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Picture a five-year-old with his eyes squinted shut and his fingers in his ears, yelling nonsense sounds at the top of his lungs in order to avoid having to see or listen to something he doesn't like.

In a nutshell, that's George W. Bush's interview with Rich Lowry columnists. See Brian Tamanaha's post over at Balkinization, which is where I saw the excerpt. [David Brooks also discusses this interview in today's NYT. Brooks also calls W "the most inner-directed man on the globe." Whatever.]

The lead quote, staggering in its LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-ness, is "Let me just first tell you that I’ve never been more convinced that the decisions I made are the right decisions." But one that possibly bears more comment in this political season is Bush's statement that

when I get home — and home is Texas — I’m going to look in the mirror and say, ‘The same set of principles that were etched in my heart when I told the people in 2000 what I believe are still there.’ That may be — tactics are different, you adjust, you make different decisions. But the principles are inviolate.

Never mind the no-new-nation-building stuff from 2000. Just ask yourself this: Self, didn't 9/11 change everything? If so, then how can this man claim that he follows exactly the same principles he had in 2000?

LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA.

That's how.