Rejection by proxy

How to create the political cover that will allow you to go on TV at Christmas in January and reject your father's unwelcome offer of help:

First, get a subordinate to publicly reject key ISG recommendations while you are still "reviewing" policy. (If this weren't theater, don't you think Condi's statement, made while Bush was still considering all options, would paint him into a corner?) Then get her to test language you could use in describing your fake policy shift, such as "expansive" and "a departure."

No, not that kind of departure. That's not happening until 2009, at the soonest. That way George can claim to himself and others that he didn't surrender. And isn't the psyche of one rich Yale legacy more important than the lives of thousands of American troops and Iraqi civilians?

With this press conference, the rejection of the recommendation to engage Iran and Syria in talks is Condi's, not Bush's. And it allows Bush to go on TV (whenever he gets around to it) and say, "On the advice of my advisers..."