In what's so far been a slow news week, bloggers are playing media critics, reacting to Washington Post stories on President Bush's political strategies and the Jack Abramoff saga, as well as poking fun at a newsgathering gaffe by the Los Angeles Times. (Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)

Saving President Bush: A piece in today's Washington Post profiles the inside battle to salvage President Bush's scandal-filled second term. While top adviser Karl Rove has advocated a hard-line offense to counter critics, other aides prefer a softer approach.

Pointing out that Democrats are perceived as soft on defense, The Application Blog's Brian Beutler says Rove's strategy is probably the right one for Bush to follow. "So as long as Bush maintains a fierce, belligerent facade, he'll be fine politically. If in 2009 there's a Democratic president who pulls us out of Iraq, then she'll be the one held accountable for whatever goes wrong (or right, I suppose) in the aftermath."

On Takeitpersonally, a blog calling for Bush's impeachment, Profmarcus said "facing reality may become the new bush strategy" and adds that that "oughta be interesting, given how much reality he has yet to face."

Other bloggers are reacting to the Post's story rather than the White House's inner workings. At Wonkette, contributor Dceiver saw the story as a love fest spun to make even ill-conceived Bush efforts appear doomed by outside forces. Dceiver quotes from the Post story: "Overarching initiatives such as restructuring Social Security are unworkable in a time of war" and adds her own translation: "Yeah, or: Unworkable solutions to Social Security are unworkable at any time whatsoever."

On Speakspeak, Eric Jaffa complains that the paper is spewing "right wing rhetoric" in cahoots with the administration. He calls the administration's efforts at tort reform an effort to impede injured citizens looking to sue corporations for defective products. Jaffa says the story's slant falls right in line with the pro-business Bush administration.

Mike Stark at liberal Daily Kos seems to hold the opposite viewpoint, asserting that the Post is not toeing the Republican party line. "I mean, how surreal is it to witness this institutional news source extricate itself from the bowels of the republican noise machine right before our very eyes?" Stark cops to a serious case of "schadenfreude" when it comes to the Bush backtrack.

A post by Jack Ballinger on Bluecollarpolitics.com blasts the Post for using only its own poll numbers to support the assertion that Bush is gaining back some of his lost popularity points among Americans. "So, when the Washington Post states 'Despite the gain in polls,' there's a good reason they ONLY point to their own poll, as it's the only one that fits their headline."

Read more about Bush's strategy here.

"The Enron of lobbying": Bloggers are digging into the Post's profile of Jack Abramoff, which describes  him as an "ingenious dealmaker who hatched interlocking schemes that exploited the machinery of government and trampled the norms of doing business in Washington." Friends and associates of the former Washington lobbyist are being indicated for fraud, corruption, and even murder for a series of scandals.