During a press conference on Thursday, George W. Bush said,

The first question one has to ask on Iraq is, is it worth it? I could not send a mother's child into combat if I did not believe it was necessary for our short-term and long-term security to succeed in Iraq.

This was part of his response to the last question of the session. So there was no chance for a reporter to ask a follow-up. But what would be the natural next question? Mr. President, given that you believe the Iraq war must be prosecuted in order to protect the United States, have you asked your own daughters to join the armed services in order to fight in Iraq? That would be a tough but fair query. If he's sending other children into battle, why not his own? But would a White House reporter put such a pointed question to Bush? Given that the war will not be over anytime in the near future, the chance to pose this question to Bush will come again.

WHERE'S THE ANGER? Also from Bush's press conference:

Q: Mr. President, you speak often about taking care of the troops and honoring their sacrifice. But the family of Corporal Pat Tillman believes there was a cover up regarding his death, and some say perhaps he was even murdered, instead of just friendly fire. At a hearing last week on Capitol Hill your former Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, other officials used some version of "I don't recall" 82 times. When it was his term to step up, Pat Tillman gave up a lucrative NFL career, served his country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Now you have a chance to pledge to the family that your government, your administration will finally get to the bottom of it. Can you make that pledge to the family today, that you'll finally, after seven investigations, find out what really happened?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I can understand why Pat Tillman's family, you know, has got significant emotions, because a man they loved and respected was killed while he was serving his country. I always admired the fact that a person who was relatively comfortable in life would be willing to take off one uniform and put on another to defend America. And the best way to honor that commitment of his is to find out the truth. And I'm confident the Defense Department wants to find out the truth, too, and we'll lay it out for the Tillman family to know.

Can you think of a reason why Bush didn't say something like, This has been a terrible episode, it makes me mad, I can understand why the Tillman family is damn frustrated, and I pledge this to them: we will get a complete accounting, we will cut through the previous investigations and make sure the full truth comes out--you have my word and I will make sure that happens immediately, enough is enough? Instead, Bush served up boilerplate rhetoric that conveyed detachment. And he had nothing to say about the Pentagon's shocking inability to provide a full accounting of Tillman's death. Does he know something about the case he's not sharing?

LAW & DISORDER? He may play a kickass prosecutor on television, but former Senator Fred Thompson is proving to be no Superman when it comes to mounting a political campaign. During his short unofficial candidacy, he's gone through more campaign managers than Rudy Giuliani has gone through wives. From AP:

In July, Thompson sidelined his campaign-manager-in-waiting, Tom Collamore, and watched a few other aides follow him out the door amid consternation inside the operation about the active role of Thompson's wife, Jeri.

At the time, aides said former senator and energy secretary Spencer Abraham and a Florida GOP strategist, Randy Enwright, would take over the unofficial campaign. But that turned out to be a temporary solution as the Thompsons sought a replacement for Collamore, who still is advising Thompson.

When Thompson announced that Abraham was going to be his helmsman, I wondered, Spencer Abraham? He's hardly known as a political powerhouse. After all, he lost his bid for reelection as a Michigan senator. But it turned out that Thompson was only kidding about Abraham, and on Thursday he declared that his newest campaign manager would be Bill Lacy, who managed Thompson's successful, come-from-behind 1994 senatorial bid. But here's the good news for anyone not rooting for Thompson: Lacy went on to be Senator Bob Dole's chief political strategist and served in that position during Dole's awful presidential bid in 1996. After Dole lost the New Hampshire and Delaware primaries that year, Lacy had to resign. That is, Dole went on to win the GOP nomination without Lacy at his side.

But Lacy shouldn't worry about being embarrassed in a similar manner this time. The odds are that by the time the actual voting starts Lacy will have joined the long list of Thompson's ex-campaign managers.

Posted by David Corn at August 10, 2007 08:22 AM