Nation Wants a New Direction

That Bush would privately dismiss information that didn't suit him is not exactly a surprise. The Bush Bubble has been a consistent element of his presidency, a reflection of his distaste for anything that might challenge his worldview.

But it looks like Bush may be on the verge of dissing the NIE publicly.

In a roundtable interview with pool reporters today, Bush immediately went off the record when he started talking about what he had told Saudi King Abdullah about the NIE. Back on the record, he had this to say: "I assured him that our intelligence services came to an independent judgment."

Later, a reporter followed up:

Q: "On the NIE, did you -- were you, in effect, distancing yourself from the conclusions of the NIE, and these guys --"

Bush: "No, I was making it clear it was an independent judgment. . . . I defended our intelligence services, but made it clear that they're an independent agency; that they come to conclusions separate from what I may or may not want."

But there's reason to suspect that Bush, in an interview with Fox News on Monday, said something dismissive about the NIE. (The interview isn't set to air until tomorrow night.)

From yesterday's briefing with White House Press Secretary Dan Perino:

Q: "My question is based to some extent on the exchanges that the President had with my Fox News colleague, Greta Van Susteren. In your own discussions with the President about the NIE and its central finding that the weaponization aspect of the Iran nuclear program has been suspended, do you find that the President fully accepts this conclusion? Or is there any -- has the President expressed to you, are you aware of any feeling on the President's part that, however sincere the analysts might have been, they might have gotten it wrong? Has he admitted the possibility at all in his mind that the analysts may be wrong about this?"

Perino's non-responsive answer: "I've not heard the President express anything but support for the intelligence community. But I think what he has said, and he has repeated both privately and publicly, is that he does not believe that the NIE that was produced -- was it two months ago -- should provide anyone any comfort that Iran is not a threat."

Four hundred more words later, the reporter followed up:

Q: "But my question was not about perception or misperceptions of the report's findings, or the implications, or whether or not Iran remains a threat. My question to you is whether or not the President admits at all in his own mind of the possibility that the central finding was actually wrong?"