Tuesday, October 24, 2006
This Is Just Stupid
White House Abandoning 'Stay the Course'
White House press secretary Tony Snow and presidential counselor Dan Bartlett disclosed the policy change, saying the short-hand description failed to "capture the dynamism" of the flexible U.S. approach to security setbacks on the ground.They're not rejecting their disastrous policy. They're abandoning the description. And we're supposed to think, if they tell us that they're not stubbornly marching off the cliff after all, they'll gain some support for what's going on in Iraq:
What you have is not 'stay the course' but, in fact, a study in constant motion by the administration and by the Iraqi government -- and frankly also by the enemy," Snow told reporters at a White House briefing. "You constantly have to adjust to what the other side is doing." Snow said Bush administration officials were abandoning the policy description because it "left the wrong impression about what was going on."Memo to Bush: "Heed what I say, not what I do" isn't going to work, either. By the way, has there ever been a more pathetic White House press secretary than Tony Snow? The few times I've seen or heard him, he's sounded totally out of his depth. He stammers. He doesn't seem to know how to change the subject when the questions put him on the spot. He argues with the reporters (or tries to), a fatal error when you need to control the conversation. He sets himself up to be knocked around. Making an official announcement about a change in buzzwords? Good grief, is he moonlighting as a writer for David Letterman and Jon Stewart? I remember the Ari Fleischer days. I hated Ari, but I had to admire his smoothness. And Scott McClellan, though lacking in Ari's glib arrogance, could at least obfuscate and stonewall with the best of them. Tony just fumbles. The White House press office has gone from the slime to the ridiculous.
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