Remember how George W. Bush distanced himself from his old buddy Ken Lay? Using Clintonian tactics, he parsed his words carefully and came up with an assertion that Lay had “supported Ann Richards” for Texas governor… when in fact, Lay contributed huge amounts to Bush and a paltry sum to Richards. The close connections between Bush and Lay are well documented. And yet, Bush somehow gets off easy by stepping back and pretending that he’s not involved.
And now, he’s beginning to use the same tactic when it comes to supporting his puppeteer, Karl Rove. The only problem is, no one will buy it if he claims that he really doesn’t know Rove all that well.
… GOP officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid looking disloyal, said the president may face a credibility problem because his spokesman said in September that anybody involved in the leak would be fired.
These Republicans, all admirers of Rove, said they were surprised and disappointed when Bush stopped short of publicly backing his longtime aide.
… Later in the day, White House spokesman Scott McClellan insisted that Rove did have Bush’s support. “As I indicated yesterday, every person who works here at the White House, including Karl Rove, has the confidence of the president,” McClellan said.
… McClellan said Bush had not expressed confidence in Rove in a session with reporters because no one had asked him that directly. Still, Bush had three opportunities in two days to defend Rove publicly after questions about the case were posed to him and, for whatever reasons, he chose not to do so.
“Why didn’t you say you support him?”
“You never asked.”
I swear, I’m tired of bringing up Clinton, but the way the Bush White House carefully chooses every single word and hides behind technicalities is so far beyond the Clinton sneakiness that I can’t help myself. With the way the right treated Bill Clinton, the hypocrisy is so thick that it’s choking. I hated it when Clinton did it… but what am I supposed to make of an administration that did it’s best to vilify that kind of behavior and yet does it even more?
