Thursday, December 22, 2005

What Scotty Wants to Talk About

Mikaela says:
Great story today in Washington Post on Scott McClellan, robot spokesman for Bush. I will be the first to hold his lying tongue to the fire when the time comes, but he does allude to a break in loyalty because of the fracturing of the implacable White House by some lawbreakers, leading to the outting of a CIA agenda.

The story starts with this rather illuminating Bush quote:

On the Thursday morning after his reelection in November 2004, President Bush bounded unexpectedly into the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where about 15 members of his communications team were celebrating. He just wanted to thank everyone for their hard work on the campaign, he said, before singling someone out.

"Is Scotty here? Where's Scotty?" Bush asked, half-grinning ....

"I want to especially thank Scotty," the president said, looking at his aide. "I want to thank Scotty for saying" -- and he paused for effect. . . .

" Nothing ."


The story then turns to McClellan's role as the blocker of information, making sure reporters learn nothing but the lies the White House endorses:

Last Friday reporters battered McClellan over a New York Times report that the president had authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without warrants on people in the United States. Over several minutes, McClellan emphasized that:

  • The president is doing all he can to protect the American people from terrorists (10 times);
  • The administration is committed to protecting civil liberties and upholding the Constitution (seven times);
  • Congress has an important oversight role, and the administration is committed to working with it on these difficult matters (five times); and
  • He would not discuss ongoing intelligence activities (five times).

What about PlameGate?

Colleagues (on-message) say McClellan has held up well in these difficult months. Others (off-message) say he's had a tough time, has lost hair, gained jowls and looks stressed, especially over the Plame case, which made a return to the briefing room Thursday after an absence of a few weeks.

What about Bush declaring DeLay innocent when he refuses to comment on his own White House aides' invovlement in PlameGate?

NBC's David Gregory ... declar[ed] the administration to be "inconsistent," then "hypocritical."

"You have a policy for some investigations and not others, when it's a political ally who you need to get work done?" Gregory asked.

McClellan: "Call it presidential prerogative; he responded to that question. But the White House established a policy. ...You can get all dramatic about it, but you know what our policy is."


What does McClellan think of Bush?

McClellan says that he is "honored" to serve George W. Bush, that he will "vigorously defend the president and his agenda," that there are "a lot of bright people working in the White House," that ... he's merely "part of a team." And that: "It's a good team."
Yeah, except for those lying lawbreakers, a great team!

What does he think about his job as Spokesman/Deflector?

"Sometimes the nature of this job will put you in a tough spot," McClellan says. He is speaking about the Plame investigation....

He has anguished that his credibility has been harmed by his statements in 2003 that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby "have assured me they were not involved in this," this being the outing of Plame as a covert CIA agent.

Today Libby is under indictment, Rove's involvement has become apparent and McClellan's public statements haunt him.

He says, repeatedly, that he would like to say more about the investigation, and in time he will, "hopefully sooner rather than later."

McClellan assur[es] the reporter he just ate with that he said more than he usually does. "I think I talked about how badly I wanted to talk about it," McClellan says by phone a few days later, referring to the thing he can't talk about.