Implicit self-correction

A great insight by Michael Hersh of Newsweek about how the Administration is trying to correct its own errors, while pretending that no errors ever occurred in the first place:

The Bush administration has grown enamored of making what I would call“nonconcession concessions.” President George W. Bush and his senioraides are correcting course big time—and implicitly admitting previouserrors—without any acknowledgement that they are doing so.

One such concession was the administration’s decision to drop itsopposition to talks with Iran and Syria at a regional conference onIraq. “There’s no change in our policy,” insisted State Departmentspokesman Sean McCormack this week.

Another shift came two weeks ago: the administration, which had longdeclared it would not succumb to Kim Jong Il’s “nuclear extortion,”announced an aid-for-nukes pact with North Korea. When I asked herabout the new agreement at a Feb. 13 briefing, Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice denied that it was a change of position, saying thedeal was similar to a plan the administration was contemplating back in2002 “when we got derailed.” Hard not to see that as a reversal...

Hey, we all acted this way -- when we were children.