Non-homicidal research

So now White House spokesman Tony Snow has apologized for referring to embryonic-stem-cell research as “murder,” explaining it was a rhetorical flourish that went quite a bit farther than President Bush was willling to go. Which only makes it more inexplicable that chief of staff Josh Bolten wasn’t prepared to clarify this in his hapless appearance on “Meet the Press.”

Snow says he “feel[s] bad” about what happened to Bolten. But any political operatives who aren’t rank amateurs should have seen this coming. And the Bushies have never struck anyone as rank amateurs when it comes to politics. Until now, perhaps.