Another reason to think Bush & Blair knew the mic was on

Earlier today I was speculating that Bush and Blair might have pulled off the Jed Bartlet trick of being deliberately indiscreet while the microphone was on. Bush’s use of some rather industrial language certainly got his criticisms of Syria far more play than they would have if he had just marched up to a podium and delivered them sans the s word. Now, something Rich Lowry has written over at the Corner has got me thinking there might be another reason why Bush and Blair would want the world to overhear their conversation. 

Before their table talk was broadcast, pressure was growing for Rice to head to the region. Albright appeared on This Week straight after Rice did to urge her to indulge in some shuttle diplomacy. The benefit of the chat-heard-around-the-world is that it revealed that Rice is going, something State confirmed, while avoiding any questions about timing. 

Lowry’s worry is that Rice will arrive in the Middle East too soon and so Israel won’t have a chance to deal with Hezbollah. But now that we know Rice is going in the near future, calls for her to leave immediately have far less traction both domestically and internationally. Rice can now wait for at least a few days before boarding a flight to the region, giving Israel some time to try and unilaterally implement UN resolution 1559.