Just making stuff up

Cox News Service joins the ranks of those media who are moving the goal posts on Bush's statements about the Plame leak:

President Bush said Monday that any White House staffer who committed a crime in the leak of a CIA agent's identity would be fired, a change in position that could allow top aide Karl Rove to stay on the job even if he was involved in the disclosure.

Rove, as well as Vice President Cheney aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, have been identified by a reporter as his confidential sources for a report he wrote in July 2003 concerning undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, wife of Bush critic Joseph Wilson.

The White House, through spokesman Scott McClellan, previously said anyone involved in the leak would be fired.

They then go on to compare the President's most recent statements with comments made by Press Secretary Scott McClellan in 2003. This seems highly disingenuous to me.

If you want to analyze Bush's comments, you need to compare them to, well...Bush's comments. Yes, the Press Secretary speaks on behalf of the President and presumably represents the President's position on any given issue. But when you have the President making statements as well on the issue, seems to me you ought to be comparing apples to apples.

Meanwhile, Tom Maguire (follow the links!) has the complete and best run-down of who said what and when. And it is clear that what President Bush has said most recently about punishing the breaking of law in his Administration is the same as what he had to say about it two years ago:

And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of.

And they say that bloggers are the ones who shouldn't be taken seriously because they just sit around and write whatever they want...