Favorite Moments

Two favorite moments from Bush’s press conference last night come to mind. The first was already alluded to by AB’s post from last night. (“Something will pop into my head…”) The second is this one, which I’ll simply reproduce straight from the transcript:

Q. Mr. President, Why are you and the vice president insisting on appearing together before the 9/11 commission? And Mr. President, who will you be handing the Iraqi government over to on June 30?

A. We’ll find that out soon. That’s what Mr. Brahimi is doing. He’s figuring out the nature of the entity we’ll be handing sovereignty over. And secondly, because the the 9/11 commission wants to ask us questions. That’s why we’re meeting, and I look forward to meeting with them and answering their questions.

Q. Mr. President, I was asking why you’re appearing together rather than separately, which was their request.

A. Because it’s a good chance for both of us to answer questions that the 9/11 commission is looking forward to asking us, and I’m looking forward to answering them.

Frankly, I’m astonished that the White House still hasn’t thought of an excuse to justify their demand that Bush only be interviewed with Cheney at his side. 10 days ago, Karen Hughes awkwardly indicated on Meet the Press that the White House couldn’t come up with a reasonable fiction – as Brad DeLong put it: “Shorter Karen Hughes: ‘I can’t think up a convincing lie, and nobody else has thought up a convincing lie either.’”

Shorter George Bush: “What Karen said.”

Honestly, I really thought that they’d have thought of something since then.

Kash