The Hadley Memo revealed that some people in the White House consider Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki useless at best and actively damaging to our effort at worst. So, naturally, reporters were very excited about the three-way dinner and meeting (or "trilateral," in tool-speak) scheduled for tonight with Bush, Maliki, and the King of Jordan. Then Dan Bartlett broke everyone's heart by announcing that, for no particular reason, Maliki would not be meeting with Bush nor even eating with them.

This was a bit confusing to the assembled press.

Q So the dinner is off, the three-way.

MR. BARTLETT: Right.

Q Well if Maliki -- he was never going to the dinner anyway, right? It was just supposed to be a meeting.

MR. BARTLETT: There was going to be a trilateral meeting, and then the dinner with the King. Now, since they already had a bilateral themselves, the King of Jordan and the Prime Minister, everybody felt, well, there's no reason for them to do a trilateral meeting beforehand, because matters had been discussed.

Q So the scheduled trilateral is scrapped.

MR. BARTLETT: Right.

Q But the dinner -- all three of them are still going to be at the dinner?

MR. BARTLETT: No.

Q Okay so Maliki is not doing anything?

MR. BARTLETT: The President will see Prime Minister Maliki in the morning.

Q In the morning, okay.

Q So there's no three-way forum.

MR. BARTLETT: Correct.

Q I came in late. Where is Maliki?

Ha ha ha, it's fun to kid the Ngo Dinh Diem of the Iraq War!

Press Gaggle [White House]