The Hairy Eyeball

I'm not usually one to steal from another's blog , but this is too good to pass up, I never thought I'd have anything good to say abbout former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, but compared to Scott McClellan, Ari was a wise old sage. The fact that he bailed from the white house well in advance of the election is more proof of that.

Reading the exchanges between McClellan and the folks who so often seem to just be going through the motins of journalism has become a certail kind of fixation for me. I guess it's the few forays into Rhetoric that I took in college, but to hear some of the tripe that spills forth from the Scotty Dog, is utterly baffling. For an administration headed by an Evcangelical, these guys sure have a lot of chutzpa.

McClellan reminds me of some of the more gullible students in those rhetoric classes, who could always be counted on to take the losing side of any argument the professor offered up. I think if I was the reporter in the following exchange, I would have to jump up and just bitch-slap Scott. But then that is one of the many reasons I am not a journalist covering politics.

Q Do you say that the regime, that the Saddam Hussein regime was still capable of moving tons of explosives around the country after the U.S. invaded?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not saying that. I'm saying -- military leaders have said that. Our military leaders have said that. I think that's a fact. This was a regime that operated in that fashion. They had munitions -- munition caches all across the country. They moved munitions around.

Q But isn't it more likely that they were looted? There were reports of looters on the scene after --

MR. McCLELLAN: -- based on what?

Q I believe the military said that they found looters at the scene, after the invasion.

MR. McCLELLAN: It's more likely, how can you make that statement?

Q Because the military said there were looters at the site.

MR. McCLELLAN: They didn't say it was more likely.

Q They said that looters were --

MR. McCLELLAN: The words you said were, "more likely." This just shows that -- Senator Kerry's own advisors says he doesn't -- that they don't know the truth, he doesn't know the truth, yet he's willing to say anything for his own political advantage. And you said, "very likely." You don't know that.

Q No, no, no. What you said was that it was likely that the regime moved this around at some point even after the U.S. invaded.

MR. McCLELLAN: That's a likely possibility, that the regime could have removed those explosives before that time period.

Q But what I'm saying is that there are military reports that looters receive at the site, after the invasion. So doesn't that make it more likely that there were looters?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, no, no, who said that?

Q The military reported looters at the --

MR. McCLELLAN: What's your source?

Q The U.S. military.

MR. McCLELLAN: Show me the source. I'll be glad to --

Q Scott, if you don't know, either, how can you say it's likely?

MR. McCLELLAN: That's what I said -- no, that it is a likely possibility.

Q Likely.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, it is a likely possibility, because of the way the regime operated. And I think commanders have talked about that, as well.

Q Maybe it's a possibility, but I don't --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think the military doesn't -- the material -- the military doesn't know -- well, because all during that time period there was the time -- that was the time period when they could have. And that's why I said, the military doesn't know what happened to those explosives, neither does Senator Kerry. Yet Senator -- the issue here, now, is that it just goes to show the pattern by Senator Kerry that he will say anything, even when he doesn't know the truth, for his own political advantage.

Imagine that. A politician who will say things for his own advantage. I guess after being in action for 4 years now the Bush administration knows a thing or two about that.

go and tell me all about it