Oops, Just Missed

Expanded 2/10/06 8:37 AM PST

You don’t think Rove feels like he’s a living genius after Bush drops a hysteria bomb out of nowhere about some fuzzy, years-old, supposedly foiled jet liner attack on L.A.’s library tower … and the newswire hands him this?

And to push the set up further, isn’t it interesting Bush issued his announcement before a Texas Air National Guard ceremony, the service he used strings to get himself into and prematurely get out of during Vietnam?  (To keep the “Swiftboaters” at bay, I’m not going to bring up that Bush sparsely attended, as well.)

The president — identified by the DOD press release as “a former Texas Air National Guard fighter pilot” — indicates that Bush’s scary announcement took place at a guard event unveiling a bronze bust created in his honor and cast in his image.

By the way, this press release is cleverly manipulative given that the photo accompanying it (the middle shot above) fails to include the bust itself, but rather frames Bush against the oversized minuteman figure on the wall — a visual logo the TANG has been using since way before Bush (partly) showed up.

Nice touch too, by the way, that the sight lines (at least from the back of the room) have “the two minutemen” almost overlapping.

(image 1: Kim D. Johnson/A.P.  February 9, 2006.  Los Angeles.  ViaYahooNews..image 2: Paul Morse/White House. February 9, 2006.  defenselink.mil. image 3: han Ernst/Reuters. February 9, 2006.  Washington. Via YahooNews. )