Spokesman Holds Tongue During Intense Grilling (Scottie to the woodshed)

[Pirate Smile]

Spokesman Holds Tongue During Intense Grilling

By Dana Milbank

Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A04

On the north lawn of the White House yesterday afternoon, gardeners were taking a chain saw and wood chipper to some tree branches. Inside the briefing room, reporters were taking press secretary Scott McClellan to the woodshed.

It was journalists' first chance to grill McClellan on camera since coming to the conclusion that he had misled them 18 months ago when he said President Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, had nothing to do with the unmasking of a CIA operative. The recipients of McClellan's bum steer were furious -- hectoring him more than questioning him.

-snip-
The 32-minute pummeling was perhaps the worst McClellan received since he got the job two years ago. His eyes were red and tired. He wiggled his foot nervously behind the lectern and robotically refused to answer no fewer than 35 questions about Rove and the outing of the CIA's Valerie Plame. Twenty-two times McClellan repeated that an "ongoing" investigation prevented him from explaining the gap between his past statements and the facts.

-snip-
The spokesman gave a substantive answer to only one question, saying prosecutors asked the White House in 2003 to stop making public comments on the case. But that only made matters worse, because Bush himself continued to talk about the leaks in 2004. When this inconsistency was pointed out, McClellan clammed up, saying: "You can keep asking , but you have my response."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101284_2.html

[pfitz59]

1. Worse than Ari......

ar least Ari quit. Will Scotty go down with the ship?

[sundancekid]

2. like the line in Pretty Woman, Dana Milbank has a LOT of sucking up

to us left to do after his meanderings into the wasteland ... this article is a very tiny start but we can appreciate it ...