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WH Press Gaggle: "you go out on your liberal blog and talk about the way that you see things"

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sabra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-19-08 02:47 PM
Original message
WH Press Gaggle: "you go out on your liberal blog and talk about the way that you see things"

http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Press+Briefing+by+Scott+Stanzel/3666722.html

Press Briefing by Scott Stanzel
May 19, 2008 2:41 PM EDT

<snip>

Q The White House has denied that it knew about the Pentagon program that used TV military analysts --

MR. STANZEL: We've been through this before. Do you have a question?

Q Yes. There's something new. Last week emails surfaced that showed that Pentagon officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, communicated with White House officials, including Karl Rove and Stephen Hadley, about the program. One email written by a Pentagon official mentioned that Rove was approached about arranging a meeting between the military analysts and the President --

MR. STANZEL: Your question is?

Q My question is, what was the nature and extent of the involvement of Karl Rove, Stephen Hadley and President Bush in the military analyst program?

MR. STANZEL: Well, the idea that people in the administration would brief people who are talking to reporters about our programs and our policies doesn't seem like to be that far-fetched of an idea to me. So in terms of the emails, I haven't been monitoring the staff emails here, so I can't tell you what their conversations were like. But it's not unusual for administration officials to brief people who are talking about our plans and our policies. Much like I'm standing here today, briefing all of you --

Q Right, and why was the program kept secret?

MR. STANZEL: -- and much like I'm standing here answering your question, and you go out on your liberal blog and talk about the way that you see things; we brief people who talk about the President's policies.

Q Why was the program kept secret?

MR. STANZEL: You can talk to the Defense Department. It was their program -- which they've discontinued.

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BrklynLib at work Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-19-08 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
1. MR. STANZEL: blah blah blah blah
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SpiralHawk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-19-08 03:21 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. blah-blah translation: I am not ratting out my corrupt republicon overlords...
...or their occult public mindf*ck programs and propaganda.

Smirk.
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BrklynLib at work Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-19-08 04:01 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Yep.
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gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-19-08 02:56 PM
Response to Original message
2. So, why was the program kept secret?
"Ask the Defense Department." Which, of course, is a wholly indepedent branch of the government answerable to no one, and completely free of any ties to any other branch.

Stanzel is either incredibly stupid, or he thinks the reporters are incredibly stupid, and judging from his snide comments about whether the reporter has a question or not, I'm guessing it's the latter. If the reporter hadn't doggedly insisted on telling Stanzel chapter and verse what the background on his question was, Stanzel would have just denied that there was any contact between DOD and the White House. Confronted with evidence that there was contact, Stanzel moved onto default setting number two, which was to deny that there was anything untoward. Confronted with circumstantial evidence that the secrecy of the program implied that something untoward was happening, he denied that the White House had anything to do with it, and deflected the reporter to Defense for an answer.

Stanzel, of course, knows that the reporters he's talking to have the White House for their beat, and not the Pentagon, and so telling the reporter to ask DOD about the program is constructively saying "Now shut the fuck up." Someday, there will be a reporter willing to stay on a subject long enough to wrestle an answer out of these weasels, or the press pool will refuse to move on to another subject until they get an answer. But that won't happen as long as this administration is squatting in the White House.
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NewJeffCT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-19-08 03:15 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Under the Unitary Executive Theory
Which this White House espouses, the president and the pentagon are one & the same - they are all the president.
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Supersedeas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-19-08 04:06 PM
Response to Original message
6. the Bushist version of responsive govt. -- even Mukasey knows the routine
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