Out from under his rock

After getting a bloody smack-down from the White House press corps about Rove-Gate early last week, Scotty McClellan disappeared from the scene entirely for days. Lots of popular guessing had it that the White House was re-tooling their spin and he'd come back with a better explanation of why he had stood up in front of that same press corps two years ago and lied to their faces about Karl Rove. Well, at long last, he showed his face again for a gaggle aboard Air Farce One and the message had not changed one iota.

The President was on his way to Indiana to speak at the Black Corporate Expo, as the centerpiece of recent moves by the GOP to pretend that they are interested in the welfare of minorities as the mid term elections approach. McClellan's opening salvo was a heated attempt to keep the recently unruly reporters on message and to talk up the trip. Unfortunately for him, the reporters in question knew that there was also an NAACP event going on, and Bush had once again blown that organization off, just as he's done since his first election.

Q Is he sorry he couldn't go to the NAACP?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think there are some other officials attending the NAACP. The President has a long record of reaching out to the African American community; it goes back to his very early days in elected office, and even before. The President is going to continue reaching out to the African American community. He is pleased to be going to this expo today, and talking to many African American leaders in Indiana. And the President is going to continue focusing on initiatives that expand opportunity and prosperity for all Americans. And that's what he's talking about in his remarks today. So I think this is an opportunity for the President to continue his outreach to the African American community.

Pull the other one, m'Lord. It doth have bells upon it.

But the press corps, once awoken, is a hungry beast and they quickly steered the discussion back to Rove. Many attempts were made to get Scotty to fess up to something .... anything. One of the best was an attempt to get him to comment why it's ok for the RNC to be discussing this "ongoing investigation" and laying out new smears against Joe Wilson, but not for him to talk about it. The response was the same stone wall.

Q Does the President believe it's appropriate for the RNC to continue to weigh in on this matter? They put out another memo today, with a top-10 Joseph Wilson lies. If indeed it's an ongoing investigation and it's improper for the White House to discuss it, does he think it's proper for the Republican Party to weigh in on it?

MR. McCLELLAN: You know, Geoff, I appreciate the question, and as you heard me say yesterday, we are not going to prejudge the outcome of the investigation based on media reports. And I'm not going to get into --

Q What about the RNC, though, Scott?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I said, I'm not going to get into discussing matters relating to an ongoing investigation. We'll let the investigation come to a conclusion, and then I'll be more than happy to talk about it, as will the President.

Other topics included the health of SCOTUC Chief Justice Rehnquist and, I believe, whether the President was having his morning eggs poached for boiled. Not a single mention of Iraq or London. Simply amazing.