Bremer to Bush: Oh, No You Don't

In the pile-on rush to parse Paul Bremer’s response to W’s shaky memory (link), may I highlight a meta-issue? I.e., this is the best evidence yet that this administration is over, ended, finito, kaputt, that nobody is afraid of this guy any more.

Return with me for a moment to the halcyon days 2002. Can’t we all remember the almost Soviet-like efficiency with which the administration slapped down on any whisper of discord from anyone Republican within 20 miles of the Oval Office? Of course those days ended a long time ago, but I still think it is a marvel to see the President tell his story in the Sunday paper and then whap, two news cycles away we see one of the most important players on his most important team effectively calling him a liar. And dishing out the goods to prove it.

Watch Bremer as he refuses to be the fall guy:

Mr. Bremer indicated that he had been smoldering for months as other administration officials had steadily distanced themselves from his order. “This didn’t just pop out of my head,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday, adding thwt he had sent as draft of the order to top Pentagon officials and discussed it “several times” with Donald H. Rumsfeld, then secretary of defense. …

On Monday, Mr. Bremer made it clear that he was unhappy about being portrayed as a renegade of sorts by a variety of former administration officials.

Mr. Bremer said he sent a draft of the proposed order on May 9, shortly before he departed for his new post in Baghdad, to Mr. Rumsfeld and other top Pentagon officials.

Among others who received the draft order, he said, were Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense; Douglas J. Feith, then under secretary of defense for policy; Lt. Gen. David D. McKiernan, then head of the American-led coalition forces in Iraq; and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Mr. Bremer said that he had briefed Mr. Rumsfeld on the plan “several times,” and that his top security adviser in Baghdad, Walter B. Slocombe, had discussed it in detail with senior Pentagon officials as well as with senior British military officials. He said he received detailed comments back from the joint chiefs, leaving no doubt in his mind that they understood the plan.

Put a fork in it, this one is done: oh wait, the Ambassador just did.

Afterthought: Nothing herein should be taken as foreclosing the possibility that we will bomb Iran.