http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/05/bush_wont_say_i.html#more<snip>
O’DONNELL: Thank you, sir. There's been some very dramatic testimony before the Senate this week from one of your former top Justice Department officials, who describes a scene that some senators called stunning, about a time when the wireless -- when the warrantless wiretap program was being reviewed. Sir, did you send your then-chief of staff and White House counsel to the bedside of John Ashcroft while he was ill, to get him to approve that program? And do you believe that kind of conduct from White House officials is appropriate?
PRESIDENT BUSH: Kelly, there's a lot of speculation about what happened and what didn't happen. I'm not going to talk about it. It's a very sensitive program.
I will tell you that one, the program is necessary to protect the American people, and it's still necessary, because there's still an enemy that wants to do us harm. And therefore I have an obligation to put in place programs that honor the civil liberties of the American people, a program that was, in this case, constantly reviewed and briefed to the United States Congress. And the program, as I say, is an essential part of protecting this country.
And so there will be all kinds of talk about it. As I say, I'm not going to move -- move the issue forward by talking about something as highly sensitive -- highly classified subject. I will tell you, however, that the program is necessary.
....
The president obviously could've answered the question without getting into classified information. James Comey, the former Justice Department official who described Gonzales's visit said quite clearly earlier this week in congresional testimony that he wouldn't discuss anything classified.
Yet he talked openly about Gonzales's remarkable visit to the hospital room.
So why wouldn't the president?