Today's McClellan transcript: "Has Karl Rove offered to resign?"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Q You're not suggesting that the legal views expressed in a document when he was a young lawyer at the Justice Department do not reflect his own legal views, are you?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think you have to look at his record and look at his record on the last -- in the last two years on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. I think if you look at what people have said who know him best, Democrats and Republicans alike, they will tell you that he is someone who will be an impartial judge who is committed to interpreting our Constitution and our laws, and not trying to make law from the bench.

Q Right, I understand all that. I've heard that a million times, with all respect.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, maybe people that are watching haven't heard that, so I think it's important --

Q Well, you say it every day. My question --

MR. McCLELLAN: -- I think it's important for them to know about that.

Q I understand that. Everybody has said that repeatedly, which doesn't tell us very much. The issue is what's in the memos. Do you dispute the fact that those are, indeed, his legal views? Do they not telegraph his legal thinking, precisely?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think there's a distinction between advocating on behalf of a client and someone's personal views.

Q He was a political appointee. Was he hired because he had contrarian views to the administration?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know why -- you'll have to go back and look at that time. I'm sure these are issues that he --

Q Why should people --

MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on, hang on -- these are issues that he'll be glad to discuss during the confirmation process. Those are questions I'm sure that will come up. But it's important to look at the record and it's a record that Democrats and Republicans alike have praised. They know that he is someone that is highly qualified for this position and someone who is committed to important principles when it comes to being a judge. He has shown that over the last two years on the Circuit Court of Appeals.

Q Without badgering you, is there any conclusion that you can draw from these files that have been made public? In other words, what can we conclude about his judicial philosophy based on that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think his philosophy is one of interpreting our Constitution and our laws, one of providing an impartial and fair look at the facts and then applying the law based on the facts. That's what his record shows.

Q Has Karl Rove offered to resign, in view of his problems?

MR. McCLELLAN: Again, you keep asking these questions that are related to an ongoing investigation --

Q Does he still have his security clearance?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and those are questions that have already been addressed.

Q No, they -- I've never heard this before. Have you?

MR. McCLELLAN: The question has been asked before.

Q We haven't heard an answer.

Q What was your answer?

Q There hasn't been an answer.

MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/07/20050727-1.html

-------------SNIP------------------

Q Scott, why is it that you continue to cushion John Roberts' work during the Reagan administration --

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't cushion John Roberts -- oh, wait, Judge Roberts, okay, sorry. (Laughter.)

Q You continue to say, he was young. You've used those words consecutively for a couple of days. Are you aware of something that is getting ready to come out in the 65,000 documents from the Reagan era that will make this administration say, well, that was when he was young and he has now changed his mind, because there's a major --

MR. McCLELLAN: Okay, let me address that -- let me address that very quickly: No. (Laughter.)

Q Well, why do you continue to preface, he was young, then? Why do you continue to say that, because you lead us to believe that --

MR. McCLELLAN: Because I'm stating a fact.

Q Don't be smart about it. I'm looking for a serious answer.

MR. McCLELLAN: Ken, go ahead.

Q No, no, no, I'm looking for a serious answer, not anything just off the cuff. I want to know why you continue to say this man was young. We don't know anything about his philosophy, and it seems that you are trying to preface this now, so when this happens --

MR. McCLELLAN: At the period of the early '80s?

Q This administration must know something that is coming out to preface us, to get us to understand this was when he was young, and he may have changed his mind.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, not all.

Q What are you aware of? Is it about abortion, Roe v. Wade?

MR. McCLELLAN: Not at all, April.

[gmoney]

1. I feel slimy just READING it...

Scotty is as slippery as they come...

[Caution]

2. he's slippery but he can't hold a candle to Ari Fleischer.

[arcane1]

4. indeed...

as slimy as Ari is, he's also damned good. I hate to say it, but I'd want him as my press secretary

[rurallib]

5. Strangely I somewhat admired Ari's ability to

stand in front of a room full of people and cameras and tell a bald-faced lie, without so much as a blip in his voice. I'd call my wife in and tell her "Watch this guy lie. He is just so good at it. These lies are so obvious, but that doesn't slow him down at all."

[Wickerman]

3. Scott reminds me of a pres-schooler

Were he a pre-schooler his habit of engaging in parallel play would be age appropriate.

He does the same thing as the others in the room, he just doesn't do it with them. They ask questions, he talks; not about what they asked, but he talks. Slimy is right.

[louis-t]

6. McClellan is hating life and his job right now.

He doesn't even seem to believe what he's saying. I love it when the WHPC asks him why he's saying the same thing over and over, and he answers with the same talking point. He knows it sounds trite and phony, yet his orders are to keep saying it cuz "somebody might have missed it".

[rainbow4321]

7. Next we will probably hear that he is leaving...

to go help his mother in her run for TX gov...along with a "oh, he's been planning on leaving even before all of this started".