1115.org

At the joint press conference with Tony Blair this morning, Kelly O’Donnell asked the president the question that many Americans already seem to regard as a foregone conclusion:

Q Thank you, sir. There’s been some very dramatic testimony before the Senate this week from one of your former top Justice Department officials, who describes a scene that some senators called “stunning,” about a time when the wireless — when the warrantless wiretap program was being reviewed. Sir, did you send your then Chief of Staff and White House Counsel to the bedside of John Ashcroft while he was ill to get him to approve that program? And do you believe that kind of conduct from White House officials is appropriate?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Kelly, there’s a lot of speculation about what happened and what didn’t happen; I’m not going to talk about it.

Surely they could have prepared a more artful dodge? Something that leaves him not looking so pathetically like a deer caught in the headlights. With his trousers around his ankles.

That’s really the best he could do? There’s a whole lot of speculation going on, Kelly, and why don’t we just let it continue? Why put it to rest?

Just yesterday Tony Snow produced a similarly half-hearted non-response to questions about the new War Czar:

Q Back on Lute. Why did it take so long, now into the fifth year of the war, to come up with somebody of his seniority and stature?

MR. SNOW: I don’t know. I think what happened is, again, as you’re taking a review, it became clear to us that this — as you develop — as you move into a new phase of the war — keep in mind, we are still in the process of deploying people in this new way forward, as the President called it, and therefore, it seems proper at a time like this also to task somebody with the job of keeping an eye on all the different players who are involved in it.

What we do have is a different set of policies governing what’s going on in Iraq. It is something that is government-wide in its scope, and therefore, it is appropriate to have somebody coming in, in a new position, in support of a new philosophy and a new way forward in Iraq, not only to monitor progress, but to do everything possible to assist those on the ground to help them succeed.

Q So you think this is a new need and you did not need someone to do this for the previous four years?

MR. SNOW: Well, again, I’m not going to try — I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for you.

Tony at least tried to get away with that vast and pompous emptiness, and clammed up only when he realized he’d gone and put his foot into it. But Bush decided to not even try. He just cut and run. Gave up without a fight.

Is he really not even bothering to pretend any more that he cares at all what anybody thinks?