Sorry, but I’m fascinated by him as a case study in how the “mainstream” media works. Pretty much everything he has written over the last three months has come from Democrats on the Hill–they have been spoon-feeding the guy like a baby. I noticed that his descriptions of the agenda of his sources has lately seemed to get a little more explicit, until I half expected to read in one of his pieces: “according to transcripts provided by a congressional official who would like to ambush and knee-cap Bolton in the Capitol Hill garage.” Anyway, today he claims to have bi-partisan sourcing. How extraordinary. He writes, “The officials included people on both sides of the debate over Mr. Bolton’s nomination who said they wanted to provide the public with a clearer picture of the nature of the dispute between Congress and the White House.” Now, it’s possible, but I find it very hard to believe that a Republican picked up a phone and gave this information to Jehl. More than likely, it was Democrats on the Hill (one would guess Rockefeller’s people) who fed Jehl this item, and the he went to confirm it with Republicans, who thus provided him the cover of his bi-partisan sourcing. Could be wrong, but that’s my theory.
One other note: this stuff is extremely sensitive. No one should be leaking it, but someone hands it to Jehl. It’s why the administration should be very reluctant to hand anything more over to the Democrats. The chain will go administration-to-Hill Democrats-to-Jehl as reliably as Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance.