Bush's Lie

Here's the text of Bush's remarks.

Zinsmeistered

Zachary A. Goldfarb wrote in The Washington Post on Tuesday: "Karl Zinsmeister, President Bush's new domestic policy adviser, acknowledged he did something wrong when he took a newspaper profile of himself, altered quotes and text, and then posted it on a Web site without noting the changes."

For links, see the very end of my Friday column . One of the quotes Zinsmeister altered was his assertion that "People in Washington are morally repugnant, cheating, shifty human beings."

The Washington Post editorial board yesterday coined a new term for doctored: "Zinsmeistered."

"White House press secretary Tony Snow said Mr. Zinsmeister wanted 'to set the record straight' but did so in an 'unartful' way. Other terms -- perhaps even some of Mr. Zinsmeister's own adjectives -- come to our mind."

Taheri Watch

Paul Kiel writes for TPM Muckracker: "Two weeks ago, Amir Taheri published an op-ed in Canada's National Post about an Iranian law that forced Jews to wear a yellow stripe. The story, reminiscent of Nazi Germany, quickly provoked outrage, but was just as quickly revealed to be a total fabrication . It also ran in the New York Post .

"Apparently this is just the sort of reliable advice that President Bush needs. Yesterday, Taheri had a face-to-face with the President as one of a small group of 'experts' on Iraq that visited the White House.

"According to Press Secretary Tony Snow, the experts were invited to the White House for their 'honest opinions' on Iraq."

New Staff Secretary

Bush swears in White House Staff Secretary Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of Appeals this afternoon in the Rose Garden. Yesterday, he announced Kavanaugh's replacement: Raul F. Yanes, currently the general counsel for the White House budget office, formerly senior counselor to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and before that an associate counsel at the White House, also under Gonzales.

So not exactly new blood.

Yanes, in fact, was one of two White House lawyers coordinating the initial White House response to the investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Marriage Amendment Watch

Fred Barnes writes in the Weekly Standard about how a Senate vote on the proposed amendment to the Constitution to restrict marriage to a man and woman is coming up next week.

"And President Bush, despite his wife Laura's admonition that the marriage issue ought to be kept out of politics, plans to host a pro-amendment event at the White House and speak out in favor of the amendment."

Barnes writes that Bush "will appear on June 5 in the Rose Garden before a gathering of amendment supporters and, a White House official says, 'strongly support' the amendment. The president has rarely mentioned the amendment in the past. The choice of the Rose Garden as a venue means he is raising the marriage amendment to a higher level on his agenda, his wife's advice notwithstanding."

Missing Man

Matthew Mosk writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush shuttled into Maryland last night to help the state Republican Party raise more than $1 million for a number of high-profile 2006 races, but only one of the state's two marquee Republican candidates joined him.

"Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. stood on a riser shoulder to shoulder with the president, but the party's leading candidate for an open U.S. Senate seat in Maryland, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, was absent. Steele had a scheduling conflict, campaign spokesman Doug Heye said."

Here's the text of Bush's remarks.

No New Contrition

My Friday column was largely about how the regrets Bush expressed in his press conference didn't really reflect any new contrition -- in spite of the continuing insistence by the press corps that it was some sort of watershed moment.

Several readers e-mailed me to call my attention to one thing I missed. Here's Richard Wolffe of Newsweek with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC later that night: "But of course, it is very rehearsed, everything from the mannerisms you saw, the upwards glance up at the ceiling for inspiration. And for me, the big giveaway was at the end of that answer--I don't know if you could see it on camera, but the president flashed a big grin to those of us sitting in the front rows. It didn't seem that he was quite as contrite as his performance."

And yes, you can actually see that grin at the 51:40 mark of the White House video .

Predictions Redux

David S. Broder writes in his Washington Post opinion column: "In its September 2004 issue , Washington Monthly magazine invited 16 smart political observers -- a mix of Republicans, Democrats and independents -- to write short essays predicting what would happen if George Bush won a second term.

"The answers, understandably enough, were all over the lot. But no one suggested that one-third of the way through his second term Bush would have suffered the political and policy reverses that he has actually experienced. . . .

"The one commentator who got it exactly right was Kevin Drum , who runs the magazine's blog. 'What do we have to look forward to if George W. Bush is elected to a second term?' he asked. 'One word: scandal.' "

Worst Ever?

David Lightman writes for the Hartford Courant: "A Quinnipiac Poll released today gives President Bush one more reason to be concerned about his approval numbers: Lots of voters not only think he's doing a lousy job, but they rate him as the worst president since World War II.

"And to add to the sting: They say Bill Clinton was one of the best."

Here are the complete results .