127th in continuing blog series on the
administration push to war. The year closes with a whimper, not a bang, as the
disappointing and compromised election process ends with George W. Bush
retaining the White House. Voters in
December, 2004:
December, 2004. Abdallah Tabarak, formerly
driver and companion to Osama bin Laden, is freed by Moroccan authorities. His
relatively gentle treatment by the authorities of at least two countries is in
marked contrast to that accorded other
“Go ahead, Jeff.
Q Thank you. Mary Frances Berry, the chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights, said recently that she won't step down when her term expires on
December 5th. Has the White House named a replacement for her, and what steps
will you take to see that that person is seated? If you recall, in year 2001
she said that the president would have to send
Perhaps
feeling that getting the White House by any means is as good as a landslide,
Gannon/Guckert interjects arguments on behalf of the White House several times
this month, see below.
“Go ahead, Jeff.
Q Thank you.
I'd like to follow up on Wendell's line of questioning. The United Nations --
there's a report out of London the United Nations has ordered its staff not to
help in the training of the Iraqi prosecutors that are to conduct the war
crimes trial of Saddam Hussein. Also some of our European allies have also
declined to assist in training these jurists. How can you say that there is
international support for
“Go ahead, Jeff,
and then we'll leave for last --
Q Thank you. Last week the founders of MoveOn.org sent an e- mail to their
supporters about the Democratic Party, saying, quote, "we bought it, we
own it, and we're going to take it back." Unquote. While their claim to
ownership of the party is dubious, it underscores the fact that that
organization and other 527s are not independent from campaigns and political
parties, as required by law. The president spoke about this issue during the
campaign. What priorities are you going to place on fixing McCain-Feingold in
the next four years?
MR. MCCLELLAN: You're talking about these 527 groups, I assume, when you're
referring to that. I'm sure you're not asking me to try to give ideas to the Democratic
Party about how they should move forward, but --
Q No, no. No, I'm suggesting since the 527s exerted influence on the election,
in contradiction to the intention of McCain-Feingold -- the president spoke on
that issue, as did Democrats.
MR. MCCLELLAN: Right. Right. And he said –
Q What is the president going to propose to fix that?”
Whatever
needs to be done about 527s, this exchange has the same tone as the others, a
faux-opposition with McClellan and the reporter actually on the same side.
“Go ahead, Jeff.
Q Thanks. In January 2002, Secretary Rumsfeld appeared on
"Meet the Press," where he gave an assessment of military
preparedness where he said that our capabilities had deteriorated so badly
during the 1990s that it would take from six to 10 years to rebuild it. Don't
you find it somewhat hypocritical that the people that were in the Senate
leadership during that time -- that is, McCain and Lott and others -- are
criticizing Secretary Rumsfeld? It was done on their watch. Don't you find -- I
mean, you have been very careful not to criticize those members of Congress who
presided over –
MR. McCLELLAN: Let me go back to what I said previously a
week ago or so. Secretary Rumsfeld cares deeply about our men and women in
uniform, and I think that's reflected by the way he goes and visits directly
with those who serve, particularly those in combat zones. That's what the
President expects. And we appreciate the fact that he is someone who follows up
to address those concerns.
I think you've seen the Defense Department work to make
sure that we're getting everything we need to our troops on the ground and on
the front lines. The President believes we need to make sure they have all the
resources and equipment they need to do their job. And the
do their job. And the Department of Defense shares that
commitment. . .
. . . But
Secretary Rumsfeld is someone who shares the President's commitment to building
a safer and better world and a more secure
Q Yes, but the troops haven't had what they've needed,
and they didn't start getting it until --
One
interesting aspect of this short exchange, which chiefly enables McClellan to
go into a lengthy speech boosting Rumsfeld and the Pentagon, is that the “Go
ahead, Jeff” lead-in has now been expunged from the White House web site.
The
scrubbing took place at some point after I had posted this loaded question
among others on this blog, pursuing information provided by the progressive web
site Daily Kos among others. In all, seven occurrences of “Go ahead, Jeff” were
deleted from the White House web site, although the questions themselves were
left in, as were other references to his name on other dates. The dates of the
press briefings from which “Go ahead, Jeff” was scrubbed are
Such
is the awesome attention to minutiae of a White House that could invade another
country on the pretext of nonexistent WMD. As of 2008, no prominent newspaper
or television network has reported this detail.
Dec. 21, 2004 -- An internal U.S. Army report,
marked “For Official Use Only,” reveals that the Stryker Interim Armored
Vehicle has been only 50 percent effective against rocket propelled grenades in
Iraq, much less effective than publicly claimed by the Pentagon.
Same day – This time it’s the annual
accusation of ‘attacks on Christmas’ from Gannon/Guckert at the White House
press briefing:
“Go ahead, Jeff.
Q I want to to follow up on Connie's question with specifics. The ACLU has gone
to court to prevent a fifth-grade class in
Stumble It!