NOT IN THE MAIL: For some reason, no one has gotten around to sending me a copy of Helen Thomas’s new book, Watchdogs of Democracy? : The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public. However, I did get a press release saying that “Today’s journalists, to hear Thomas tell it, have become subdued and are failing to fulfill their most vital role in American life: to be the watchdogs of democracy.”

Well, just because it barks at everything doesn’t mean it’s a watchdog. Something Thomas herself might keep in mind. . . .