The Bush administration is off to a stumbling start this week, as a glance at concurrent headlines indicates:
Attempts by the White House to shrug off leak story complications run into skepticism as Senate Judiciary Committe chair Arlen Specter declares that "the president of the United States owes a specific explanation to the American people." That's what happens when you have a president who says he wants to find out the truth about leaks, but who turns out to be the leaker-in-chief.
Bush administration credibility comes under fire in another quarter with high-profile stories about plans to launch an airstrike against Iran, the better to thwart nuclear ambitions in that country. The official response to the stories comes down to "That's ill-informed...but, uh, it's true enough."
Still more truthiness issues: The Pentagon defends itself against assertions that it made a bit of a boogeyman out of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
In the meantime, one of George Bush's staunchest European allies appears to be in the process of being turned out of office. That's what the exit polls say in Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is narrowly losing to a center-left candidate who has announced intentions to pull his country's troops out of the ever-dwindling coalition of the willing.
And let's not forget those depressing poll numbers here at home: a new career low for W.
And you thought your Monday was tough. With news like this on the president's desk, a little corrective anxiety might be just what the advisor ordered. Terror alert, anyone?
(Cross-posted for your convenience...)
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