He's fallen and he can't get up.
"In my administration, we will ask not only what is legal but what is right, not just what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves," Bush said Oct. 26, 2000.
Five years later, senior White House adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was accused of covering up his involvement in the CIA leak case, an investigation that raises questions about the role played by Bush confidant Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney to discredit an Iraq war critic.
The case cuts at the president's hard-earned credibility.
In June 2004, Bush said he stood by his pledge to "fire anybody" in his administration shown to have leaked Valerie Plame's name. His press secretary, after checking with Libby and Karl, assured the public that neither man had anything to do with the leak.
It turns out they both were involved, though Rove has not been charged and neither man has been charged with breaking the law against revealing the identity of an undercover agent.
The president's own supporters call that a Clintonesque distinction that violates the spirit of Bush's pledge from 2000. Some say Bush should publicly chastise Libby and Rove while insisting on a public accounting of Cheney's role.
A White House official privately put it this way: Bush has to step up somehow and be accountable.
