In an October 23 interview on CBS' The Early Show, White House senior adviser Dan Bartlett stated that the Bush administration's Iraq policy has “never been a 'stay the course' strategy” -- a claim that the Associated Press subsequently reported in an October 23 article. Conspicuously absent from both the CBS interview and the AP article was any reference to the repeated assertions by President Bush that the United States “will stay the course in Iraq,” as he recently stated in an August 30 speech.

Bartlett's comments appear to be part of an effort by the Bush administration to erase in the public's mind its previous “stay the course” position on Iraq, about which several prominent Republicans have raised concerns. As Media Matters for America noted, President Bush himself asserted in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that his administration has “never been stay the course” in Iraq.

From the October 23 edition of CBS' The Early Show:

HANNAH STORM (co-host): So, Mr. Bartlett, staying the course is no longer the operative strategy?

BARTLETT: Well, Hannah, it's never been a “stay the course” strategy. Strategically, we think it's very important that we stay in Iraq and we win in Iraq. And if we were to cut and run and go and leave that country too early, it would be a disaster for American policy.

But what we aren't doing is sitting there with our heads in the sand. We're completely changing and making tactical changes on a week-by-week basis as we respond to the enemy's reactions to our strategies.

Storm did not challenge Bartlett's comment that “it's never been a 'stay the course' strategy” and concluded the interview immediately after this answer.

Shortly after Bartlett's appearance on CBS, the AP published an article on his assertion that the administration's Iraq policy is flexible and his denial that White House strategy had ever been “stay the course”:

The fledgling Iraqi government must “step up and take more responsibility” for the country's security, a high-ranking White House official said Monday.

At the same time, Dan Bartlett denied in a television interview that the Bush administration's war policy has been a sweeping “stay the course” commitment, saying “what we aren't doing is sitting there with our heads in the sand.”

[...]

“It's never been a stay the course strategy,” he said. “The enemy we're fighting is a very determined one. They're very lethal. ... But we are going to prevail and it's going to require the Iraqis themselves to step up and take more responsibility, and that's something we'll be impressing on them in the weeks and months ahead.”

The AP did go on to note that Sen. Joseph R. Biden (D-DE), who also appeared on The Early Show, said he was “amazed by this statement by Dan Bartlett that we've always been flexible.” But the article did not report that both Bush and White House press secretary Tony Snow -- as recently as late August -- have repeatedly stated the administration's intention to “stay the course” in Iraq, as the weblog Think Progress documented:

• [BULLET] BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]
• SNOW: The second thing you do is you stay the course. [7/10/06]
• SNOW: But on the other hand, you also cannot be a President in a wartime and not realize that you've got to stay the course. [8/17/06]
• BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]
• BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We're just going to stay the course. [12/15/03]
• BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We'll stay the course. [4/13/04]
• SNOW: People are going to want more of it, and that's why the President is determined to stay the course. April. [8/16/06]
• BUSH: And that's why we're going to stay the course in Iraq. And that's why when we say something in Iraq, we're going to do it. [4/16/04]
• BUSH: And so we've got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]

By contrast to the AP, other news outlets have pushed back against attempts by White House officials to distance Bush from this “stay the course” rhetoric. For instance, in a September 3 article, Washington Post staff writers Dan Balz and Michael A. Fletcher noted that “if 'stay the course' is a slur against Bush's policy, someone needs to tell the president”:

White House officials complain that Democrats mischaracterize President Bush's policy on the war in Iraq as “stay the course.” He's not simply staying the course, they say, because he constantly adapts tactics to adjust to developments.

But if “stay the course” is a slur against Bush's policy, someone needs to tell the president. During a speech in Salt Lake City last week, he used the term without reservation. “We will stay the course, we will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed, and victory in Iraq will be a major ideological triumph in the struggle of the 21st century,” he said.

Asked to explain, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said: “The president has made clear that it is in our nation's interest to stay in Iraq until the job is done. He has also stressed that staying in Iraq does not mean we aren't adapting or changing our tactics to reflect the realities on the ground.”

So “stay the course” is right when the president uses it, but not when the other guys do.