On Day of Hope for White House, Today Show Sees "Nightmare" Scenario

• The Miers withdrawal was greeted with widespread approval;
• Conservatives are already beginning to rally around the president, awaiting what they optimistically expect to be a good replacement nominee.
• If you believe the NY Times, Karl Rove has dodged the indictment bullet, at least for the time being.

So if you were writing the opening graphic for this morning's Today show, what would it have been?

"White House Breathes Sigh of Relief"?

Or perhaps "White House on Road to Recovery"?

Silly you! We're talking about the Today show here! They went with "White House Nightmare."

Tim Russert, interviewed by Katie, was fully into Today's zeitgeist, painting everything in the worst possible light for the Bush administration.

Couric: "If [Scooter Libby] resigns, how big a deal will this be for the White House?

Russert: "It's huge, Katie. It cuts to the core of what government is about. This will be about the issue of national security."

Couric: "Will there be fall-out for VP Cheney since Scooter Libby is his Chief-of-Staff?"

Russert: "Very significant [fallout], I believe, Katie."

Russert added something which, for once, was surely true: "If the case goes to trial, look for an awful lot of people seeing it as a way to put the war in Iraq on trial."

Katie shed some crocodile tears: "Well, the drip, drip, drip this is creating for the White Houe cannot be helpful."

Concurred Russert readily: "Not at all."

Finkelstein has degrees from Cornell, SUNY Buffalo and Harvard. He lives in Ithaca, NY where he hosts "Right Angle," a local political talk TV show. He is currently seeking a publisher for his anti-terrorism thriller, "Albergue Olimpico."