It depends on what the meaning of ‘last throes’ is

June 17, 2005

When Scott McClellan can’t defend Dick Cheney’s comments, you know the Bush gang is having trouble.

Earlier this week, Cheney told CNN’s Larry King that the insurgency in Iraq is “in the last throes,” and insisted that violence in the country “will clearly decline.” It’s prompted some to suggest that the vice president is, unfortunately, delusional.

At yesterday’s press briefing, ABC correspondent Terry Moran asked McClellan to explain what Cheney meant and why the nation should believe him. It didn’t go well.

Q Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its ‘last throes’?

McClellan: Terry, you have a desperate group of terrorists in Iraq that are doing everything they can to try to derail the transition to democracy. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they want a free and democratic and peaceful future. And that’s why we’re doing everything we can, along with other countries, to support the Iraqi people as they move forward….

Q But the insurgency is in its last throes?

McClellan: The Vice President talked about that the other day — you have a desperate group of terrorists who recognize how high the stakes are in Iraq. A free Iraq will be a significant blow to their ambitions.

Q But they’re killing more Americans, they’re killing more Iraqis. That’s the last throes?

McClellan: Innocent — I say innocent civilians. And it doesn’t take a lot of people to cause mass damage when you’re willing to strap a bomb onto yourself, get in a car and go and attack innocent civilians. That’s the kind of people that we’re dealing with. That’s what I say when we’re talking about a determined enemy.

Q Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?

McClellan: I think I just explained to you the desperation of terrorists and their tactics.

Q What’s the evidence on the ground that it’s being extinguished?

McClellan: Terry, we’re making great progress to defeat the terrorist and regime elements. You’re seeing Iraqis now playing more of a role in addressing the security threats that they face. They’re working side by side with our coalition forces. They’re working on their own. There are a lot of special forces in Iraq that are taking the battle to the enemy in Iraq. And so this is a period when they are in a desperate mode.

Q Well, I’m just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.

McClellan: Well, you can go back and look at the Vice President’s remarks. I think he talked about it.

Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a ‘last throe’ lasts for?

McClellan: Go ahead, Steve….

Poor, Scott; it can’t be easy to defend the indefensible. I guess we should be glad he didn’t rely on the shtick he falls back on when the questioning gets tough.

Whenever I see Scott, I keep remembering Ralph Kramden, the self-styled expert, on the quiz show after the first question is posed: “Homina, homina” over and over again as no words pour forth. Where is Ron Ziegler when you really need him?

  • These kind of discussions need a framework, and that framework should be an honest discussion of the problem so that we can achieve victory.

    Otherwise, and unfortunately from reading Moran’s questions in that light, the other side of the debate turns it into “they’re cheerleading the enemy, they want us to lose”. That’s not true and should never be on the table in an argument, an unfortunately Tom Friedman threw it out there into the discourse again.

    To reiterate, a continued questioning of the administrations honesty in dealing with a real problem with the aim of solving, instead of hiding from it with glossing and incorrect language is the debate I’d like to get in concerning “the last throes” comment. By bringing up numbers of recent bombings and deaths, and making that the central platform to attack their position it makes to easy for that cheerleading the enemy idea to become the topic of debate against us. No, those numbers should be used in support of attacking their delusion, set to the background of ultimately solving this problem and winning the war and bringing our men and women home safely.

    So, a good question for Terry to ask would be: “Does the VP fully understand the extent of the insurgency in Iraq as the numbers seem to indicate? There seems to be a disconnect between what we’re reading and what he’s saying.”

  • A while back I added “last throes” as another landmark on my graph showing US deaths in Bush’s Iraq Quagmire. The earliest was “Mission accomplished”.

    Only time will tell whether or not The Dick turns out to be prophetic. At the moment the graph line seems to be ignoring his spin.

  • Terry Moran rocks! Finally, a White House journalist who goes after the facts and hangs on like a bulldog until poor old Scott just gives up. At last, someone who ignores the party pablum, someone with real cojones. How Scott must long for the days when he could count on his own hand-picked male hooker in the audience to get him out of those kinds of tight spots. Could this be a tiny ray of hope that the media has started to rediscover the power of its own integrity?

    We can only hope so.

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