Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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Over in the New York Sun, Andrew Ferguson writes in the middle of a farewell to Attorney General John Ashcroft that:

In American politics, every administration needs a bogeyman - some unlucky staffer or Cabinet member who draws controversy and disdain the way Velcro draws lint. The advantages to the president in keeping a bogeyman handy are obvious, since the controversy and disdain that might otherwise fall on the commander in chief are deflected elsewhere.

(I suspect “lightning rod” is a better term for this role in the cabinet than ‘bogeyman’ myself.) I wonder if the departure of Ashcroft has anything to do with the sudden surge in criticism for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

[Posted 12/15 10:35 AM]