The Underlying Problems

"But our interest is in making certain the members of Congress have full information about it, and that, we're convinced, will give them a level of comfort with this. . . .

"What is important is that members of Congress have the time to get fully briefed on this. They're going to be coming back next week. We intend to work closely with them in order to give them a comfort level on this."

And while the majority of the Republican party -- and even right-wing talk radio -- may have abandoned Bush on this issue, you can apparently count on Tony Snow to remain a Bush apologist to the end.

On the terrible misunderstanding at the root of the problem:

"SNOW: Is it safe to say, then, that a lot of members who are speaking with a sense of authority actually don't know all the facts?

"ROVE: Well, look, I talked to some members in the last several days, and they have an interest in finding out more about it. But, yes, most members are just picking up and reading something in the newspaper, hearing something on talk radio."

And on Bush being out of the loop:

"SNOW: It's not like somebody comes in and shakes the president awake every time somebody has a sale that involves a foreign company.

"ROVE: Right.

"SNOW: If so, he'd never get any sleep and he'd never get any work done.

"ROVE: Exactly. Exactly."

Katrina Redux

The White House yesterday came out with its own assessment of what went wrong after Hurricane Katrina, and it faults the system, not the leadership.