The White House’s reaction to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s embrace of Sen. Barack Obama’s 16-month withdrawal timetable is the like the five stages of grief.

When a guy you more or less install in power and keep there on a very short leash starts going off the reservation, you first claim there was some sort of translation error. Then you claim that what he says is not what he means. When he continues to reiterate the point, you assert that he knows not of what he speaks.

And when he becomes adamant on the point, you do what White House press secretary Dana Perino tried to do today, just pretend that nothing Maliki has said trumps the earlier joint statement issued by the U.S. and Iraqi governments last week: “It is no small thing for two leaders to issue a statement; it is one that was taken with care and with seriousness.”

Fun times in the White House briefing room: