Richard Perle and Flip Flops -- We're Not Talking Footwear

So Richard Perle wants to have his yellowcake and eat it too.

He wants to be on the side of the born-again angels -- the swelling chorus of conservatives criticizing the way the Iraq war has been prosecuted, and the delays in harrying Osama bin Laden. He wants to tell some hard truths about the Administration -- but he didn't want Americans to hear them until after the election.

Mr. Perle laments that Vanity Fair editors lied to him about not publishing the story before the election [Excerpts are on the website; the full story comes out in the magazine next month].

He feels betrayed by a magazine. Americans feel betrayed by an administration.

Mr. Perle's reason for the timing: he didn't want to influence the public debate on Iraq before the election. Didn't want to influence it? He helped to shape the war and the public debate about it. Why abdicate that role now?

Oh, that's right. He was for it before he was against it.