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Roving The Line: The 'No Comment' Briefing

Garrett Graff, the author of the FishBowlDC blog at mediabistro, made headlines in March when he became the first blogger to seek and secure a one-day pass to the White House press room. Lots of bloggers no doubt wish they had been so lucky today, a day after White House adviser Karl Rove was officially named as a source in the controversy surrounding the outing of a CIA agent.

That was topic A, B, C, D, etc., at the regular White House press briefing -- and press secretary Scott McClellan toed the White House "no comment" line every time the mainstream media quizzed him about Rove's involvement or reminded McClellan of the promise by President Bush to fire anyone involved in the leak. Now McClellan's credibility is topic A among liberal bloggers, who for days have been ridiculing the White House press corps for its lack of inquisitiveness about Rove.

Daily Kos resurrected the press secretary's past denials that Rove was involved in the controversy. David Corn recounts the highlights of the press briefing and says: "Everybody in the room -- and out of it -- should review McClellan's exchange with the reporters to see how he and this White House do business. After what transpired, no reporter should take McClellan's word at face value (if they ever did)."

And TAPPED, a blog at The American Prospect magazine, concludes that McClellan's "credibility today sunk about as low as it can get. ... If there is one thing that reporters hate, it's being played for patsies. McClellan has publicly humiliated some of the most prominent reporters in the country by persistently feeding them information that has now been revealed to be false, and I'm pretty darn sure that they are not going to grant him any favors and extend him the benefit of the doubt in the future."

UPDATE: Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., is demanding on her campaign blog that Bush fire Rove immediately in order to "keep his word," and she urged her readers to do the same by signing a petition. "What Rove did is reprehensible," she wrote. "Putting the life of an undercover CIA agent in jeopardy cannot be tolerated. He clearly deserves his pink slip."

UPDATE II: Bloggers on the right had a different take on the press conference. Michelle Malkin defended the right of White House reporters to bark at McClellan during the briefings but then noted, "isn't it funny how Beltway reporters who get all prissy and whiny about one Fox News Channel reporter asking the DNC chairman one mildly aggressive question have no problem turning pack-rabid on McClellan?"

Malkin also links to Lorie Byrd at Polipundit, who said the MSM reporters "sounded a bit like playground bullies, but ones with too meticulously styled hair and a little too much whine in their voices and prissy shoulder and hand motions to come across as exactly tough guys."

At TPMCafe, meanwhile, blogger Matthew Yglesias said, "Count me out of the current round of blogospheric speculation that based on today's gaggle the White House press corps has 'had it' with the Bush administration and is about ready to start jabbing in the knife. ... The Bush team has gotten remarkable good press because they understand the mechanism by which newspaper political coverage is generated and have successfully devised means of systematically manipulating that mechanism. Editors and reporters have it in their power, of course, to change the way the mechanism works (and they should do it!), but they're not going to wake up one day and do it just because they're mad at Karl Rove."

Posted by | 09:00 AM

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Comments

It is unbelieveable that Rove still has a job when he put the life of a CIA Agent at risk to get back at her husband and the President of the United States is covering for him a year later. There will be no justice in this world if he is not FIRED immediately.

Patricia Lochren | 07.12.05 02:24 PM

Like I've always said,... Rove wouldn't be the first to throw his Appointed carcass on the Sword for his Appointer. If the Fatman conspired then he must be fired.

John | 07.12.05 03:22 PM

1. Wasn't Rove's email sent 2 days after the Novak article?
2. Exactly what kind of "covert" operation was Valerie Plame involved in that her life was at risk by the disclosure?
3. Who cares?

Tom Jacobs | 07.12.05 04:56 PM

Karl Rove needs to go! No excuses is George Bush
telling some more lies. He said he was going to fire the person resonsible then he needs to.

anna | 07.12.05 06:18 PM

Yes, Rove should definitely be punished for exposing Joe Wilson as a liar. Liberals should be able to lie without consequence about whatever they like.

From the Washington Post:
Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, dispatched by the CIA in February 2002 to investigate reports that Iraq sought to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program with uranium from Africa, was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has said publicly.

Wilson last year launched a public firestorm with his accusations that the administration had manipulated intelligence to build a case for war. He has said that his trip to Niger should have laid to rest any notion that Iraq sought uranium there and has said his findings were ignored by the White House.

Wilson's assertions -- both about what he found in Niger and what the Bush administration did with the information -- were undermined yesterday in a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report.

The panel found that Wilson's report, rather than debunking intelligence about purported uranium sales to Iraq, as he has said, bolstered the case for most intelligence analysts. And contrary to Wilson's assertions and even the government's previous statements, the CIA did not tell the White House it had qualms about the reliability of the Africa intelligence that made its way into 16 fateful words in President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union address.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html

The Warden | 07.12.05 06:22 PM

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