More Clowning From Kaus

The wingnuts are usually on the lookout for a supposedly liberal press misquoting the beloved Bush. In his latest drivel-filled epistle, however, mental midget Mickey Kaus bashes the press for quoting Bush accurately.

The question asked of Bush -- which Kaus omits -- was this:

Mr. President, in regard to the June 30th deadline, is there a chance that that would be moved back?

Bush said this:

THE PRESIDENT: No, the intention is to make sure the deadline remains the same. I believe we can transfer authority by June 30th. We're working toward that day. We're, obviously, constantly in touch with Jerry Bremer on the transfer of sovereignty. The United Nations is over there now. The United Nations representative is there now to work on the -- on a -- on to whom we transfer sovereignty. I mean, in other words, it's one thing to decide to transfer. We're now in the process of deciding what the entity will look like to whom we will transfer sovereignty. But, no, the date remains firm.

The Washington Post, which Kaus criticizes, used the following headline to summarize Bush's remarks:

Transition Date Still Firm, President Says

To recap: Bush states the June 30 transfer date "remains firm." In response to the question of whether there is any chance that the June 30 deadline would be moved back, Bush says "No." The Post reports that Bush said the "transition date still firm." Seems entirely accurate to me.

The pint-sized pundit, however, disagrees. He thinks Bush's words mean that Bush is "considering postponing transition." Kaus sees equivocation because Bush used the words "intention" and "I believe we can" in his answer. He ignores the first word out of Bush's mouth -- "no" -- and the last words --"no, the date remains firm." And there's really no contradiction: A person who "intends" to stick to a deadline and "believes" the deadline can be met can state, without contradiction, that the deadline is firm.

Of course, the other alternative is that Bush is "flip-flopping," that is, he knows the deadline is bullshit and intends to weasel out of it without clearly saying so. But Kaus would never impute such actions to his fearless leader.

The Post chose to report Bush's actual words, while Kaus plays a mind-reading game where he can divine that Bush meant the exact opposite of what he said. And some people actually respect Kaus.

Regrettably, and through no merit of his own, Kaus isn't the biggest embarassment on Slate this week. The honors go to Tim Noah, who devotes an entire column (and was presumably paid for writing it) to the question "Why did Jenna Slosson read her book upside-down?" (Answer: She didn't, and Noah is an idiot.)