“We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections,” Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. “The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me.”

Jan. 18, 2005 – National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, nominated for Secretary of State, is questioned in confirmation hearing by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Rice continues to defend the invasion and occupation of Iraq: “The success of freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq will give strength and hope to reformers throughout the region, and accelerate the pace of reforms already underway . . . From Morocco to Jordan to Bahrain, we are seeing elections and new protections for women and minorities, and the beginnings of political pluralism.”

Jan. 25, 2005 – At the White House press briefing conducted by Scott McClellan, Gannon/Guckert again asks an editorial question:

“Go ahead, Jeff.

Q There's been a war of words going on between the White House and the Senate Democrats over Condoleezza Rice's nomination to be secretary of State. Andrew Card said that Democrats are playing petty politics. Barbara Boxer shoots back that, well, it's our advice and consent role and we're going to do it anyhow. I think that makes it your turn to comment on this unprecedented opposition to this nominee.

MR. MCCLELLAN: Well, I recognize today that the Senate is debating the nomination. I would point out that just last week Dr. Rice spent more than 10 hours testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She is someone that is highly qualified for this position and will make an outstanding secretary of State.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee recognized that; voted her out of committee 16 to 2. I understand there are a few Senate Democrats that may take a different view. They're certainly welcome to continue debating the matter. But we hope that the Senate will move forward quickly and confirm her nomination so she can get about doing the people's business.

Q What signal do you think this sends to African-Americans?

MR. MCCLELLAN: Thank you. I got to -- we got to run for the next briefing. So, thank you all.”

This, incidentally, is one of the days for which “Go ahead, Jeff” is expunged from the transcript of the briefing on the White House web site.

Jan. 25, 2005 – Congressman Marty Meehan, Democrat of Massachusetts, presents a plan for withdrawal from Iraq in a speech at the Brookings Institution. The proposal, titled “Iraq: Finding a Responsible Exit,” calls for phased withdrawal of most U.S. forces in 2005, with only a small and mobile U.S. contingent left in Iraq by mid-2006.

Meehan resigns from the house in 2007 to become Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.

Jan. 26, 2005 – Douglas Feith announces that he will leave government: Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, a major architect of the Iraq war, drew strong criticism for his boosting of the war and for miscalculations or faulty projections about how it would go. Feith announces that he will resign in summer.

Jan. 26, 2005 – Gannon/Guckert rises to ask the question that will draw him much unwanted attention, at the presidential press conference at the White House:

“Yes, sir.

Q Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines, and Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet, in the same breath, they say that Social Security is rock-solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you said you're going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?”

After all the editorial and transparently partisan questions that Gannon/Guckert has asked in White House press briefings, it is interesting that this is the one that results in the exposure of his unorthodox press credentials and the unusual latitude he has been extended by the White House.

Jan. 30, 2005 – Iraqi elections are held, in which the Iraqi National Assembly is chosen.

 
Much is made of these first free elections by the White House and the administration. It seems not to have occurred to three U.S. presidents in a row—Bush, Clinton, Bush--that they could have urged Saddam Hussein to conduct free elections, instead of placing convoluted ‘sanctions’ on Iraq that further harmed the Iraqi people and strengthened and enriched Saddam. The U.S. could also have pulled all American oil companies and Halliburton, among others, out of commerce involving Iraqi petroleum. President George W. Bush never suggested this strategy.