Republicans look at options on Eric Massa scandal

And this:

After a week of lying low and watching House Democrats struggle with the Eric Massa sex scandal and resignation, GOP leaders are now weighing their options on how best to exploit the controversy.

What Politico fails to point out in its article is that, as a practical matter, GOP leaders don't really have any “options,” other than whining to the news media about the Massa story and hope journalists keep it alive. Republicans don't have any options because GOP leaders don't have any power and can't initiate any kind of Congressional inquiry. But Politico pretends Republicans are surveying their many “options.”

This piece strikes me as the latest example of how the Beltway press, and Politico in particular, continues to treat the GOP as the party in power; how the press snaps to attention whenever GOP leaders announce their fanciful plans.

Journalists routinely do so in a way they never did when Democrats were the in minority during the Bush years. Back then, Dem leaders were the definition of irrelevant. But today, the press acts like Republicans run the government.

Thanks to the last two election cycles, they don't. You'd think that the press would have noticed by now.