When NeoCons go bad, there's always dirty laundry to be done.  And, as surely as the wash cycle ends, the spin will begin…

Jack Abramoff and the President

One of those Bush/Abramoff photo that didn't exist has just been published by the New York Times and Time Magazine. It was snapped at a meeting between President Bush and one of Abramoff's clients, Raul Garza, chairman of the Texas Kickapoo Indian tribe.

Originally, the White House said it had no record of Abramoff's attendance at the meeting.

After publication of the photo, White House spokesman Allen Abney observed, "We now know that Mr. Abramoff attended this meeting."

Abney continued, "The president has taken tens of thousands of pictures. This does not mean he has a personal relationship with each individual that is in those pictures."

The White House would not release the photo or any of the other nonexistent pictures that Bush had taken with Abramoff, who helped raise more than $100,000 for the president's reelection campaign.

Wanted: Osama bin Laden, Dead or Alive

Condi Rice, the top US diplomat, took an implicit jab at the Clinton Administration for failing to deal with Bin Laden before he launched the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

That was in response to a question from George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week.  The initial portion of Rice's response was more telling though:

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, the politics of national security really came front and center this week as well. You saw in the open Vice President Cheney, Senator Clinton. Let me show you a little bit more about what Senator Clinton had to say: "I take a back seat to nobody when it comes to fighting terrorism and standing up for national and homeland security, but even there we could have done a better job than we have done. You cannot explain to me why we have not captured or killed the tallest man in Afghanistan. (Laughter.)" Of course, Usama bin Laden. Can you give the senator an explanation?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, certainly. He's hiding and he's hiding effectively…
 
Wanted: Harry Whittington, Alive

Vice President Cheney's shooting of a hunting companion, Harry Whittington, was suppressed for more than 18 hours before it was described to a Corpus Christi, TX, reporter by the owner of the property where the shooting occurred. The reporter then obtained official confirmation from Cheney's office.

A hospital spokesman said Whittington was in the intensive care unit "because his condition warranted it", but wouldn't elaborate. Whittington sent word that he would have no comment on the incident out of respect for Cheney.

The Liberal Media, predictably, sought clarification for the delay in the official release of the story.
"There was no immediate reason given as to why the incident wasn't reported until Sunday," The Dallas Morning News observed. "The sheriff's office in Kenedy County did not respond to phone calls Sunday."

The president, who was at the White House over the weekend, was informed of the incident Saturday, shortly after it happened, by Chief of Staff Andrew Card and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and was updated on Sunday, WH Press Secretary Scott McClellan said.

But neither the White House nor the vice president's staff announced the shooting.

Time.com reports: "Cheney is scheduled to join Bush on Monday afternoon when he takes questions from reporters in the Oval Office, following a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. White House aides can be expected to say that the Vice President did not shoot Whittington, which suggests a bullet, but rather sprayed him with birdshot, a type of ammunition made up of tiny pieces of lead or steel."

So many investigations...  "Cue the 'On-Going Investigation' Script!" 

Back to ABC's This Week:

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: On another matter, this week we saw from the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, he had a letter where he said, "It is our understanding Mr. Libby" -- Lewis Libby, the Vice President's National Security Advisor -- "testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE," National Intelligence Estimate, "to the press by his superiors." You were National Security Advisor at the time. Did you authorize anything like that?

SECRETARY RICE: George, this arises in the context of a legal case, it arises in the context of an investigation, and I'm going to respect the legal process. I'm not going to --

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: So no comment at all? Not a --

SECRETARY RICE: No comment.