The Amazing Moving Goal Posts

Wow! Lookit 'em go!

President Bush changed his stance today on his close adviser Karl Rove, stopping well short of promising that anyone in his administration who helped to unmask a C.I.A. officer would be fired.

"If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration," Mr. Bush said in response to a question, after declaring, "I don't know all the facts; I want to know all the facts."

First it was "anyone found to have leaked to the media", now it's "committed a crime". You'll note that this formulation allows Rove to continue to run our country while awaiting and during any trial...

Keep an eye on this - I predict that the next place the goal post winds up will be something like "anyone convicted of a crime will no longer have any place in this White House", leaving open the possibility that Rove will be able to continue to run the country from prison...