TNR-More Cynical White House Kabuki

[LiviaOlivia]

Norm Scheiber's Daily Journal of Politics
02-26-04
http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml


MORE CYNICAL WHITE HOUSE KABUKI: This scene from today's Washington Post piece about the increasingly embattled 9/11 commission is just pure comedy:

Hastert told Republican lawmakers in a meeting yesterday that he will not bring up any legislation to grant the commission extra time, said spokesman John Feehery. Hastert rejected a personal plea from White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. on the extension Monday, Feehery said.

"He still doesn't feel the commission needs any extra time" and he believes that the panel "should complete its report as soon as possible," Feehery said, adding that a later deadline would make the commission "a political issue" during the presidential campaign.
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Right. And then Hastert laughed his Dr. Evil laugh and fired up his doomsday machine...

Needless to say, I find the idea of the White House getting overruled by Dennis Hastert utterly preposterous. The story is so obviously phony that it hardly needs rebutting. But I'll just leave you with this one thought: Given what we know about how much the White House values loyalty, and how brutally it punishes insubordination, why would Dennis Hastert's spokesman risk bragging to the Post about rebuffing the White House if the White House didn't want to be rebuffed?