Is Bush Inconsistant?
Terrance Hunt, AP's White House Correspondant apparently thinks so:
Bush Lowers Temperature of Iraq War Debate
BEIJING - After fiercely defending his Iraq policy across Asia, President Bush abruptly toned down his attack on war critics Sunday and said there was nothing unpatriotic about opposing his strategy.
"People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq," Bush said, three days after agreeing with Vice President Dick Cheney that the critics were "reprehensible."
The president also praised Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), D-Pa., as "a fine man" and a strong supporter of the military despite the congressman's call for troop withdrawal as soon as possible.
The suggestion that the President has somehow changed his tone on the Iraq war debate is a specious assertion by Mr. Hunt. Each and every time Bush has spoken on the topic, he has acknowleged that disagreement with his policies wasn't a problem, but being dishonest about it was. This is even illustrated later in the same article through a quote fom the President:
"This is not an issue of who's patriotic and who's not patriotic," he said. "It's an issue of an honest, open debate about the way forward in Iraq."
Of course, if the media were more responsible in their reporting, President Bush wouldn't have to address his critics at all.
