From Mickey Kaus'
blog on Slate.com:
Is the flip-flop charge unfair in these cases [Rice testifying and June 30th transfer of authority to Iraq]?--ed. A bit. In both, sound negotiating strategy may require the President to say he won't do something before he finally agrees--after getting the best deal he can.
Let 's see - Dubya has all of the top people in his administration say that Rice can't testify. It is not a political choice - she can't testify because of the constitution and if she did testify, that it would do irreparable harm to the executive branch of government. Later, he announces that Rice will testify exactly as the 9/11 commission wanted her to do - in public and under oath - implying that he is now doing irreparable harm to the executive branch. But Kaus thinks it is a bit unfair to call this total cave-in a flip-flop because it was a
negotiating strategy. This is the most idiotic excuse I think I have ever heard.