Speaking of moral cowardice, the prize line from Bush's interview with the Times: "I understand how Senator Kerry feels - I've been attacked by 527's too."

Here's what the reporters should have asked as a follow-up, and what someone still should ask: Can Bush or McClellan point out a specific ad they thought was so bad?

I doubt they'll never rise to that bait since the 'attack' ads they're whining about -- those from Moveon and so forth -- are so terribly soft-soap it would make them look like idiots.

Of course, it's understood as a given in Washington -- among Republicans as much as among Democrats -- that Karl Rove is behind these ads. But publicly we have to go with the ludicrous notion that he has no connection with them -- a willing suspension of disbelief that allows the president some room to express mock sympathy over the results of his own acts.

A friend of mine has a magazine article coming out in a few weeks which I'm told gets some of the goods on Rove's history of political bad acts. So we'll see if that moves the bar for him at all.