IOKIYAR, Part Eight Jillion

It's okay to flip-flop if you're a Republican. It's particularly okay to flip-flop if the Clenis is somehow involved. That's why, in scrambling to make it acceptable for Rove, Miers, and whoever the hell else to not take an oath while testifying and to do it in secret, Tony Snow can say this:

I asked whether the president was perhaps overly confrontational at this stage of the game. “I don’t think it’s confrontational,” Snow said. “We feel pretty comfortable with the constitutional argument.” …

The White House, Snow said, is determined to avoid “hearings or the trappings of hearings” when White House officials talk to Congress. “They’re looking for hands up, cameras on,” Snow said of Democrats. “They’re talking about a show trial.”

When in 1998, "Executive Privilege" was a "dodge."

Evidently, Mr. Clinton wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration. Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything. He would have a constitutional right to cover up.

Chances are that the courts will hurl such a claim out, but it will take time.

One gets the impression that Team Clinton values its survival more than most people want justice and thus will delay without qualm. But as the clock ticks, the public’s faith in Mr. Clinton will ebb away for a simple reason: Most of us want no part of a president who is cynical enough to use the majesty of his office to evade the one thing he is sworn to uphold — the rule of law.

Can you smell the chutzpah tonight?

I'm telling you, after this administration, I never want to hear "Executive Privilege" ever again.