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Re#223 I agree that more should be done. W should order it withdrawn, but he won't. In the end, however, this will not be a story within the week and, alas, another Clymer attempt to cast W as insincere will fail. Back to Enron....

Actually this would be an excellent time for the admistration to hit a home run. Play up the fact that disloyal career civil servants were pursuing their own agenda directly contrary to the adminstration's position. Highlight the number of holdovers, the difficulting in removing troublemakers, and the high degree of beauracratic insulation from accountability. Talk about a divided gov't.

Then parallel it with the 'what did he know' scenario garbage. Show how renagade bureaucrats can wreck havok within our gov't, offering misleading and damaging leaks, and withholding vital information. Cuts out any potential legs for these witch-hunt Congressional investigations, highlights the real problems of a divided gov't, and gives Bush a stronger platform to start campaigning the public for a housecleaning, both inside the agencies and in November.

In the end, however, this will not be a story within the week and, alas, another Clymer attempt to cast W as insincere will fail. Back to Enron....

Many people misunderstand why I get upset and post so much when these sort of things come up. It's not because I hate Bush, but because I want to see conservative issues advanced, and this report *does not* advance conservative issues.

I find it hard to believe that reports like this one aren't screened by *anyone* higher up in the administration than the EPA people who created it. Didn't some aide, some department head, someone in authority review this thing and say 'Hey, I'm not sure the President agrees with this stuff... maybe we should kick a copy up the chain a bit.'

Despite all the squirming done by Bush and those here on FR who say it's an unimportant bureacratic report, the Dems will *make* it important -- politically important. And later, it will have a second life as a basis for government action. Whether Bush knew personally about this or not, it matters little: like a ship's captain, Bush is going to be attached with the findings of this report, and the Dems are going to use it later. There is no way that wont happen.

At best, this was a mistake. At worst, it indicates a change in direction in the rhetoric of the administration towards environmental issues.

Tuor