Scotty McClellan on trial

Perhaps not in a courtroom (yet!) but in a much larger sense... the court of public opinion and media scrutiny.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 - It is I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, who is under indictment in the C.I.A. leak case. And it is Karl Rove, President Bush's senior adviser, who remains under investigation. But it is Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, whose credibility is already on trial amid the rough justice of the briefing room.

As events have unfolded and the grand jury has heard testimony that both Mr. Libby and Mr. Rove had conversations with journalists that touched on the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, Mr. McClellan's reputation has been left dangling in the glare of the television lights.

I really never had a problem with Ari Fleischer. Scotty however, as many of you have probably surmised, is one of my least favorite figures in the White House pantheon. I find his very presence grating, and the smooth, smug way that he presents Bush spin and disingenuous as fact convince me that he possesses not one shred of morals or conscience. That's why, I suppose, it's with no small amount of schadenfreude, that I find myself smiling every time the recently reinvigorated White House press corps begin raking him over the coals and leave him twisting in the wind. For the New York Times to say that recent events have "put his credibility in question" is far more kind than is required, in my opinion.

Let's face it - the man is the real world incarnation of the Mouth of Sauron.

That's why this article reminded me to take this opportunity to point you to this site. As much as it pains them to do so, the White House is forced by law to keep a record of everything that do (when not masked under the excuse of "National Security") and make such records available to the public. That site is a repository of all of the press gaggles and briefings held by Scotty and his predecessors, and is usually updated within one day of any briefing. For all of the spin and rhetoric you find on the White House web site, that page is one of the most fun and staggeringly useful items they produce.

Other people give briefings from that Podium as well. As I reported over at Running Scared this morning, the wheels are coming off of the bogus Niger uranium documents scandal. The perpetrator of the forgeries has been identified, and information is coming to light about how the then deputy National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, had a meeting with the head of SISMI at that time which will be very hard for him to explain. Yesterday, he held a press briefing, captured here, where he wanted to talk about the President's trip to South America this week. Here's what he got instead.

Q: On September 9th, 2002, you met in Washington with Nicolo Pollari, the head of the Italian Intelligence Agency, SISMI. According to the Italian daily, La Republica, Mr. Pollari came to the meeting to discuss an alleged attempt by Iraq to purchase uranium from Niger. Is that claim false?

MR. HADLEY: We'd looked at this issue. We had both looked at our documentary record -- I have -- we have talked -- I've searched my own recollection; we have also talked to other people on the NSC staff at the time who might have a recollection of that meeting. I can tell you what that canvassing has unearthed. There was a meeting in Washington on that date. I did attend a meeting with him. It was, so far as we can tell from our records, about less than 15 minutes. It was a courtesy call. Nobody participating in that meeting or asked about that meeting has any recollection of a discussion of natural uranium, or any recollection of any documents being passed. And that's also my recollection. I have very little recollection of the meeting, but I have no recollection there was any of that discussion, or that there was any passing of documents. Nor does anybody else who may have participated in that meeting. That's where we are.

Q Can you say what you did discuss with Mr. Pollari?

MR. HADLEY: I told you I have very little recollection of the meeting, and it was in the order of a courtesy call, getting to know a person who is going to be a colleague going forward. And you can tell that from the relative briefness of the meeting. And I think what the Italian authorities have said is very consistent with what I just said.

Don't you just love how people suddenly get these loss of memory problems as soon as their bits of dirty laundry show up in public? Let's see if you can't dance a little faster and squirm a little harder, Mr. Hadley. No recollection indeed. Ha! Your day is coming sir, and a certain prosecutor would like to have a word with you.

That site is an excellent resource, and you can have no end of fun there if you're a political junkie. Bookmark it and go back to visit often.