Bamboozlement

Talking Points Memo


So there you have it: the White House's side of the canned US Attorney story provided by the Post's John Solomon.

It turns out the whole thing is just one of those unfortunate misunderstandings the Bush White House now and again finds itself in. The ouster of the US attorneys had nothing to do with political payback or stymieing investigations. It's just that the White House wanted to get rid of a hand full of US attorneys who weren't doing a good enough job enforcing administration policy on immigration, guns and other issues.

As Solomon puts it, "Privately, White House officials acknowledged that the administration mishandled the firings by not explaining more clearly to lawmakers that a large group was being terminated at once -- which is unusual -- and that the reason was the policy performance review."

Now, there's a certain inattention in the piece to the growing body of evidence which casts doubt on the new administration story. But when a White House tries to get out ahead of a story like this it's key to note the admissions of salient facts that come along with the larger bamboozlement.

The key point is that the White House signed off on the firings, as did Attorney General Gonzales and his deputy Paul McNulty.

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