Washingtonmonthly.com guest blogger Steve Benen notes that President Bush again proclaimed his support for “open debate” today, contradicting the long history of post-9/11 attacks on dissent by his administration and his party.

During a brief press conference, Bush first said that “Those elected leaders in Washington who do not support our policies in Iraq have every right to voice their dissent. They also have a responsibility to provide a credible alternative. The stakes are too high, and the national interest too important, for anything otherwise.”

He later returned to the subject and made the following statement:

…[T]his is a worthy debate, and I’m going to repeat something I’ve said before. People should feel comfortable about expressing their opinions about Iraq. I heard somebody say, well, maybe so-and-so is not patriotic because they disagree with my position. I totally reject that thought. This is not an issue of who’s patriot and who’s not patriotic. It’s an issue of an honest, open debate about the way forward in Iraq.

Someone doth protest too much.