Chertoff Flip-Flops On Border Patrol, The Press Yawns

Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff thinks the idea of deploying National Guard troops to secure the U.S.-Mexican border would be "a horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem," mostly because the Guard "is not trained for the mission." Chertoff insists that "Unless you would be prepared to leave those people in the National Guard day and night for month after month after month, you would eventually have to come to grips with the challenge in a more comprehensive way. I think there's a smarter way to do it."

At least that's what Chertoff told Fox News' Bill O'Reilly just six months ago on national television.

Since Bush floated the Guard idea during his primetime address on immigration reform this week, Chertoff has caved on the issue and gone before the cameras to back the plan for Guard troops patrolling the border. (i.e. "We have used the National Guard and the military in support of the Border Patrol for about two decades, so this is not new.") As for his previous, unequivocal statement about the whole thing being a "horribly over-expensive and very difficult way to manage this problem"? That's been flushed down the media memory hole. Chertoff, who has received mostly fawning Beltway press coverage ever since he helped over-excited reporters chase the Whitewater hoax during the 1990s, has nothing to fear from the press grilling him about his violent National Guard flip-flop because the press has a pathological desire to employ a double-standard for Democratic and Republican leaders. I detail the phenomenon throughout Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush, but that doesn't mean it's not distressing to watch yet another example unfold in plain sight, with the MSM--across the board and without exception--refusing perform its most simple function of holding public officials accountable.

Chertoff's bold National Guard flip-flop was first tagged by CQ magazine, which posted an item late Monday night, and on Tuesday's Josh Marshall's TPMmuckraker.com picked up the story. So the information is clearly out there. To date though, the press continues to play dumb. It probably goes without saying that Fox News, where Chertoff first made his "horribly over-expensive" quip, refuses to revisit the issue. In fact, Tuesday night O'Reilly himself was attacking liberal newspaper editorial pages for not backing Bush's plan to use Guard troops along the border. The fact that the Homeland Security secretary late last year told O'Reilly the idea was a loser, well, that was politely ignored. It was also politely ignored by the timorous news crews over at CNN and MSNBC, where Chertoff was interviewed at length about the new plan for Guardsmen to shoo away Mexicans. The simple fact is that, according to TVeyes.com, Chertoff's "horribly over-expensive" quote has not been aired, or been recited, on any national television news outlet since the immigration issue went front-and-center this week. National Public Radio has also played dumb.

Chertoff's telling quote has also not been printed in the news hole of a single major newspaper, although lots of dailies, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, have dutifully quoted Chertoff about what great work the National Guard will do along the border.

Journalists don't like being called Lapdogs for the Bush crowd. But in instances like this, can you think of a better description?

UPDATE: Media Matters for America has lots of details on the press' no-show performance regarding Chertoff and the Guard.