A scary take on Gannongate

I've been jumping up and down for weeks about Gannongate -- about how important it is, about what an opportunity it presents, even about what to call it. Eric Boehlert at Salon writes about how the Gannon story is playing out as a part of the broader context -- the seige of the mainstream media by Team Bush. That set off a new tinfoil hat-Area 51 concern for me: what if Gannon's presence in the White House was not a mistake -- what if we are going exactly where Karl Rove wants us to go?

The Administration loves to undermine the ability of the media to intermediate their message at every opportunity. They seem to have a two part strategy: starve them for access unless they offer tribute, and destroy their credibility if they don't. The Dan Rather snafu was a big win, but Rove always pushes the envelope. Success only breeds the need for another fix, a bigger scam. I can imagine Rove seeking to build on the planting of documents with CBS by making a mockery of reporters in general. How better than to plant a complete bozo and let the Left take down your enemy, or even encourage your enemy destroy itself?

This is exactly the sort of heads-I-win, tails-you-lose Rove is famous for. If this is what happened, we are all in deep doo-doo.