This MSNBC article is a must-read:
Soon after Bush’s chesty Mansfield
Room talk, Team Bush gathered itself, and
fought back hard—”whacking the rats,” as
the aide put it. They dispatched Vice
President Dick Cheney to wave the
patriotic flag at a political dinner in New
York, where he warned critics not to make
“incendiary comments” that are “totally
unworthy of national leaders in time of
war.” The Bushies even took the
unprecedented step of wheeling out Laura
Bush to defend her husband. Traveling in
Budapest, Hungary, Mrs. Bush stayed up
late to watch a Condi Rice briefing. The
next morning the First Lady volunteered to
reporters that it was “very sad that people
would play upon the victims’ families’
emotions, or all Americans’ emotions.”
The counteroffensive temporarily
silenced most Democrats. But the Bush
administration nevertheless found itself in
a nightmarish if familiar Washington
predicament, forced to issue statements
without knowing what leaks might
immediately undercut them. Investigative
committees were demanding (and getting)
access to thousands of potentially
explosive documents, and bureaucrats
suddenly were less interested in protecting
the president than in protecting their own
rears and reputations.
So you mean they were going to lie? Karl, tell me it isn't so...
