The D.C. Punditry has Stockholm Syndrome

Wikipedia defines Stockholm Syndrome as "a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed." Kidnap victims, for example have been known to become emotionally attached to their victimizers, and even defend their captors and their motives after they were freed.

The victim, in other words, becomes an emotional captive of their victimizer.

Glenn Greenwald describes the relationship between Karl Rove and the the D.C. Pundits thus:

Rove's function is to manipulate the media, conceal information from them, and induce them to say what is politically beneficial to the President. In a world where political journalism performs its most basic functions, media manipulators like Rove are the natural enemy of journalists. But for our pundit class, Karl Rove is the North Star of what they do -- he provides their instructions, their leaks, their scoops, their access. And as the purveyor of Beltway political power, he is their most admired leader.

If you view the D.C. Pundits as the victims and Karl Rove as their victimizer, then we can really only assume form their slavish attention to every word Rove says as though spoken by a God or a genius then the D.C. Pundit Corps must be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.