Cursor's Media Patrol - 01/05/06

Reporting that "President Bush and senior Republican lawmakers moved on Wednesday to dump thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Jack Abramoff," the New York Times notes that Abramoff "changed his look" when he "appeared in federal court in Miami to enter two guilty pleas in a related fraud case."

As Newt Gingrich claims that Democrats are "much more tolerant of corruption" than Republicans, Hullabaloo's Digby finds the press "already buckling" under "tremendous pressure from the Republicans to report this as a bi-partisan scandal," and David Sirota urges Democrats to ponder the difference between 'Getting caught vs. coming clean.'

Recess appointments by President Bush include a new head of immigration, a new Homeland Security disaster preparedness official, and a State Department emergency relief coordinator with "zero experience" but good political connections.

Molly Ivins wonders, "How long do you think it would take to connect you to Osama bin Laden?" and Baghdad Burning's Riverbend describes employee reaction to a new bagman at Iraq's Oil Ministry.

An 'NSA whistleblower asks to testify' before Congress, and NBC scrubs a transcript of a question by Andrea Mitchell, who asked New York Times' reporter James Risen: "You don't have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?" Plus: Argument advanced that all leaks are not created equal.