Today's quote-of-the-day Honorable Mention goes to Michael Isikoff for diagnosing the Bush gang's latest anti-NYT fight as yet another war of choice

Of course, QOTD can't be expected to work on krugmandays (days on which Paul Krugman is officially on vacation). So once again it's Honorable Mention only.

HONORABLE MENTION
"It's clear to me that they want to have this fight."
—Newsweek investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff, this morning on Air America Radio

Under other circumstances, we might have cited The Daily Show for its hilarious deconstruction last night of those seven sad-sack souls grotesquely pumped up into a major terrorist threat—whose thwarting was in some way connected to the bank-transfer spying program—by Bush administration lackeys spearheaded by Attorney General Al "The Torture Guy" Gonzales. However, at this point it appears that the Daily Show writers are actually writing the administration's material. They can hardly be rewarded for planting their own stories.

So today's Honorable Mention goes to Michael Isikoff for some gasbag-puncturing perspective on the administration's pugnacity in the matter of the New York Times's—though not the Wall Street Journal's or Los Angeles Times's—revelation of the government's secret bank-transfer screening activities.

Isikoff pretty much dismissed the prospect of any actual indictment of the NYT or anyone else, pointing out that Treasury Dept. officials actually provided briefings on the program to ensure accuracy. He described the political strategy at work as "Rovian jujitsu," the process of attempting to turn a political weakness into a strength, this being a fight the administration thinks it can score political points with, especially knowing that it can control the terms of the debate.