Semi-Daily Journal

I Don't Understand the White House Reaction

I read things like:

ABCNEWS.com : The Note: According to ABC News' Kate Snow, speaking to an Administration source:

The investigation was the subject of discussion at the 7:30 am senior staff meeting this morning. This source says to some who've been through scandals before and know how quickly they can move, this White House seems to be in denial. "What people don't realize is that if there's an investigation it does not matter if you're the leaker. It matters [if] are you willing to say things that politically you'd never say but legally you're forced to say. I don't think people understand what bringing an investigator into the White House can do." Meaning the severity of it? "Correct. People don't understand that what they say now will be held against them later."

And:

...given that Capitol Hill Republicans have great faith in John Ashcroft (there's that double entendre again); given the Gang of 500 CW that leak investigations never go anywhere; and given the president's commitment to get to the bottom of this...

I am very puzzled. How can the White House not have already thought that an unsuccessful investigation led by John Ashcroft is much worse for George W. Bush than an unsuccessful investigation led by an independent counsel? How can the White House not have already thought that an unsuccessful investigation--one that leaves people whom George H.W. Bush calls "insidious traitors" working inside the White House--is much worse for the country (and for George W. Bush) than a rapidly-concluded successful investigation?