McClellan looks in vain for an apology

April 12, 2006

The only word that comes to mind is “chutzpah.” Scott McClellan is so mad about the reporting on Bush lying about the mobile “biological laboratories” that he wants news outlets to — get this — apologize. From this morning’s press gaggle:

McClellan: And I think it’s reckless reporting for ABC to go this morning and say that The Washington Post says that the President knew at the time what he was saying was not true.

Q: So was the President made aware of the fact —

McClellan: And are you all going to apologize?

Q: Was the President made aware of the faxed field report?

McClellan: Are you all going to apologize for that?

Q: Was the President aware of the faxed field report?

McClellan: Is that a correct statement?

Q: Scott, was the President made aware of the field report that was faxed?

McClellan: Jessica, I just told you, I’ve asked the intelligence community what they based this paper on. I can’t tell you what they based their paper on. You have to. We’re not an intelligence-gathering agency.

Q: No, but was the field report faxed —

McClellan: The President made his comments based on this white paper that was publicly released by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is the arm of the — which is an arm of the Pentagon —

Q: — President have access to material before it’s declassified, so the question is, was he aware of this report on May 27th?

McClellan: I just told you — you shouldn’t make any assumptions, but you should go and ask the intelligence community what was this based on. I can’t tell you what they based that on. They’re the intelligence-gathering agency.

Q: You can tell us if the President had this information. Did he have this information?

McClellan: Jessica, this — I just saw this report. I’ll come back with more information if there is. But this is reckless reporting.

McClellan never did get around to answering any of the questions about what Bush knew and when.

All the journalists told the public was that Bush claimed in 2003, “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories,” when in fact, field reports sent to Washington two days prior “had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons.” For some reason, McClellan seems to think these reports make Bush look dishonest. Go figure.

…only Bush makes himself look dishonest!

  • I would hate to have Scott McClellan’s Job. How does anyone defend a pack of lies? I think that If I were him I might say ” I think I am going to resign while I still have some integrety left. I appologize to all of you reporters for all of the misinformation I have been spouting, and I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it any more.” Then go tell Bush & Co to take their job and shove it. I think it would make a catchy Hollywood scipt.

  • How long til the biolab questions get the stock answer of “It’s not our policy to comment on an ongoing investigation”? Maybe the WH should consider asking for a Senate inquiry so that they can hide behind their favorite talking point.

  • I used to feel some sympathy for McClellan. But no more. The press has caught Bush in one of his many lies, and McClellan knows it. And the best he can come up with is faux outrage.I hope the press corps makes every remaining day of Scottie’s tenure painful and prolonged.

  • “My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this week,” Whittington said- CNN (2/20/06)

    McClellan clear thinks that the media should pull a Whittington. As in Cheney shoots you in the face and you apologize to the VP for all of the trouble you’ve caused him. Washington Post catches Bush in a lie and reports it. The Washington Post must apologize for all of the trouble it caused him. Welcome to BushCo.’s America.

  • They are/were thinking about firing this guy? It looks like he’s doing the job they want him to do very well. Who else in the world could do this with a straight face?

    I think “Was the President made aware of the faxed field report?” should have been asked until he actually answered the question. Just to see if his head would eventually explode. That would warrant a, “Sorry, Scott.”

  • How hard is it to say “The President was not aware of the faxed report at the time and did not knowingly make any false statements regarding the sand toilets.” By not saying this is is not denying that W knew he lied.

    If scotty gets the boot I hope he goes up and talks for 2 hours about all the lies he has told no behalf of W and Tricky Dick. This guy is a huge ass with the potential to sign a huge book deal!

  • Hey, with all the upsetting stuff going on in the world, it’s not often I get a chance to laugh out loud. Scottie asking for an apology from the press, though, now THAT was funny!

    It was like the scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the limbless Black Knight threatens to bite them to death – maintaining a posture of assertive authority long after their delusion is exposed and they quite literally don’t have a leg to stand on.

    Hey Scottie, do Mr. Creosote next! Willya? Please??

  • But it was a MORAL lie. Lies that cause people to believe, have faith are moral. You didn’t know that, don’t believe it even. That’s easy to explain. You’re used to being lied to you don’t recognize the truth any more. So Scotty is all surprised and demands an apology even. He obviously beleives what he says. Next thing we’re going to find out is Bush believes it too.

    The biggest lie ever told is the basis of the morality of the lie. It’s called the Holy Bible that is now proved like Bush’s WMD’s to be a hoax. http://www.hoax-buster.org It’s just a matter of time when people can again hear the truth after thousands of years of moral lying. Keep the faith baby. But faith in what, the lie?

  • Scotty seems to be answering a totally different question here. The question is direct: “did Bush, your boss, read the fax?” Instead, Scotty hears “what intel was the fax based on?” & directs the reporter to the CIA.

    This isn’t an example of chutzpah, or outwitting your opponent with clever wordplay, these two people are having two entirely different conversations. It’s surreal.

  • I hope McClellan stays with these clowns to the bitter end (and let’s hope it’s really REALLY bitter); his press gaggles are the highlight of my day.
    As I’ve said many times before, if I had his job I’d wrestle a gun off one of the SS guys and blow my brains out. But no one is forcing him to take the paycheck. In my book, that makes him just as big a turd as the rest of them.

    rege is right – up = down, day = night, diplomacy = secret war plans

    It’s just another surreal day in the neighborhood. Heaven help us!

  • TPM Muckraker has the whole transcript – he’s trying to say that AT THE TIME BUSH SPOKE, he believed it was true because the report that said they weren’t mobile labs hadn’t been “through the full process” yet, so the President wouldn’t have been told that yet. Of course, once he had been told, he never went out and said “I mis-spoke” did he??

    What a bunch of @#$#@@#%$%&^&%$##@@!!!!!!!!!

  • What’s the point of asking questions of this
    administration? They do nothing but lie and
    spin. They never inform. They are always
    politicking, propagandizing. Never governing.
    Nothing like this has ever happened before.
    Sure, all politicians lie and cheat, but this is
    simply beyond anything we’ve ever seen.

    Maybe that’s why, so far, nobody seems to
    get it but a few liberal bloggers. People simply
    think it’s a not very good president, and so
    what else is new? Back to American Idol,
    and all those commercials on tv that portray
    an Ozzie and Harriet utopia that doesn’t exist.

  • Man o man, this is just pure slapstick. Scottie McClellan is verociously pursuing the tile of the new Stan Laurel. The only thing he hasn’t got yet is a Hardy next to him to make it a nice duo. Really, I am so glad that CNN Europe broadcasts all of these cabaret shows live here in Holland… I wouldn’t wanna miss it for the world.

  • Standard Simple Scottie BS technique:

    1. Act indignant,

    2. Answer a question that, although related to the question posed, is NOT the question,

    3. as an extension of #2, Refer the questioner elsewhere,

    4. use pejorative adjectives to describe anyone who dares question the administration,

    5. Say, “I don’t accept your premise….” and then issue a non-answer

    6. Repeat #2 and #4 as often as necessary.

    What a schmuck!! Simple Scottie has the credibility of a used-car salesman turned snake charmer. How many of his continuous litany of lies, weasles, & misdirections has HE aplogized for? The absolute gall, the fucking nerve of an unmitigated hypocrite like that telling someone else that THEY should apologize!! And for what? Telling the truth?! He’s a jackass of the first degree, a shell of a man with ZERO character or integrity. He can fucking go to hell along with the rest of the warped, would steal the nickles off their dead mother’s eyes, right-wing zombie brigade.

  • Dear Scotty,

    I accept the MSM apology on behalf of the American public for blindly publishing all the uninformed, misleading, outrageous, if not out-right lies coming from the Bush Whitehouse.

    Now if you would just kindly stop trying to hose those reporters with such poor BS, we can get on with the rather serious job of fixing up this stinking mess you call “running the country”.

    Your boss,

    John Q. Public

  • Ah, what I wouldn’t give for just one of the press-corps members to stand up, stare Stonewall square in the eyes, and say:

    “If this administration is politically incapable of seeing fit to apologize for all the misrepresentations you’ve made to the citizens of these United States for the past five years, then why on earth should we apologize for telling the truth, and exposing those misrepresentations?”

    Clearly, it’s time to bring this guy down. If Kid George hasn’t the cojones to do it himself, then I say let the media do it for him. They’re already doing a better job at fulfilling his oath of office—something about the Constitution, methinks….

  • I’ve noticed that the bush toadies have taken a break from this and other boards.

    Gee. I sure wish they would engage in thoughtful debate over the pressing issues of the day.

    Gee. I sure wish they would attempt by force of reason and logic to convince the rest of us dim bulbs that the right is right.

    The press corps should not even talk to scottie. When scottie holds his daily briefings, the press corps should stand and march in unison.

    The press corps should pull a Klingon on scotty – stand around him in a circle, then spin around, clasping their arms, folded across their chest as they grunt dissatisfaction and disgust.

  • Steve, I’d settle for someone in the press standing up in one of these things and saying “Scott, will you ever just answer the questions we ask?”

  • Thor, the Amish have a similar ritual; it’s called “shunning.” It’s extremely effective, as the “shunned” individual always goes away. And Zeitgeist—I’d settle for that question, if it were asked on a daily basis….

  • To anyone who is not a loyal drinker of the Bush Kool-Aid, Scotty looks to be both desperate and dishonest. I am convinced more each passing day that BushCo believes it simply must play to the Kool-Aid swillers in order to live to another day. No point in bothering with the questions of the traitors, er, skeptics. Attacking the “liberal” press serves at least two purposes:
    It warms the hearts of hard-core Bushites, and
    It deflects attention away from serious study and discussion of what the press is reporting, by making McClellan’s indignation and confrontation with the press the take-away story of the gaggle for those who will never have either the time or the inclination to actually read the WAPo piece.
    Casual consumers of news will see Scotty pushing back, and maybe think to themselves that it is not so far-fetched that the Pres did not know of the definitively contradictory report when he made his declaration that WMD’s had been found just two days after the report arrived in Washington. They know how a bureaucracy functions – slowly. Poor, poor, Bushie. His underlings let him down yet again. And there goes the press, trying to paint him as a liar. Of course, the full WAPo story has much more detail about how important these trailers were and how interested the folk in DC were to CONFIRM that the trailers were, in fact, the WMD holy grail. The CIA was getting ready to issue its white paper. The technical personnel who were sent to Iraq were supposed to provide the frosting on the cake. They didn’t, but the white paper went forward with the DC version of events any way. Tell me that the President should not have been aware of the efforts and reporting of this team. It does not hold up.

    But, if all you hear is that on the same day Scotty and Bush had to dismiss Sy Hersh’s reporting on war plans for Iran as “wild speculation,” the turn-coat liberal press produces a “reckless” story. Scott has to demand an apology – just as he demanded that Newsweek apologize for its reports of Koran descecration that “caused” all those Muslim riots.

    Yes, Scott McClellan is revolting to those of us who are not buying his particular line of crap. [I picture him 40 years from now in a dark, one room apartment, drinking cheap scotch and watching video of his work and yelling at the screen, “That’s right, apologize you son of a bitch! Yeah. I OWNED you!”] Trouble is, Scott is not really thinking we (or the members of the press who are supposed to serve as our proxies) are his customers. We are just props in his little kabuki set pieces for the Kool-Aid quaffers.

  • Scott charges the media with reckless reporting… of the President’s reckless reporting. Then he gets touchy, evades the questions and gets demanding. Sounds like Scotty is reporting rather recklessly himself.
    Reckless reporting is on the march.

  • I went to ABC’s webpage the other day to see how mainstream media was reporting the thing with Libby. ABC’s only reference to it was in some kind of commentary section with a derogatory title — like Politi-Babble, though that wasn’t it — where it’s title referred to Dems trying to make it look like Bush was lying….

  • Things that are likely to happen before he gets an apology:

    hell freezing over
    pigs flying
    me getting married
    me having kids

    Things are are not likely to happen before he gets and apology:

    Rummy getting fired.
    Rove getting fired.
    Accepting accountability/responsibility by anyone in this administration for the state of this country and the mess that is Iraq

  • It’s a standard right-wing, cable-news-guest technique.

    Completely gob-smack your opponent by utterly turning the tables on them. Through projection, accuse them of everything that they’re accusing you of. This is usually completely unexpected, and frustrates them and either makes them look stupid or homicidal. The chutzpah is so severe, it knocks your opponent into a sputtering, gibbering befuddelment, or incoherent, insane rage. It’s similar to the old “I know you are, but what am I?” or repeating-everything-the-other-person-says gambits from grade school. Drives your opponent crazy.

    Now, this gambit works all the time on intelligent, measured, moderate or even liberal guests to talk shows. But, luckily, reporters are such single-minded assholes, so full of chutzpah themselves, that Scottie’s attempt at this technique fell utterly flat. From the transcript, it looks like they didn’t even hear it. Good on them. We need more of that.

    I’m reminded of the time last December that some right-wing Christian fundamentalist completely 0wned Sam Seder by calling him a Nazi. Seder, in the midst of talking about his Jewish faith and why he doesn’t celebrate christmas, was utterly unprepared to be called a Nazi, of all things. Seder lost it, started yelling incoherently into the camera, and the wingnut just chuckled and smiled in a sickeningly smug and self-satisfied way: gotcha! Brain… explodes. This is the classic technique. It works.

    Actually, Scotty’s is attempt is the first one I’ve ever seen fail. I hope this starts a trend.

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