Rearranging the Deck Chairs

The administration has been engaging in its latest game of musical chairs recently, and it's getting hard for me to keep track of who's where these days. At least I won't have to remember a lot of new names, since even tough times rarely compel this administration to introduce new bodies to the mix.

Yet leave it to the administration to turn that vice into a virtue, as if moving around the folks with the same tired ideas will actually lead to any substantive changes in policy.

"It was clearly time to move the players around on the field," said the senior [administration] official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Mr. Bush had yet to announce the changes. "This helps the president to make the case that this is a fresh start."

Indeed. You would imagine that the crew of the Titanic had the same idea as they dragged the furniture around, so let's remember where that got them.