I won't call George W. Bush a puppet for Dick Cheney if Cheney will stop re-tying Bush's strings whenever they break. Dan Froomkin writes:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/politics/administration/whbriefing/
...there is a growing focus on President Bush's willingness only to face the panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in private, unrecorded and with Vice President Cheney at his side.
Here's CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider on Tuesday: "The question that's emerging out of all this is simple: Why does the president of the United States have to appear jointly with the vice president of the United States? I mean, can you imagine Clinton and Gore testifying before such a commission or the first George Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle? Why do they have to appear together?
"It's raising some damaging questions about whether or not George Bush knows enough to testify on his own or whether he's dependent on Vice President Cheney."
Presidential confidante Karen Hughes defended the joint appearance on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press": "I'm not sure what the rationale specifically was, but I think the White House believes that it is an effective use of their time," she said. "Many times, President Bush and Vice President Cheney were in the room together during much of the events, much of the briefings, much of the lead-up that the commission is looking at. And so I think it's appropriate that they appear together and discuss how they saw the events leading up to September 11."
Shorter Karen Hughes: "I can't think up a convincing lie, and nobody else has thought up a convincing lie either."
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