The Public's Right to Know

"MR. SNOW: What the President has talked about is privileged communications with close staff members, that is correct.

"Q But earlier you were saying that, when I asked about, well, was the President informed of this decision, did the President sign off on U.S. attorneys being fired, you said the President has no recollection of being informed of all this.

"MR. SNOW: Correct.

"Q So were his advisors really advising him on this? Is this really privileged communication involving the President and his advisors, if the President wasn't looped in, you're saying, on this decision? So it was other people --

"MR. SNOW: Well, that also falls into the intriguing question category."

Bartlett Speaks

Apparently it's not just a Tony Snow tic to ask and answer your own questions -- it's now official White House policy.

Here's the transcript of an interview White House counselor Dan Bartlett talking on NPR yesterday to Robert Siegel:

"MR. SIEGEL: Why shouldn't people on the White House staff, who, judging from the Justice Department e-mails, at least were aware of or took part in decisions about the U.S. attorneys -- why shouldn't they testify under oath about that?

"MR. BARTLETT: But the question you ask there, Robert, is: Will members of Congress get the very facts they are requesting through the process which we have offered? And the answer to that question is, yes. . . .

"MR. SIEGEL: . . . What is the matter with the transcript?

"MR. BARTLETT: Well, again, I think what the point here is -- we're making is that we are making these officials available for an interview. When you start slipping down the slide of into, well, 'put it on transcript, put it under oath,' it starts having all of the trappings of a testimony. whether it be public or private. And that is where you start encroaching upon the separations of government. . . .

"What I fear, Robert, is that what members of the Democratic Party who are in charge of this investigation may really be aimed at is not really, 'let's learn the facts,' but, 'hey, we have a huge political opportunity here. Let's bring up the villain himself, Karl Rove, and put him before the klieg lights here and have a big trial in which we can throw any question we want at him.' And that's really not going to serve anybody's interests --