Former Bush campaign strategist Matt Dowd, er... changes his mind.

In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.

So this can't help his chances...

Asked by Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, about Mr. Gonzales’s statements at a March 13 news conference that he had not participated in any discussions about the dismissals, Mr. Sampson [Alberto Gonzales's former chief-of-staff] replied, "I don’t think the attorney general’s statement that he was not involved in any discussions about U.S. attorney removals is accurate."

I'm a bit distracted, so I've been paying only moderate attention to the Kyle Sampson testimony that's going on right now, but my ears perked up for a few seconds just now as I heard Sampson say to Sheldon Whitehouse, "Senator, the decision-makers in this case were the Attorney General and the counsel to the President." Not exactly falling on his sword, is he?

You know what's great about this blog? Its consistency.