HARDBALL!

No no, not the Chris Matthews type of hardball, but the Phillip Zelikow type of hardball:

Last Monday morning 9/11 commission executive director Philip Zelikow faxed a photograph to the White House counsel’s office with a note saying that if the White House didn’t allow national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify in public before the commission, the photograph would”…be all over Washington in 24 hours,” Newsweek has learned. The photo, from a Nov. 22, 1945, New York Times story, showed presidential chief of staff Adm. William D. Leahy, appearing before a special congressional panel investigating the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The point was clear: The White House could no longer get away with the claim that Rice’s appearance would be a profound breach of precedent.

Now most folks may say “cool” and let this slip, but this is one of the rare moments of powercraft that few ever really witness. If Matthews ever does re-print his book, this has to go into the new preface.