After Dissing Krauthammer Over Churchill Bust Story, White House Spokeshole Fesses Up

You'll remember the recent attempt of the White House to embarrass Governor Romney during his UK trip by claiming that the bust of Winston Churchill that sat in the Oval Office was never returned by President Obama as soon as he took office? And they even provided a picture! In the process, White House spokeshole Dan Pfieffer accused columnist Charles Krauthammer of peddling falsehood when Krauthammer remarked in print on the bust having been returned the bust had been returned.

Since there were numerous press mentions of the bust being returned, it became obvious who was lying, and the White House was busted, as it were. The original bust was in fact returned back in 2009, and a second bust that was gathering dust in the White House art collection was moved into the residence and discovered...just by coincidence - dusted off and peddled as the bust that was returned by Obama.

Today, Pfieffer made a sniveling little apology to Krauthammer, saying, 'oh you know, it was, I mean, in all the excitement we just sort of got confused, heh heh. Sorry about calling you a liar.'

Pfeiffer tried to get by with a private e-mail, but Dr. K made this tool fess up publicly:

Charles,

I take your criticism seriously and you are correct that you are owed an apology. There was clearly an internal confusion about the two busts and there was no intention to deceive. I clearly overshot the runway in my post. The point I was trying to make – under the belief that the Bust in the residence was the one previously in the Oval Office-- was that this oft repeated talking point about the bust being a symbol of President Obama’s failure to appreciate the special relationship is false. The bust that was returned was returned as a matter of course with all the other artwork that had been loaned to President Bush for display in his Oval Office and not something that President Obama or his Administration chose to do. I still think this is an important point and one I wish I had communicated better.

A better understanding of the facts on my part and a couple of deep breaths at the outset would have prevented this situation. Having said all that, barring a miracle comeback from the Phillies I would like to see the Nats win a world series even if it comes after my apology

Thanks,

Dan Pfeiffer

'No intention to deceive'..right. And this just happened to be put out on the official White House site exactly at the same time Governor Romney was in the UK, just, you know, by coincidence.Ri-ight.

The bit about the bust having to be returned 'as a matter of course' is another outright lie, because the Brits made no demand for it to be returned and were rather miffed when it was as one of the first things President Obama did once he got into office, if you remember what their press had to say on the matter.

Pfeiffer, of course, is just an ignorant little White House lackey who was told what to do by Higher Authority and likely got spanked simply because this fraud was discovered and he was the designated whipping boy.

But what would really be interesting to find out is who ordered him to do it.

He certainly didn't do it on his own.