'Bush's Blunder' May Be Kristol's Inside Influence

Karl Rove's loyalty police should be on deep orange alert, if not hot pink. There is a sleeper cell operating in the White House.

This tale begins with Joseph Shattan, who penned an article titled "Bush's Blunder" for National Review Online on Oct. 15. Bush's endorsement of a Palestinian state confirmed "America's cowardice and corruption" to Middle Easterners, he wrote. "Thanks entirely to the president and his team . . . the campaign to defeat the Islamist challenge has gotten off to a singularly inauspicious start."

And what is Shattan doing now? Well, he's about to begin a new job -- as a White House speechwriter. The appointment is all the more intriguing because Shattan recently had been recruited as a speechwriter for the Energy Department. His hiring was vetoed by the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, which cited the heretical article.