here's something about George Bush's economic team that seems to compel its members to say true things at inconvenient moments.

Earlier this month, Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, created a stir when he said the overseas outsourcing of jobs is probably a good thing in the long run. In an election year when the absence of new jobs is vying with the absence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to be Topic A, the Democrats gleefully pounced on the Bush administration's supposed enthusiasm for free trade in services. "It's time to outsource this administration," Senator John Edwards said as he scoured Wisconsin for votes.

John Kerry, whose own campaign was directing queries to a Canadian call center for a while, accused the administration of conspiring to ship jobs overseas. Tom Daschle and Edward Kennedy proposed ill-advised legislation to make it harder for American companies to hire overseas. Even Dennis Hastert, the Republican who is speaker of the House, criticized Mr. Mankiw.

It was all rather familiar in a way: Mr. Bush sacked Paul O'Neill, his first Treasury secretary, for political tone-deafness. Last Thursday, the president attempted to pave over the hubbub by volunteering that some people are out of work because of outsourcing.

The White House has been quick to betray sound free-trade policies to suit its political interests, so there was an element of comeuppance in watching it take a beating. But someone should point out that Mr. Mankiw was right. Call center jobs in India do lift that country's standard of living while freeing up American capital, labor and other resources for more efficient, high-value uses.

What the country needs from the administration, however, is not occasional cheerleading on the subject of free trade. It needs principled policymaking. On the issues of farm subsidies, steel tariffs and textile quotas, President Bush has been all too eager to run away from liberal trade policies. The Democrats' shameless pandering does not make his own record look better.