His lame ass rebuttal

Bush's 'drive-by briefing'
Posted by Mark Silva at 11:30 am CDT

WASHINGTON - President Bush, visibly troubled by the Supreme Court's repudiation of his handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, pledged today to "find a way forward" with Congress on trials for many people whom the president maintains cannot be returned home.


"We will work with the Congress," said Bush, saying he takes the ruling "very seriously - I want to find a way forward."

If Congress can draft a law that will enable military tribunals to handle detainees in a way that conforms with the court ruling, Bush said, he will be open to that. "If that's the case, we'll work with them," the president said. "To the extent that there is latitude to work with the Congress to determine whether or not the military tribunals will be an avenue in which to give people their day in court, we will do so.

"But some of these people need to be tried in our courts," the president said.

Bush, who has said he wants to close Guantanamo once plans are made to either return home or try some 400 detainees being held there in the administration's "war on global terror," attempted to turn the issue today to a question of continuing to protect the American public from terrorism.

"The American people need to know that this ruling, as I understand it, won't cause killers to be put out on the street," said Bush, cautiously delivering his first public reaction to the ruling at an East Room press conference with the visiting prime minister of Japan.

"One thing I'm not going to do, though, is I'm not going to jeopardize the safety of the American people," Bush said. "People have got to understand that. I understand we're in a war on terror, that these people were picked up off of a battlefield, and I will.. protect the people, and at the same time conform with the findings of the Supreme Court."

But the president, who maintained that he had received only a "drive-by briefing" on the ruling which was issued during his morning meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, said he couldn't comment much further on the ruling. "I haven't had a chance to fully review the findings," said Bush, when first asked about it. And, when asked a second time, he said: "I wish I could comment on it... I would... I haven't been briefed enough."

"I'm sorry you had to waste your question," Bush told the reporter, during a session with a visiting foreign leader in which traditionally only two questions are taken from reporters of each nation.

Bush was celebrating the friendship between the United States and Japan with a prime minister who is an Elvis Presley fan, and Bush said he had given Koizumi a juke box for a gift. But, visibly disturbed by the court ruling overshadowing their meeting, Bush opened the floor of the East Room to questions with an allusion to Presley by imploring of reporters: "Don't be Cruel."

"Walking in, I reminded the prime minister of one of Elvis's greatest songs, "Don't Be Cruel," Bush told reporters. "So keep that in mind, huh, when you ask a question."