White House and WaPo: Something in common

Today's Washington Post has a page one story concerning how the Miers came about and then quickly went off the track: Nomination Was Plagued By Missteps From the Start

Naturally, we're given a lot of "inside stuff;" almost all of it from anonymous sources.

Nothing new there.

But the following sentence quoting an anonymous White House source is worth noting for the explanation it offers for the anonymity.

"This thing never got off the launching pad very well," said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because public airing of self-criticism is not encouraged in the White House.

Anonymity "because public airing of self-criticism is not encouraged in the White House."

That explanation doesn't work.

The source isn't airing "self-criticism." The source is criticizing White House management of the nomination process.

So why not a sentence like this:

"This thing never got off the launching pad very well," said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because White House staffers are discouraged from making public criticisms of colleagues just as we're discouraged from publicly criticizing colleagues here at the Post."

That works, doesn't it?