While my expectations are low...

...sometimes those people in the White House can still impress me with their stupidity.

I mean, if you're going to send your Press Secretary out to lie to the entire world, shouldn't you pick a subject on which you can give him just a little bit of cover?

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

But faced with King Abdullah's refusal to meet with Bush today (and when the last time a head of state visited the US and refused to meet with the President? Any President?), Scott McClellan was sent forth to announce that "...the changed plans were a result of "domestic issues" in Jordan."

It's a lie, of course. The changed plans were the result of Bush's latest flip-flop on decades of American foreign policy regarding Israel.

But don't take my word for it.

Speaking for the Jordanian government, Asma Khader told The Associated Press that "The Abdullah-Bush meeting would not be held "until discussions and deliberations are concluded with officials in the American administration to clarify the American position on the peace process and the final situation in the Palestinian territories, especially in light of the latest statements by officials in the American administration," according to the palace statement."

In other words, it's our foreign, not their domestic, policy that inspired the King to scrub his chat with the Prez. And McClellan's lie is left hanging out to...well, to hang him.