Media gossip tells us that the next Republican target of CBS will be House Majority Leader Tom DeLay who, like their last target (GW) is also from Texas. According to Drudge"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is about to get the full 60 MINUTES treatment. CBSNEWS Lesley Stahl and her crew crashed a tsunami-relief photo op that Republican DeLay held last week. Stahl hit DeLay with questions about Ronnie Earle, the Democratic Travis County district attorney who is investigating a Texas political action committee founded by DeLay. `This is about children,' DeLay told Stahl, trying as hard as he could to put a plug in her relentless line of questioning. Stahl hammered away. After about the third question, DeLay ended the press conference. Stahl is being criticized for" crashing" a conference on Tsunami but, as far as I can see, a journalist has the right to ask any question of general concern to a public official at a news conference; indeed, a journalist may have an obligation to stray away from the self-flattering topics preferred by that official.

Also Rose Mary Woods, ex-President Nixon's secretary, has died. Woods infamously erased 18-minutes worth of conversation from key White House tapes subpoenaed by the Senate on the Watergate scandal. By accident (as she claimed) or through loyalty to Nixon (as critics allege)? The answer to that query and to what was in the erased gap has died with Woods. I wonder if anyone attempted to interview Woods before her death? The blogspot Scylla & Charybdis provides interesting commentary.

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