White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has hosted fewer briefings than he did before the election, which makes sense; Congress isn’t in session, Bush has been traveling, and there’s less going on in DC. That is, until yesterday, when the Iraq Study Group, in the words of Dana Milbank, “placed an improvised explosive device beneath the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.”
Given the release of the ISG report, Snow held one of the more important briefings in months yesterday, and was forced to try and spin like he’s never spun before. NBC’s David Gregory, whose no-nonsense approach warrants a medal, got the ball rolling by reading quotes and excerpts directly from the report and ISG panelists. With the cable networks broadcasting all of this, Snow had little choice but to blame Gregory — to read ISG quotes is to be “partisan.” (watch the video)
Q: It’s kind of a totality question, though. How you can hear these things and not conclude that it’s rejection of the President’s policy?
MR. SNOW: Well, number one, “stay the course” is not the policy…. [Y]ou need to understand that trying to frame it in a partisan way is actually at odds with what the Group, itself, says it wanted to do. And so you may try to do whatever you want in terms of rejection, that’s not the way they view it.
Q: I just want to be clear. Are you suggesting that I’m trying to frame this in a partisan way?
MR. SNOW: Yes.
Q: You are? Based on … quoting the report and the Chairman, and I’m asking you a straight question, which you’re not answering straight, you’re actually … nitpicking it.
MR. SNOW: No.
Q: You’re suggesting that by quoting the report, I’m trying to make a partisan argument?
MR. SNOW: Let me put it this way. Where in the report — what you have said is, can you read this as anything other than a repudiation of policy. And the answer is, I can.
It has to be one of the more ridiculous arguments Snow has made in, well, at least a few weeks.
Snow’s argument, in a nutshell, is that the ISG hasn’t rejected the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq.
In other words, when James Baker said the Bush administration’s policy is “no longer viable,” that isn’t a repudiation of the Bush administration’s policy. When the report plainly says, “Current US policy is not working,” as far as Snow is concerned, the ISG is kinda sorta managing to steer clear of specifically criticizing current U.S. policy.
Thankfully, the media apparently didn’t fall for the indefensible spin.
From the very first page, in which co-chairmen James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton scold that “our leaders must be candid and forthright with the American people,” the bipartisan report is nothing less than a repudiation of the Bush administration’s diplomatic and military approach to Iraq and to the whole region.
After having read the report, I can safely say there doesn’t seem to be a single aspect of current administration policy of which the ISG approves. The panel was often vague, often unrealistic, and often reluctant to tackle the hardest questions, but they made one thing abundantly clear: whatever Bush is doing and has done, they don’t like it.
Not that it matters to the Bush gang.
[A] senior administration official said the White House doesn’t feel bound by the report and is unlikely to implement many of its recommendations, especially regarding calls for diplomatic outreach to U.S. foes Syria and Iran.
Stay tuned.