I think people are looking much too carefully into Dobson's poor choice of words. Nobody at the WH lied to Dobson. People just inferred too much or misunderstood Dobson's language, that's all.
I wasn't saying anyone at the WH was lying. My point was that men were excluded from consideration.
Dobson: "He [Rove] also made it clear that the President was looking for a certain kind of candidate, namely a woman to replace Justice O'Connor. And you can imagine what that did to the short list."