Fool Me 43,912 Times, Shame On Me

A few days ago, when I was musing about the odd timing of the NYC subway alert and Bush's speech on terrorism (which came in the midst of a GOP unraveling in Washington), I just had a feeling it would come to this: "N.Y. subway threat a hoax"

It feels funny, frankly, to imagine that something like a possible subway attack could be fabricated with cooperation of political operatives to enhance the president's image in a time of political crisis. But we already know, though there's been little outrage, that the White House constantly prodded Tom Ridge and the Department of Homeland Security to issue terrorism warnings in the run-up to the 11/04 election. That's no mere hypothesis; Ridge has said as much.

It's interesting to note that DHS raised the threat level to orange on July 30, 2004, the day after John Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention -- a time when candidates typically emerge from their nominating convention with a bump in the polls and lots of media coverage.

So, again: Why and how did this hoax rise to the level it did in NYC on the same day that the president delivered what was promoted as "a major policy address" (which it wasn't) on terrorism? Is there more to this story? How often does this need to happen at politically convenient times before it's more seriously investigated and reported on? And what is the long-term impact of "crying wolf"? Nothing good in this. Nothing.