In All the President’s Spin, we showed how the Bush administration rarely engages in outright lying. Instead, they use technically true but misleading claims to spin the press in a more subtle — and effective — manner.

Here’s an example of that tactic from a New York Times story last week on the changing priorities of the Justice Department under President Bush.

When asked about the decreased number of voting rights lawsuits brought by DOJ, the Bush spokesperson replied that the numbers were actually up compared with President Clinton, but the Times surprisingly pointed out that this statistic was misleading:

the department has sharply reduced its efforts to combat voting rights plans that may dilute black electoral strength.

Ms. Magnuson, the department spokeswoman, said that the civil rights division had brought more voting rights lawsuits under Mr. Bush than had been brought in the Clinton administration.

But an examination of the Justice Department’s Web site listing of the cases brought through early 2007 shows that many of them involved a different part of the law, one that requires voting materials be available in languages other than English in places with high concentrations of Asian and Hispanic voters.

With President Bush’s poll numbers at such a low point, we may see more aggressive coverage like this over the next 18 months.