…even if he does play a “mean jazz flute.”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1PEyzk4ADU
About a week or so ago, Snow “falsely asserted”:http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/02/20070216-3.html that someone in the administration broke the law by leaking the shocking news that some in the administration (meaning Elliott Abrams) don’t like the “new deal”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1353/six-party-joint-statement with North Korea.
Snow argued that, despite the _WP_’s “report”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/14/AR2007021401695.html that Abrams sent some emails around expressing his displeasure with the agreement, Elliott A actually supports it.
A reporter then asked, “why do his emails — his inquiries, wind up in the newspaper, then?”
TSnow replied:”Because somebody broke the law.*”
Now, that asterisk is indeed found in the original transcript. If you scroll to the bottom, you find this clarification:
bq. The Press Secretary was in error. This instance was not a violation of the law.
Nice.
!/images/10.jpg!
Snow has too much in common with this guy, though I doubt he has as many leather-bound books.
[Snow, FYI, talked about the Abrams issue “the day before as well].”:http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/02/20070215-4.html
Also of note: Newsweek had “a piece”:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17202125/site/newsweek/ which speaks to the question of hardliners’ influence on the North Korea:
bq. Administration hard-liners appear to have been unable to thwart diplomacy. Former officials close to Vice President Dick Cheney, who asked not to be identified characterizing his views, suggest he does not like the deal but believes there are enough get-out clauses to ensure either that Pyongyang complies or the whole bargain collapses. *Cheney had long influenced North Korea policy through powerful bureaucratic allies who battled what they viewed as State Department appeasers. But Bolton, a leading hawk on North Korea, left the administration when Congress refused to confirm him as permanent U.N. ambassador. Robert Joseph, another key hard-liner, is soon to leave his job as State Department under secretary for arms control.* Cheney himself may be the last hard-liner. But White House aides, along with the veep’s allies (anonymous when discussing the men’s relationship), acknowledge that Bush relies far less on Cheney’s judgment now than he did earlier in his presidency.