Cursor's Media Patrol - 09/21/06

Frank Rich discusses his best-selling book, "The Greatest Story Ever Sold," in which he contends that "Iraq was just the vehicle to ride to victory in the midterms." But an otherwise rave review in Publishers Weekly, pooh-poohs Rich's notion that the invasion was motivated by electoral politics.

After comparing war critics to terrorists, MSNBC's Chris Matthews now claims to have been 'Against This Bullsh*t War From The Beginning,' adding that "the amazing thing is the President is winning now with a hand with nothing in it."

"Wolf, Wolf ..." After President Bush flip-flopped on sending troops into the "sovereign nation" of Pakistan, CNN's Wolf Blitzer failed to call him on the contradiction.

'Venezuelan strongman cites American leftist writer,' who gets top billing in a "Fox News Alert," amid a warning that "We could have another Cuban missile crisis in Venezuela."

Serious V.A. budget problems in fiscal 2005 and 2006 were caused by a persistent reliance on prewar data from the Pentagon, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

In an article for the New York Review of Books, Joan Didion recounts how Vice President Cheney acquired 'The Fatal Touch' -- along with the habit of "leaving the cleanup to someone else."

The AP reports that GOP lobbyists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed "landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House," while "simultaneously supporting the president and assisting" their friend and colleague Jack Abramoff.