This story has nothing to do with Kundra or the Obama administration, yet Politico publishes a headline to suggest that Obama's appointee is being investigated. Since when does TPM take the Rove/Politico/GOP smear bait? Doesn't anyone check the facts before printing malicious information anymore?

What?!? Politico SPUN this to reflect badly on Obama. I'm astonished! I'm flabbergasted! I'm appalled! I....couldn't be less surprised.

Zach, you don't even link to the main story at WaPo:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/12/AR2009031201426.html

An official in the D.C. government's office of the chief technology officer and a contractor for the agency were arrested in a federal bribery sting today and the FBI has descended on the office to search for evidence, law enforcement sources said.

Yusuf Acar, 40, was taken into custody this morning by FBI agents at his home in Northwest Washington, the sources said.

Sushil Bansal, a former city employee and a contractor with the technology office, also has been arrested.

It took me one minute to find this. Two DC city employees get arrested for taking bribes. The work in an office that an Obama appointtee came from. How is any of this relevant, other than as a sensationalist attempt at a smear on the part of those hacks at Politico?

What I wanna know is why hasn't Obama cleaned house at the FBI yet? That outfit was transformed into a wasp's nest of right-wing loyalists and Stasi-esque thugs under Bush--and there are probably still many among the ranks who're just chomping at the bit for opportunities to embarrass or otherwise undermine the administration (or for that matter, any administration even remotely to the left of Pinochet).

They are indistiguishable in theor mission and philosophy and if it keeps up, they are ultimately going to sacrifice any credibility they have by continuing to publish the bile that comes from that corner and then having to clarify, correct and update.

I kind of suspect the only reason Politico came into existence was to first establish itself as a credible source for independent, even occasionally liberally-slanted perspective on events only to gradually shift its editorial perspective over time to become more right wing.

I think I read about similar PR methods having been consciously employed by "Movement" loyalists during the early days of the movement in former-neo-con journalist David Brock's "Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative."

It's a deliberate tactic to get potential targets of PR spin to drop their guard: once you come to trust the independence and objectivity of the sham media outlet's editorial perspective, that perspective begins to shift subtly, injecting more and more partisan spin and bias into its reporting (which, by now, you've come to trust implicitly) until, before you know it, it's transformed itself into a propaganda outlet for a particular ideological agenda, without ever losing your trust.

Or at least, that's the idea. I have absolutely no proof that's what Politico's doing, apart from the inexplicable and suspiciously timely echoes of certain right-wing talking points I sometimes detect in their top stories. But the fact that sophisticated techniques like these are knowingly used to shape public opinion should be enough to give anyone pause.

Actually, Vivek Kundra used to be my landlord, circa 2006 or so. He was working as some sort of technology advisor for Tim Kaine back then. He used to live on the property, but eventually had to move out because he was in Richmond all the time. Are you sure Vivek was working for the city of DC? I could have sworn he was working for Kaine.

Grow some balls. I hear nothing but whinning about how one of Obama's appointee may or may not be involed in this FBI raid. Give the story time to be vetted and stop being so senitive. Stories get into print way before the facts againist both parties, Republicans and Democrats, so just chill out and let the story unfold. Obama's a big boy and can take it. I don't think Kundra has any involvement and the worst scenario is it was going on under his nose.