I have to give the White House credit for being at least a little clever. In announcing that NSA Condi Rice would testify under oath to the 9/11 Commission, the White House also struck an interesting deal about Bush and Cheney answering the panel’s questions. The clever part was striking the deal in a way that allowed it to be overshadowed by the Rice news.
As everyone now knows, Bush and Cheney will appear together before all of the Commission’s members at some point over the next few weeks. The joint appearance was an important part of the White House negotiations and was reluctantly agreed to by the Commission’s leadership.
The odd thing, to me, is the complete inability of Bush or his allies to even try and spin this effectively. Everyone seems to realize that this makes the president look foolish, but it appears that no one can think of anything to say to defend it.
On Friday afternoon, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had the guts to say what a lot of us were thinking.
Pelosi says it’s baffling and embarrassing that President Bush is appearing before the September 11 commission with Vice President Dick Cheney at his side instead of by himself.
“I think it speaks to the lack of confidence that the administration has in the president going forth alone, period,” Pelosi, D-California, said Friday. “It’s embarrassing to the president of the United States that they won’t let him go in without holding the hand of the vice president of the United States.”
“I think it reinforces the idea that the president cannot go it alone,” she said. “The president should stand tall, walk in the room himself and answer the questions.”
In response, the White House responded with…nothing in particular.
I expected the vaunted White House communications team to come up with a creative explanation for why Bush is afraid to be alone in the same room as the Commission’s members, half of whom are Republicans. So far, the responses have varied from nonsensical to laughable.
* Bush and Cheney are busy men and this will save them time.
Karen Hughes suggested this point as an explanation yesterday on Meet the Press, arguing that a joint appearance will be a “more effective” use of Bush and Cheney’s time. This is simply illogical. If Bush gives the panel two hours, it’s taken up two hours of his time. Obviously, the same is true for Cheney. Neither of them actually saves time by appearing with the other. Two hours is two hours, whether one is alone or not. If anything, if the Commission asks identical questions to both, a joint appearance runs the risk of taking more time as each would have to sit through the other’s interview as well as their own.
* The Commission likes it this way.
This is almost amusing in its inanity. In response to Pelosi’s comments, White House spokesman Ken Lisaius argued that the Minority Leader was wrong because, “This has been a development that the commission welcomes and said so in their own statement.” The Commission may have welcomed the development inasmuch as the members were glad that the White House agreed to cooperate, but that does not mean the Commission wanted Bush and Cheney together. In fact, Chairman Thomas Kean reemphasized yesterday that the arrangement “was the White House request.” Kean added that the Commission “would have rather had them one at a time.”
* This helps the Commission save time.
At a briefing last Wednesday, a reporter asked White House press secretary Scott McClellan why there was a “specific insistence that they be together.” McClellan said, “Well, one, it will help make sure they get that information in a timely manner.” (McClellan said “one” as if there were other points, but he didn’t mention any other reasons.)
If I’m hearing McClellan right, having Bush and Cheney together will save the Commission time. Suddenly, the White House is worried about helping with the Commission’s tight schedule? They’ve been blocking cooperation every step of the way, wanted to deny the Commission more time to complete its work, and have fought against key White House officials testifying. Now we’re hearing that the White House is worried about the Commission getting information in “a timely manner.” Please.
Maybe there’s a more persuasive defense out there. Too bad the White House hasn’t thought of it yet.