An important shift in the Bush administration's position on Iran in this AP story. The State Department's third-ranking official will meet directly with Iranian nuclear negotiators. The move reverses Condoleezza Rice's pledge not to negotiate directly with Iran until it suspends its uranium enrichment program, makes a mockery of George W. Bush's pledge to treat terrorist-sponsoring states the same way we treat terrorists, and, in what is becoming a disturbing pattern in the second term, rewards bad behavior from rogue states.

How will the Bush administration spin all of these collapses? Who knows? But one comment from a "US official" might give us a hint.

"This is a one-time event and he will be there to listen, not negotiate," the official told the AP.