This is too precious. We all know how Scott McClellan has been stonewalling the press corps in his daily briefings, claiming that he’d “just love to talk about the Plame case,” but that he’s not able to because the ongoing investigation should be allowed to run its course. Just go to The White House Homepage and click on Daily Briefings and look at any of the briefings of the last few months. There you’ll see good ol’ Scott not answering any real questions — nothing about how Bush said he’d fire anyone who leaked the information, nothing about whether or not Rove is worthy of having clearance for sensitive information, etc.
Well, it appears Scott messed up and told the truth for once, and the White House would like him to take it back, according to this article in Salon. We can’t have the White House Press Secretary telling the truth now, can we? So what happened?
The thorn in McClellan’s side, David Gregory, noted the following:
“Whether there’s a question of legality, we know for a fact that there was involvement,” Gregory said. “We know that Karl Rove, based on what he and his lawyer have said, did have a conversation about somebody who Patrick Fitzgerald said was a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency. We know that Scooter Libby also had conversations.”
To this, according to several sources (including the videotape), McClellan responded, “That’s accurate.” But if you look at the White House transcript, he says, “I don’t think that’s accurate.”
According to the Salon article, the White House has also requested that several sources that reprint the press conference transcripts also change their versions of McClellan’s response.
What is interesting though, is Gregory’s next question: “So aside from the question of legality here, you were wrong, weren’t you?”
It’s interesting because Gregory’s response makes much more sense in the context of responding to an interjection of “that’s accurate,” than it does to “I don’t think that’s accurate.” One would think that Gregory would have a more argumentative response had McClellan claimed that Gregory’s statement was not accurate.
It just amazes me how these right-wing Neo Cons think that this stuff isn’t being recorded, is not capable of being reviewed once it’s said. What’s more amazing is that the White House continues to make Scott McClellan go out to the podium and defend this crap, and when he doesn’t, they just change the transcript to put whatever words into his mouth that they wish. If Scott really had any personal integrity, he’d resign immediately. But then again, at this point, who would trust him enough to hire him?