Dodd's Guide to Managing Political Scandal

Mark Hemingway at National Review Online has a great article calling out Chris Dodd for his handling of Mozzillo-gate. He describes the four steps of the Dodd plan to managing a scandal: 1) proclaim innocence, 2) promise exculpatory evidence but don't provide it, 3) hide behind congressional ethics inquiries, and 4) wait around for everyone to forget.

This paragraph summarizes exactly why Dodd is playing the games he is playing:

Of course, his stalling here is just the preferred tactic for managing the media coverage of the scandal. “It’s hard for people in the media to keep writing stories when there’s nothing new to report. Which of course they count on. You get through the bad news cycle and there’s nothing new to report and people can’t keep writing the same thing every day,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told National Review Online. “The pressure fades and people in Dodd’s position know their constituents forget about it.”

That's why we can't let the story die, and it leads me to one aspect of the article I'll take issue with. Why the fawning over the Courant's coverage? I suppose it has been good compared to the national media, but that should be a given. It's a Connecticut paper; they ought to be covering Connecticut's corrupt senator a lot closer than the LA Times. But asking one question, with no follow-up, every month or two is far from the hard-hitting journalism Hemmingway seems to think we are being treated to.

Speaking of the Courant, Capitol Watch linked the NRO article here, and Instapundit linked it here.