The reshuffling of Syrian troops, which no one but Damascene clients and one White House reporter has taken seriously, is trolling along. Whether we hear directly from a leading official today or not, Press Secretary Scott McClellan, when asked, confirmed to a less presumptuous member of the press corps that the administration's demand for Syrian "action, not words" is one it has placed on itself, too:

Q Okay. Now, my Syrian question is, you say that the administration demands that Syria withdraw its troops completely and immediately from Lebanon. Syria, obviously, does not plan to do this. How are you going to make them do it?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we're continuing to work with the international community. You've seen comments from Chancellor Schroeder and President Chirac and comments from Russia, comments from Saudi Arabia, strongly stating their support for the United Nations Security Council resolution that calls for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon.

So we're continuing to talk about these matters with our partners, and we're continuing to look at the way forward, if Syria does not act. We need to see Syria act. They've made some commitments. We still view those as half-measures. But we ultimately want to see them speak by acting to comply with Resolution 1559. And that's what we expect.

Q And everything is still on the table. All options are still on the table.

MR. McCLELLAN: You know the President never takes options off the table.

He probably does. Might Bashar Assad?