"Message discipline" seems to be breaking down within the Bush administration, notes David Sanger: "For months now, the same administration whose members once prided themselves on never contradicting one another in public has been riven by conflicting pronouncements. Senior officials keep missing opportunities to keep their signals straight, prompting cases of vicious backbiting that one senior member of Mr. Bush's national security staff said with disgust the other day 'make us sound like Democrats.' Reporters who spent the first two-thirds of Mr. Bush's term looking for any crack between the tight-lipped members of the administration suddenly feel as if they have stepped into an amusement park, with different hawkers openly selling disparate policies, explanations and critiques. ... Many think it is a casualty of Iraq: When the occupation turned south, the backbiting and second-guessing were inevitable. ... Another theory is that while the president is thinking about his second term, many of those in his cabinet are thinking about getting out."