MUCH ADO

Bush takes responsibility for Niger claim (The Guardian, July 30, 2003)

The US president, George Bush, today accepted personal responsibility for citing a controversial claim that the former Iraqi regime tried to obtain nuclear material in Africa.

"I take personal responsibility for everything I say, absolutely," the president said at a White House news conference when asked about the now discredited accusation.

In one of those great, albeit unintentional, moments that demonstrate how silly the President's critics sound, NPR today ran a commentary by Eric Liu, who is apparently a former Clinton speechwriter (given that he never gave a good one, would you put that on your resume?), wherein Mr. Liu chided Mr. Bush for not accepting responsibility for the uranium claim, just 15 minutes after the President had done so. There's an interesting assumption at work here: the Left thinks he was ducking responsibility because the claim is obviously an intentional lie and will be a big deal. Mr. Bush, on the other hand, has largely ignored the issue, and now accepted responsibility, seemingly because he believed it to be true at least at the time and quite insignificant.

MORE:
Responsibility: A Capital Minuet (Dana Milbank, July 29, 2003, washingtonpost.com)

For President Bush and the press corps that covers him, the month of July has been one long cat-and-mouse game. Five times, questioners have invited the president to take responsibility for the Iraq-uranium allegation that found its way into his State of the Union address. Five times, Bush has deflected the question.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 30, 2003 6:56 PM