Carter Infuriates White House

AFP reports this morning that "Carter on Monday tempered his biting criticism . . ." Here's the video.

Here is the video of Carter's appearance this morning on NBC's Today Show, with Meredith Vieira.

"'My remarks were maybe careless or misinterpreted. But I wasn't comparing the overall administration and certainly not talking personally about any president,' Carter told NBC."

Vieira asked Carter: "Do you believe, sir, that as a former president, that it is appropriate to criticize the man sitting in the Oval Office, particularly during a time of war?"

Carter replied that during his publicity tour for a book last year that was scathing about Bush administration policies, "I was always very careful not to refer to President Bush or any other president personally, but just to the results of some of their administration's decisions. . . . I've been very careful, and still am, not to criticize any president personally."

Fratto, made aware of Carter's amended statement at this morning's gaggle, replied: "I don't think I have response -- a specific response to that. I think it just highlights the importance of being careful in choosing your words. I'll just leave it at that."

Opinion Watch

John Nichols blogs for the Nation: "It is difficult to argue with Carter, not just on the basis of his stature but on the basis of his astute read of the current circumstance. And that's what scares the Bush White House. When a well regarded former president gets specific about the current president's dramatic failures -- and about the damage that is done when foreign leaders align with Bush -- this embattled White House gets tense. . . .

"What is fascinating is that the White House is claiming that Carter is 'increasingly irrelevant' by going out of its way to attack him on one of the current president's many days of rest.

"It seems that, if Carter really was as 'irrelevant' as the Bush White House would have us believe, the president's aides would not be attacking the former president in such immediate and aggressive terms.

"The truth is that Carter is relevant, perhaps more so now than ever."

Carter's History

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, has been highly and publicly critical of Bush for years.

Carter delivered a speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention that was bristling with fury and righteousness: