An alert reader noticed last week that Scott McClellan hasn’t held a press briefing since Nov. 9, which is an unusually long time. It seemed, at least at first, there was a reasonable explanation for the delay. Now, I’m not so sure.
For example, Bush went on a tour of Asia. Reporters still received briefings, but from foreign policy officials such as NSA Steve Hadley and Condi Rice. OK, it was a foreign trip so that made some sense. Then, Thanksgiving week came around, Bush went back to Texas, so McClellan once again was no where to be found. The political world more or less shut down for several days, so McClellan’s absense still didn’t seem too odd.
But now that the foreign travel and the holiday are over, McClellan will get back to his usual schedule, right? Not so much. Think Progress called the White House today to ask about the next briefing.
We called the White House to ask whether there would be a press briefing today, and the press assistant checked the schedule and informed us there was not one scheduled. When asked whether there would be a press briefing any time this week, the press office informed us that there was nothing scheduled because the President would be traveling.
It’s not as if McClellan is completely gone — the White House has issued statements that quote McClellan directly. So, we’re seeing McClellan’s words, but we’re just not seeing McClellan.
Rumors have circulated for a couple of weeks that McClellan’s WH tenure won’t last much longer. Maybe there was something to the gossip after all.
If McClellan does go, there will be plenty of angles to explore, but there’s one question on my mind: if McClellan isn’t a White House employee, will he finally be able to answer reporters’ questions about why he misled everyone about Rove’s and Libby’s involvement in the Plame scandal? The current line is that McClellan can’t answer questions because of official WH policy. If McClellan didn’t work there, the policy wouldn’t apply.
