"Lipstick on a pig"

...ain't gonna change the fact that it's still a pig.

From the Washington Post - Saturday, June 3, 2006:

A White House long accused of squelching internal dissent and ignoring outside viewpoints has been reaching out in its moment of weakness to prominent figures who have disagreed with the president. Bush just hired a Treasury secretary who opposed his policy on global warming and a press secretary who dismissed his domestic agenda as timid and listless.

Yeah, so what?

How much such moves reflect a genuine opening up for an insular White House remains uncertain. Symbolically, at least, the White House is eager to rebut the longstanding public impression of a president in a bunker listening only to like-minded advisers. Substantively, Bush has hardly signaled a major course change in the direction of his presidency, and skeptics recall past instances when nonconformists within the administration were shut out.

Yet some Washington veterans detect signs of a tentative new willingness by the administration to heed the advice of others rather than sticking stubbornly to its position. Just this week, under pressure from European allies and U.S. foreign policy elders, the administration reversed itself and agreed to join talks with Iran if it suspends nuclear activities...

The administration hasn't reversed itself at all, because it's knowingly going to scotch the deal by insisting that Iran suspend production before we come to the table. This is what's known in the negotiation game as a "poison pill", and it will make the Iranians look like the bad guys if they don't agree to it.

Just more of the same old Bushit that we've come to expect from an isolated and recalcitrant White House.

Christy Hardin Smith (ReddHedd) over at Fire Dog Lake has MORE on the subject.

UPDATE: Jesus, I hate it when I'm correct in my most pessimistic predictions...

VIENNA, Austria (CNN - June 3, 2006; Posted: 5:40 p.m. EDT) -- "Iran won't abandon its nuclear ambitions under Western pressure, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday, adding that the Islamic republic will hold "fair and unconditional" talks with West."

Huh...go figure.