CNN, and he obsessively restricted his answer to the appropriations bill (which he's signed) not the Secure Fence Act.

I think Kaus' analysis that follows is quite astute -- he basically shows that both Bush and Hastert answered questions about the border wall bill using eerily similar Clintonian locutions that actually don't commit Bush to anything.

I suppose we'll know soon enough what Bush intends to do to the bill anyway, but it would be nice if some White House reporter who reads Kaus would ask about the bill sometime today.

Blogs and the mainstream media -- they're symbiotic and complementary, I tell you.