You’ve never seen a determination to stick to message quite like White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney recently said the Iraqi insurgency is in its “last throes” – a statement considerably at odds with reality. Here’s just part of and exchange with an ABC reporter, where McClellan deals with that reality by, well, never addressing it:
Q Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its ‘last throes’?
McCLELLAN: Terry, you have a desperate group of terrorists in Iraq that are doing everything they can to try to derail the transition to democracy. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they want a free and democratic and peaceful future. And that’s why we’re doing everything we can, along with other countries, to support the Iraqi people as they move forward‚Ķ.
Q But the insurgency is in its last throes?
McCLELLAN: The Vice President talked about that the other day — you have a desperate group of terrorists who recognize how high the stakes are in Iraq. A free Iraq will be a significant blow to their ambitions.
Q But they’re killing more Americans, they’re killing more Iraqis. That’s the last throes?
McCLELLAN: Innocent — I say innocent civilians. And it doesn’t take a lot of people to cause mass damage when you’re willing to strap a bomb onto yourself, get in a car and go and attack innocent civilians. That’s the kind of people that we’re dealing with. That’s what I say when we’re talking about a determined enemy.
Looks like the White House press corps is feeling its oats. And that’s the risk of a strategy that boils down to repeatedly asserting that up is down and the sun rises in the west: sooner or later, self-respecting journalists realize their intelligence is being insulted.
