Spin Cycle

When she was asked about her Bosnia sniper fable last night, Sen. Clinton was generally more contrite than she had previously been in her response to a videotaped Pennsylvania voter named Tom Rooney:

She "said some things that weren't in keeping with what I knew to be the case." She was "embarrassed." She "apologized." It was a "mistake." And she was "sorry."

At the end, however, she said:

"So I will either try to get more sleep, Tom, or, you know, have somebody who, you know, is there as a reminder to me....."

Here's the problem: Her husband Bill, last week, tried to use the no-sleep excuse. But she made the sniper claim four or five times, over a period of months. The last time, she made the claim in an early morning speech at George Washington University on March 17, and stuck by it when challenged at a press conference afterwards.

Even if you assume that maybe she pulled an all-nighter March 16 and was woozy in the early morning at GW, sleepiness could only account for one event of misspeaking. How can she claim that every time she got sleepy, the effect was the same -- she told a similarly phony story about Bosnia?

It still doesn't add up. Even as Hillary edges toward acknowledging that she intentionally exaggerated, she keeps an excuse in reserve that -- like the story itself -- still doesn't ring true.