The Cheney Supremacy

Here's Snow on Fox News Sunday : "The thing is the way the war is being covered -- and we've seen it right now. We have two U.S. servicemen -- and God bless them. We hope they're okay. We're focusing on them and we forget that since Zarqawi was killed, hundreds of bad guys have been rounded up."

And here he is on CBS's Face the Nation ( text and video ): "But the president's also said it's a funny war because somebody by a single act of violence or if, in fact, an American service -- or simply the fact that two American servicemen are missing -- that becomes the big story, rather than the fact that you've got almost 60,000 forces on the ground going after bad guys. We've apprehended hundreds of bad guys since Zarqawi died."

And if Snow's position blaming the media wasn't intellectually dishonest enough already, it turns out he's also inconsistent.

One of my readers, Derek Todd, recently pointed out that Snow complains about negative coverage in Iraq -- except when he complains there isn't enough.

Case in point: Snow's June 8 briefing . First came the standard line: "We have been crushing the opposition, but what happens is the opposition has been controlling the airwaves with scattered, fragmentary acts of violence."

But then came reversal: "Now, I think it's important for the American people to understand the nature of what's going on in Iraq, which is -- this gives us a chance to illustrate it -- nobody carried a big story over the weekend about the fact that Zarqawi's people had deposited eight or nine heads in a box -- I say eight or nine because the press accounts vary. That's grotesque. It had enormous effect there, didn't get reported here."

Says Todd, my reader: "You guys can't win." No kidding.

Battle of the Bulge?

On CNN, Snow suggested that Americans would have wanted to abandon World War II if they'd been polled in December 1944. "The president understands people's impatience -- not impatience but how a war can wear on a nation. He understands that. If somebody had taken a poll in the Battle of the Bulge, I dare say people would have said, wow, my goodness, what are we doing here?"

Liberal blogger Juan Cole writes that Snow's analogy is wrong and defamatory.

Snow Distances Self From Rove?

Here's Snow on CBS, either distancing himself from Karl Rove personally -- or suggesting that Rove's political work somehow falls outside the official White House umbrella.

"SCHIEFFER: Let me--let me just ask you about the quote that Karl Rove put out, because he clearly is trying to make this a part of the coming campaign. . . . When have Democrats been cutting and running?

"Mr. SNOW: Well, I'm not going to--I'm not going to get into the middle of Karl's political fight. But let's talk about. . . .

"SCHIEFFER: But that's--you're on the same team. . . .

"Mr. SNOW: I'll let Karl carry the political football."

Here's a follow-up question: If what Rove is doing is not official White House business, and not fair game for the press secretary to have to explain, then what's Rove doing on the payroll?

Rove's Big Challenge

Jim VandeHei and Dan Balz write in The Washington Post: "White House political strategist Karl Rove emerges from the CIA leak case with his reputation scuffed, his power slightly diminished, and Republicans counting on him, once again, to help rescue their House and Senate majorities."

But VandeHei and Balz make an interesting point: "Bush endured the worst stretch of his presidency when Rove's powers inside the White House were at their peak. . . .

"Aides present at the time said Rove would hold strategy meetings on Social Security after it was clear that the plan was dead on Capitol Hill. No one in the room felt comfortable to challenge him -- even though, as one participant recalled, they would whisper afterward about the futility of their efforts."

James Traub writes in the New York Times about Rove's bold prediction in 2000 that Bush's election would usher in an era of virtual one-party rule, like William McKinley in 1896.

"A great deal can happen between now and November, not to mention between now and 2008, but the Boy Genius certainly looks a lot less brilliant than he did a few years back."

Murtha on Rove

Raymond Hernandez writes in the New York Times: "Representative John P. Murtha , the Pennsylvania Democrat and Vietnam War veteran pushing for a quick withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, on Sunday mocked Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, for championing the war while 'sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside.' "

Clift on Rove

Eleanor Clift writes in Newsweek: "Rove is following a time-honored tactic: hang a lantern on your problem. Iraq is George Bush's biggest problem, ergo Rove's strategy: showcase the war, frame the choice between victory and defeatism, put the Democrats on the defensive. . . .

"It's appalling that an administration led by chicken hawks dares to build an election strategy based on lecturing combat veterans, but it is devilishly clever, and it might work."

Rove's New Shotgun

The Associated Press reports: "The owner of the South Texas ranch where Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting companion chipped in on the gift of a shotgun for presidential aide Karl Rove last year."

That was just one tidbit from the 2005 financial disclosure statements filed by White House staffers last week.

Pardon Watch

Tom Brune writes for Newsday: "Now that top White House aide Karl Rove is off the hook in the CIA leak probe, President George W. Bush must weigh whether to pardon former vice presidential aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the only one indicted in the three-year investigation. . . .

"The White House remains mum on the president's intentions. Spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment Friday.

"Bush has powerful incentives to pardon Libby, however. They range from rewarding past loyalty to ending the awkward revelations emerging from pretrial motions, a flow that could worsen in his trial next year."

Scandal History

Ken Herman writes for the Cox News Service: "It's been a collection of scandals and problems without handy monikers. But the Bush administration has had enough of them to begin nudging the needle on the presidential scandal-o-meter. . . .

" 'There is something that is different about the current administration and more worrisome about this,' said presidential historian William Leuchtenburg, a University of North Carolina professor emeritus. 'The kinds of problems that administrations have had in the past have usually involved bad behavior by an individual on his own.'

" 'What's different about this administration is that the behavior involves important matters of policy of breach of security,' Leuchtenburg said."

Rearranging the Chairs

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in today's New York Times: "Every weekday morning at 7:30, a coterie of senior advisers to President Bush gather in the Roosevelt Room of the White House to chart the day's course. For years, they took the same seats -- until Joshua B. Bolten arrived and, without warning, rearranged the chairs.

"That might sound like fodder for a joke about shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic, but to Mr. Bolten, who became Mr. Bush's chief of staff in April with a mandate to get the beleaguered White House back on track, it was serious business. . . .

"Mr. Bolten, in his first interview since taking the job, professed not to care about the polls. 'My measure will be, are we doing our jobs well?' he said. 'And if we are and our poll numbers are still low, I'll still be very proud of what we're doing.' "

Not much to show for, after getting the first Bolten interview, is it? But wait!

John D. McKinnon wrote in Saturday's Wall Street Journal: "In his first interview since becoming White House chief of staff in March, Josh Bolten said he is trying to make the Bush administration more open, particularly reaching out to Congress, where relations have been badly strained.

"The changes range from the president's more frequent meetings with lawmakers and Iraq-war critics to the seating chart at 7:30 a.m. senior staff meetings, where press secretary Tony Snow and congressional liaison Candi Wolff are being given more prominent positions. . . .

"In addition, Mr. Bolten is encouraging -- and sometimes demanding -- a higher energy level from White House staff, at a time well into Mr. Bush's second term when 'it's easy for the staff to slip into the doldrums,' he said."

And Peter Baker and Michael A. Fletcher write in Saturday's Washington Post -- also based on a Bolten interview: "Newly installed White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten said yesterday he has completed his shake-up of President Bush's operation after two months in which he eased out familiar faces, brought in some fresh blood and imposed other changes in an effort to salvage a presidency."

They note: "He has added few personal touches to his office, but one is a 1916 Norman Rockwell painting of a boy jumping from a moving car onto a runaway train to try to save the day."

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White House Hotties

As I mentioned on Friday, the Wonkette blog held a White House Hotties contest.

You think the White House doesn't read blogs? Paul Bedard writes in U.S. News: " 'We're having fun with this one,' says a Bushie."

This morning, Wonkette announced the winners : Karl Rove's executive assistant, Taylor Hughes; and former Rove intern David Copley.

Is it that Rove hires particularly cute people? Or that he runs their campaigns? Or both?