a trainerless circus seal?

Posted by Portnoy ^® , Sep 30,2003,08:47

I watched a White House press briefing from yesterday, starring Scott McClellan on C-SPAN. It was an interesting performance. He had just a few lines in his script, and stuck to it. If you listened carefully, he never categorically denied Rove or anyone else in the White House leaked a CIA operative's name to the press. He said it was a "ridiculous suggestion," (riduculous, maybe, but is it true?) and he said the White House itself wasn't investigating the matter because all they knew about were some accusations in the press. They don't investigate every little anonymously sourced accusation in the press, he said.

At the same time as he was dismissing this as just like any other irrelevant accusation, he pointed out how important this one was, although obviously not important enough for the White House to look into. He said that if anything like what was suggested did happen, it should be referred to the "appropriate agency," which he said was the Justice Department. Repeatedly questioned, he asked the members of the White House press corps if they had any specific information they "would like to bring to my attention."

These few themes went around in circles for about ten minutes. It was quite clumsy. It seems clear that this one may bring them down.

Bush without Rove will be like a circus seal without his trainer: randomly barking nonsense and flopping around. It won't be pretty.