BUSH BLAMING ROVE?

From yesterday's White House press conference:

Q ... Mr. President, may I ask you if you have any metrics you'd be willing to share about your reading contest with Mr. Rove.

THE PRESIDENT: I'm losing. I obviously was working harder in the campaign than he was. (Laughter.)

From today's New York Times:

The congratulatory calls kept coming to Senator Charles E. Schumer's cellphone yesterday -- mostly from grateful Democrats, but also a few from Republicans who do not normally pay homage to the giant of Brooklyn.

"The president called and said jokingly, 'I wish you were on my team,'" recalled Mr. Schumer, the head of the campaign committee for Senate Democrats....

Does he think Rove let him down?

(We know, of course, that he never thinks anything is his fault.)

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UPDATE: Well yeah, he did say, "I share a large part of the responsibility," as noted by The Washinton Post's Dana Milbank, who ticks off several other culprits Bush blamed -- voters, Mark Foley, clever Democrats, et cetera. But a reference to the Democrats' "very strong turnout mechanism" is a rebuke to Rove, too, because his was supposed to be better no matter what.