On Destroying Presidents, and That Guy in Pittsburgh

Lots of Blogchatter today about Richard Mellon Scaife, the Darth Vader of the Clinton impeachment caper, who now says that staying in Iraq is “suicide” and that Bush is “delusional” (link).

Lots of good fun here and maybe some political content, but I wouldn’t go too hubba hubba. Recall that Scaife is a prime bearer of the principal affliction of newspaper publishers—an all-consuming Need to be Noticed. Take the lot of them—William Randolph Hearst, Lord Beaverbrook, Rupert Murdoch, Conrad Black, whoever—and you see a bunch of guys jumping up and down and yelling “Hey, lookie me, lookie me!” with an avidity that would put Newt Gingrich to shame. Scaife hasn’t had much action since the Clinton years. Time to rev up the lookie-me engine.

By corollary, if there is anything at all of interest in the current uproar, it may be the fact that Scaife seems to think that a(nother) president is bring-down-able. Of course he was wrong the last time, so no particular need to be impressed by him now.

Bonus: For students of dynastic influence, the real Pittsburgh newspaper just recently offered a convenient summary of Mellon connections (link).