News-Record.com

So Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., had himself a wreck and offers this defense: "I wasn't drinking. I was high." Or, you know, words to that effect.

I don't know about D.C., but here in N.C., you can get a DWI even if you haven't had a drop to drink, if you have taken medication of any kind that has impaired your ability to drive. (The "I" in DWI stands for "impaired," not "intoxicated." True fact, as Mark Sutter would say.) You'll want to remember that the next time you have a cold.

And if that's the case in D.C. as well, then by all means the district should prosecute Kennedy. (Or even if it's not the case, if prosecutors can prove Kennedy was, in fact, drinking, although I suspect we've lost the chance to get a definitive answer on that question. And why is it that this particular Congresscritter appears to have gotten special treatment from the police?)

But here's what I don't get (and neither does Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo and TPMmuckraker.com): Why are the networks making such a big deal about this ... and ignoring bigger things going on?

The simple fact is that when you have an alleged driving under the influence or sleep-driving story and it involves a Kennedy, the press is going to be all over that. What's new.

But here's what does get my attention. There's another pretty tawdry story that's out there -- one about members of Congress getting sauced up at rollicking parties and set up with hookers by crooked defense contractors in exchange for help bagging pricey defense contracts.

That's pretty salacious too. You'd expect the press to be all over it. As [TPMmuckraker.com staffer] Justin reported yesterday, the legendary Watergate Hotel has already received mulitple subpoenas from federal investigators investigating the hotel's role in 'Hookergate'. So this thing's for real.

Yet, I'm not seeing any morning show's running with it.

And, while the Kennedy story is 'newsy' it doesn't really have any greater policy implications. And the public trust implications are minor. The Wilkes-Watergate-Hooker story, on the other hand, is both. It's salacious, which the press loves. And it's also directly tied to crooks ripping off taxpayers, probably allowing our service members abroad to have shoddy equipment or defense dollars going to worthless projects.

So, [TPMmuckraker.com is] the Kennedy case. But why the silence [except, he later notes, on last night's NBC Nightly News] on the much bigger scandal bubbling up out of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee?

Cricket, cricket ...

Why indeed? Honestly, I don't know the answer. I mean, normally, a story about an (allegedly) impaired Kennedy would trump a policy story on TV news. But doesn't the hooker angle trump that? I mean, c'mon ... Congresscritters, hookers, bribes ... what's not to love, even for TV news?

UPDATE: CIA director Porter Goss resigns, and The Wall Street Journal explains how that might be related:

The agency also has been drawn into a federal investigation of bribery that has sent former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham to prison. Just this past week, the CIA confirmed that its third-ranking official, a hand-picked appointee of Mr. Goss, had attended poker games at a hospitality suite set up by a defense contractor implicated in the bribing of former Rep. Cunningham. Friday, people with knowledge of the continuing Cunningham inquiry said the CIA official, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, is under federal criminal investigation in connection with awarding agency contracts.

Unrelatedly, the Journal's Web site, much of which is normally behind a subscriber pay wall, is totally free at the moment in celebration of its 10th anniversary. They've done many, many things right on that site, so go check it out.