Always drive on the non–IED side of the street

Talk about fast: William Kristol has already cranked out a triumph-of-will column, "George W. Bush's Not so Terrible Week."

So this was a not-so-terrible week for Bush. I guess a terrible week would be one that saw the 2000th US military death in Iraq. Oh, wait. That did happen, not that Kristol mentions it.

Instead we get: Meanwhile, the political process in Iraq continued in a relatively promising direction and On the military front, the joint U.S.-Iraqi effort to fight an effective counterinsurgency seemed to be making some progress.

Relatively promising? Seemed to be making? Some progress? Whatever happened to the urbane and uber-confident neocon of yester-2003?

The Commerce Department calculated that third-quarter economic growth was 3.8%, and Kristol goes wild: Our economy may remain strong enough to overcome the twin hurdles of high energy prices and rising interest rates.

Well, let the binge spending begin anew!

On Thursday, Harriet Miers withdrew her candidacy for the Supreme Court…. Poor Harriet -- Hallmark just doesn't make a card for what she's been through. Enough said about that.

And then, of course, on Friday, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's two-year investigation came to an underwhelming conclusion with the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby--not for any underlying crime but for impeding the investigation through perjury and false statements.

Yes, yes, we all know: In Washington, it's the lying not the underlying that gets you into trouble.

It may sound odd to call this good news for the president. No, not really. The logic here is inescapable.

It's good news for the president because it's not worse news for the president.