Feinstein Regrets Her Loose Lips After Suggesting White House Leaks

After Sen. Dianne Feinstein blamed national security leaks on the White House, Mitt Romney naturally picked up her criticism for his campaign, and now the senator says she's the one who shouldn't have spoken so freely. It's not really a walk-back because Feinstein didn't disavow her suggestion to the World Affairs Council on Monday that "the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks." But she did say she shouldn't have made it. “I stated that I did not believe the president leaked classified information,” Feinstein said in the statement on Tuesday, quoted by The Hill's Jeremy Herb. “I shouldn’t have speculated beyond that, because the fact of the matter is I don’t know the source of the leaks.” She also said, "I regret my remarks are being used to impugn President Obama or his commitment to protecting national security secrets," referring to Romney's speech to a Veterans of Foreign Wars conference, in which he cited her comments on the leaks.

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Romney's people, naturally, couldn't be happier that she called out the White House, which faced some scrutiny last month for possibly leaking details of the plot to catch the latest "underwear bomber." Top Romney advisor Eric Fehrnstrom (himself no stranger to the odd verbal blunder), expressed his glee on Twitter: "Dianne Feinstein just got Cory Bookered," he crowed. Nothing like a good gloat to make you feel better about your last gaffe.