Bush's self-justification rare

[dogday]

President Bush said yesterday that he ordered the release of classified information in 2003 to prove his reasons for the Iraq war were legitimate - a striking assertion for a leader who has made secrecy one of the trademarks of his administration, analysts said.

Bush's account of why he declassified a July 2003 intelligence report suggests that the president, usually as unapologetic about his decisions as he is tight-lipped about the internal workings of his White House, feels the need to justify the action he took to bolster his case for the war.

"His default mechanism is to do things the way he wants to and not feel a need to explain, but he's prepared to fall back now and make more modest demands," said presidential historian Fred Greenstein of Princeton University.

"He knows the days are over when he can just wave a wand and get what he wants."


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.bush11apr11,0,1315628.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines

[Marie26]

1. Did this leak include Plame's identity, or not? nt

[BlueEyedSon]

2. Not to mention that he probably didn't ever READ the NIE

so how did he know what was in it?

[babylonsister]

3. So then what's with his constant denial- if there were

leakers in the wh, they'd be fired. Ya can't have it both ways, dim son.

[Lasher]

4. I saw him on the news yesterday, talking about what he read in the paper

I thought he never read the paper. That's what he's been claiming for years. And he never pays any attention to polls.

[dogday]

5. I like this part

He knows the days are over when he can just wave a wand and get what he wants."

except we take out a few words and we have this

He knows the days are over.....

Ah yes, much better.....

[rustydog]

6. No one followed up Bush's comment with:

But you declassified information you knew was a forgery.
Mr. President, you were told weeks before allegedly declassifying the Niger claim...you knew you were putting out false information (some people call that lying) in order for people to support your war.

Plus that false information appears to be part of a criminal conspiracy to destroy Wilson taking down a vital CIA WMD undercover operation run by Wilson's wife...causing the deaths of untold CIA contacts in the terror underground.

How do you justify that Mr. President?