Bush in a Snit

"While it weighs alternatives, the 10-member commission headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III has agreed on one principle.

"'It's not going to be "stay the course,"' one participant said. 'The bottom line is, [current U.S. policy] isn't working. . . . There's got to be another way.'"

Changing Justifications

Tom Raum writes for the Associated Press: "President Bush keeps revising his explanation for why the U.S. is in Iraq, moving from narrow military objectives at first to history-of-civilization stakes now. . . .

"When no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq, Bush shifted his war justification to one of liberating Iraqis from a brutal ruler.

"After Saddam's capture in December 2003, the rationale became helping to spread democracy through the Middle East. Then it was confronting terrorists in Iraq 'so we do not have to face them here at home,' and 'making America safer,' themes Bush pounds today."

"'We're in the ideological struggle of the 21st century,' he told a California audience this month. 'It's a struggle between good and evil.'

"Vice President Dick Cheney takes it even further: 'The hopes of the civilized world ride with us,' Cheney tells audiences."

The White House fired back with another of its Setting The Record Straight memos, asserting that Bush had indeed mentioned the importance of liberating the Iraqi people and spreading democracy before the war.

Betrayal Watch

A new memoir by David Kuo, former second-in-command of Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has the White House on the defensive.

In an excerpt from his book published by Time, Kuo writes about one particularly cynical sounding exchange with the president himself.

Bush, with Karl Rove nearby, asked Kuo how much money had been made available to faith-based groups by Bush's new initiative.

"I glanced over at Karl and turned to look the President in the eye. 'Sir, we've given them virtually nothing,' I said, 'because we have had virtually nothing new to give.' The President had been looking down at some papers about the event, but his head jerked up. 'Nothing? What do you mean we've given them nothing?' He glared. 'Don't we have new money in programs like the Compassion Fund thing?'