Balloon Juice on “Snoopgate” Jomentum

I enjoyed this post by Tim F. over at Balloon Juice on the issue of Bush snooping on American citizens without a warrant. (I’ve heard it referred to as “snoopgate” — who knows if a “gate” designation will stick and what it will eventually be, but for now, that’s my shorthand.) He manages to predict doom for the White House *and* get a dig in on everyone’s favorite DINO, Joe Lieberman:

From the White House perspective this FISA story seems to have taken on that most dreaded kind of momentum, Joementum. (link not in the original). Joementum is that inexorable political quicksand where every effort to push back only embarrasses you further. Joementum is the classical tragedy in which the hero’s own character flaw seals his unhappy fate before the high-flying first act has closed. The White house saw this story coming for over a year, and yet their explanations range from wrong (“Congress had oversight,” “the 9/11 resolution allowed Bush to bypass legislation.”) to disingenuous (“FISA courts ruled in 2002 that it was ok“) to embarassingly trite (“Clinton did it“).