Alan Who?

I often feel sorry for presidential press secretaries. They're sent out there with marching orders to say X and not say Y, and then they're hammered by reporters because to say X and not Y is not logical. You can almost hear the press secretary thinking, "Hey, I know this is bull but it's what they told me to say."

Tony Snow, current holder of that thankless job, was obviously instructed not to say that George W. supports the Republican candidate for the senate in Connecticut. This may be because that candidate — someone named Alan Schlesinger — is currently polling at 6% and Bush doesn't want to get caught backing someone who may not get out of the single digits on Election Day. Or maybe there's some sort of loyalty or payback involved with regard to Joe Lieberman on a personal level, and Bush doesn't want to oppose him, at least for the near future. It could even be simple political gamesmanship: Schlesinger can't win so Bush figures he's better off with Lieberman than Lamont and wants Connecticut Republicans to vote accordingly.

Whatever the reason, Mr. Snow has to go out and not say that Bush supports Schlesinger…and act like it's the most normal thing in the world for a Republican president to not endorse the Republican candidate for some high office. Here's the exchange. It's probably close to word-for-word what would have been said if reporter Tony Snow was grilling the press secretary for a Democratic president who was trying to not endorse a Democratic senatorial candidate.