JB

Terry Neal provides a list of Bush's changes in position:

The Bush campaign has received a lot of mileage out of characterizing Kerry as a serial flip-flopper. The campaign is already spending millions of dollars on television and radio ads pillorying Kerry's record and tagging him as someone who can't make up his mind. That line of attack has helped chip away at Kerry's early lead in the polls.

But by making this such an issue, Bush draws attention to his own record.

The Associated Press recently compiled a list of recent Bush flip-flops:

•The president initially argued that a federal Department of Homeland Security wasn't needed, but then devised a plan to create one.

•He resisted a commission to investigate Iraq intelligence failures, but then relented.

•He opposed, and then supported, a two-month extension of the 9/11 commission's work, after the panel said protracted disputes over access to White House documents left too little time.

•He initially said any access to the president by the commission would be limited to just one hour but relaxed the limit earlier this month.

His flip-flops take on added weight because he himself has upped the ante. The underlying theme of every Bush campaign is that he is a man of honor, while his opponent is a liar or a hypocrite. Of course, Bush doesn't use those exact words. But make no mistake, that's what he meant when in the 2000 Republican primary he described Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) as a politician who "says one thing and does another" and characterized Vice President Gore as a politician who will "say anything to get elected."

Kerry campaign spokesman David Wade said the Bush administration has "this nasty habit of flip-flopping the only time political pressure is applied, any time they see that their own positions are untenable. It's incredible how transparent their flip-flops are... The great irony is that this administration makes these baseless attacks when in fact not only is George Bush a walking contradiction, but clearly he is the candidate in the race that has the known credibility problem."

Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt defended the president, drawing a distinction between Bush's and Kerry's reversals.

"The president is very consistent on points of principle and as regards to the foundational policies that he is advocating," Holt said. "John Kerry has a pattern and a record of contradiction. Rather than consistency as a rule, inconsistency is more the pattern."

Holt said of the decisions to create the 9/11 commission and to allow Rice to testify: "Those are process decisions and not an issue of to tax or not to tax. And that's a huge difference."

But the liberal Center for American Progress has compiled an even longer list of Bush flip-flops, including reversals on "foundational issues," as Holt would say -- positions such as steel tariffs, gay marriage, campaign finance reform and mediation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.