[Mount Athos]

Who is idiot Gallagher, looks like Bush showed poor judgement in trusting him when the fellow betrays him less than 24 hours after making a promise

[Melinda in TN]

They do that to us at work; tell us something that we aren't supposed to tell, hoping that we will. Nobody in their right mind would tell reporters something "off the record" and expect it to stay a secret. He knew at least one of them would tell and probably planned it that way. Besides, he didn't really tell them any classified information. :-)

[spatso]

"Who is idiot Gallagher, looks like Bush showed poor judgement in trusting him when the fellow betrays him less than 24 hours after making a promise"

No, no, no. A political, "off the record" does not mean the discussions are secret. It means simply that the conversations do not reflect an official policy view of the President or the Executive. So, any person who attends can give their interpretation of what the President said, or meant, but it is merely that, their interpretation of a casual conversation.

Surely nobody thinks that the President or his advisers (Rove and Snow) would allow that statement to be made if they did not want it floated out there for people to reflect on. I for one think it is a fairly reasonable position. Do we really want to put ourselves in the position as identifying all of Islam and more than a billion adherents as enemies? It seems to me the President is merely affirming exactly what he has been saying for the last five years.

[RangerM]

Bush would show poor judgement if he trusted Gallagher a second time.

[GLH3IL]

Bus was well aware that they would run out there and say things....why else even bother having these guys there? New commentators are NEVER "off the record", even the conservatice-minded ones. Bush is obviously well aware of that and was happy to use that to his advantage. I wonder if that's why Rush didn't attend...he wants to be able to talk about President's comments, and a off the record format would put him in a wee bit of a moral conflict, which his fellow talkers seemed to b willing to toss aside. Has Hannity talked much about the President's comments? He was there.

[WhiteGuy]

looks like Bush showed poor judgement in trusting him when the fellow betrays him less than 24 hours after making a promise.


Do you really believe that bush didn't want the whole dog and pony show broadcast far and wide?

He used the "off the record ploy" so he could deny anything that got bad press.

If it hadn't been for the fact that armstrong williams poped off about being on the payroll, this wouldn't have been necessary.

after all, why do you think limabaugh wasn't there?