I must not be reading the same story you are. The way I interpret it is that the blind Bush supporters ran into a wall yesterday when Bush finally came out and distanced himself from the report.
The bashers got Bush to come out and change his Administrations position or at least clarify it.
Yes, he waited a whole 24 hours to respond to a NYT article that he didn't know was coming out to distort a report that had no policy recommendations.
Yeah, he was cowering.
Yepper ! The sqeekie wheel gets the grease.