Cheney's 'Dark Side' Is Showing

"Mr. Bush was not mentioned in the indictment. But the fact that so many of his aides seem to have been involved in dealing with the issue that eventually led to the leak -- how to rebut or discredit Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat who had challenged the administration's handling of prewar intelligence -- leaves open the question of what the president knew. . . .

"But the Bush White House has always been good at what one close Republican ally refers to admiringly as 'making their own reality,' meaning that the president and his top aides stick doggedly to their political script and agenda, refusing to be knocked off course. What Democrats consider stubbornness and detachment, Mr. Bush's admirers consider determination, and in this case that trait suggests the White House will be in no rush to acknowledge mistakes or to offer detailed explanations that might swamp the president's second-term plans."

Blogger Brad Friedman , writing on Huffingtonpost.com, takes issues with Stevenson's assertion that "there has been no suggestion that Mr. Bush did anything wrong."

Friedman writes: "Okay, then. Let me be the first (as far as Stevenson is apparently concerned) to both 'suggest' and 'hint' that not only did Bush do something wrong, he was also both 'involved' and 'aware' of it."

And here's another exchange from Sunday's "Chris Matthews Show," this one with Newsweek's Howard Fineman:

Matthews: "Was he in the loop, the president? Did he know they're going to basically out this woman, this undercover agent, or otherwise deal with this challenge from Joe Wilson or was he sitting around watching them all do it?

Fineman: "I think he's in the loop the way Tony Soprano is in the loop at the Bada Bing. I mean. . . . "

Matthews: "For those of us without HBO, what does that mean?"

Fineman: "He's the godfather. The godfather doesn't know all the details."

Ethics Training

It's the first formal sign of any acknowledgment from inside the White House that maybe somebody did something wrong in the CIA leak case.

Jim VandeHei writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

"According to a memo sent to aides yesterday, Bush expects all White House staff to adhere to the 'spirit as well as the letter' of all ethics laws and rules. As a result, 'the White House counsel's office will conduct a series of presentations next week that will provide refresher lectures on general ethics rules, including the rules of governing the protection of classified information,' according to the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a senior White House aide."