The Curious Case of the Ambassador's Wife
The phrase itself took on a few different forms, but however you parse it, it clunked out of White House spokesman Scott McClellan's mouth a total of 13 times in his Monday briefing: "There's been no information that has been brought to our attention, beyond what we've seen in the media reports, to suggest White House involvement."
Now, when Al Gore kept hammering away at "no controlling legal authority" in March of 1997, it was called a "meltdown" by people like Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post because Gore used the phrase seven times to defend himself against accusations that he'd solicited funds from a federal government office.
While it's far too early to judge what the role of the Bush White House might have been in disclosing secret information about Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife to columnist Bob Novak, McClellan's clumsy answer to every insistent question asked Monday indicates one of two troubling possibilities: the White House knows who's behind it, or they had no idea what was happening, but they didn't care that a CIA officer had been betrayed amd they weren't willing to have it it looked into unless ordered to do so.
Excerpts:
...
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, there's been no information that has been brought to our attention, beyond what we've seen in the media reports, to suggest White House involvement.
...
MR. McCLELLAN: No, we don't know -- we don't have any information that's been brought to our attention beyond what we've seen in the media reports. I've made that clear.
...
MR. McCLELLAN: If you have any specific information to bring to my attention -- like I said, there has been nothing that's been brought to our attention. You asked me earlier if we were looking into it, there is nothing that's been brought to our attention beyond the media reports.
...
MR. McCLELLAN: There has been absolutely nothing brought to our attention to suggest any White House involvement. All we've seen is what is in the media reports. The media reports cite "senior administration official," or "senior administration officials."
...
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we have nothing beyond those media reports to suggest there is White House involvement.
...
MR. McCLELLAN: You need to keep in mind that there has been no specific information, there has been no information that has come to our attention to suggest White House involvement, beyond what has been reported in the newspapers.
...
MR. McCLELLAN: Do you recall what I said a couple of months ago, as well? Because I made it very clear then what I'm making clear now, that there was no information that has come to our attention to suggest any White House involvement.
(etc ...)
