Says Me!

As a quick follow up to the previous item, it looks like the British attorney general has issued a gag order to the Daily Mirror and other papers to not publish anything further about the alleged statements by Bush that he wanted to use "military action" against Al-Jazeera.

Interesting. Why would anyone issue a gag order to news papers regarding a memo that can't contain anything incriminating about Bush saying anything untoward because, as we saw earlier, the mere notion that Bush said such things is "outrageous!" ?

An imagined press conference describing this action:

We firmly deny that President Bush made any statements regarding Al-Jareeza and the taking-out thereof. Any accusation that he did say such a thing, we maintain, is completely outrageous. That having been said, we also require that newspapers do not report the contents of the memo which contains absolutely no evidence that President Bush called for military action against the Arab news agency. That is all.

Gag orders for things that weren't said. I still haven't figured out if Bush handlers actually think people are this stupid or if this is just part of the ghastly job some sap has to do of covering up the inevitable mess that Bush will leave when he opens his mouth. I can almost hear these guys:

He said what?! Jesus, Mary and Joseph, can't he talk to anyone for five freaking minutes without adult supervision? Who's turn is it this time? Me? Shit! Get me the bottle.

I am also interested to see the vastly different responses to news of the leaked documents that purport to contain this information about Bush's threat.

First, the White House: "We are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response."
And Downing Street: "We don't comment on leaked documents."

Put it off to a stiff-upper-lip if you want but I see this as indicating, at least from the British perspective, that the allegations are, perhaps, not at all outlandish.