The best summary I’ve seen of yesterday’s political events:
Okay, students of the White House, what did we learn yesterday?
1) Senior administration officials can make remarks on a not-for-attribution basis to the press — but the White House can later decide to make the attribution public if it can help discredit said senior administration official-turned-whistle-blower.
2) When you’re a special assistant to the president, your job is to tell the press the truth — but only the parts that reflect well on the president.
3) When you’re the national security adviser, it’s really important for the public to understand your position so you give lots of interviews to the press — but you can’t answer questions under oath before a legislatively-chartered body because that would be a violation of the Constitution.
4) It’s not okay to suggest the president has credibility problems — unless you’re the president, and you’re at a black-tie correspondents dinner, and you’re being really, really funny.
If you’re not reading Dan Froomkin’s White House Briefing every morning, you really should be.
