Republicans Anonymous

The New York Times apparently knew W and his Bush League minions were violating federal law before the 2004 elections, and covered it up for as long as they could:

The initial Times statements did not say that the paper's internal debate began before the Nov. 2, 2004, presidential election — in which Iraq and national security questions loomed large — or make any reference to Risen's book, due out Jan. 16.

But two journalists, who declined to be identified, said that editors at the paper were actively considering running the story about the wiretaps before Bush's November showdown with Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts.

Top editors at the paper eventually decided to hold the story. But the discussion was renewed after the election, with Risen and coauthor of the story, reporter Eric Lichtblau, joining some of the paper's editors in pushing for publication, according to the sources, who said they did not want to be identified because the Times had designated only Keller and a spokeswoman to address the matter.

"When they realized that it was going to appear in the book anyway, that is when they went ahead and agreed to publish the story," said one of the journalists. "That's not to say that was their entire consideration, but it was a very important one of them."
(Source [via Atrios/Eschaton]: LA Times Critics Question Timing of Surveillance Story, Dec. 20, 2005 [emphasis added.])

So, those evil liberal media elitists at the New York Times kept the story a deep, dark secret until they found out it was going to come out anyway? I wonder whether they planned for the story to come out just after the so-called "Patriot" Act's renewal vote? Or maybe releasing the story when they did was more to distract us from their failure to publish it before Mr. Bush's "accountability moment" last November.