Stretch
I hereby officially proclaim David Gregory to be the new Dan Rather of the White House Press Corps.
His performance at today's afternoon White House Press Briefing was definitely a keeper.
The briefing was just over forty minutes long. Idiotic questions about Vice President Cheney's hunting accident took up the first twenty-three minutes!
Judging by the interest of the press, a hunting ACCIDENT trumps everything else going on in the world. Apparently, the most important matter that the public needs information on is Cheney's hunting mishap.
Absolutely insane!
Transcript
White House Press Briefing with Spokesman Scott McClellan (2/13/2006)
You have to watch and listen to this to believe it.
The yapping chihuahuas were going completely crazy.
"The Vice President shot a man!"
"Give us a timeline!"
Listening to the drooling lib media, you'd think Dick Cheney was carrying out a premeditated plan to assassinate someone.
What's next? Talk about the grassy knoll?
As usual, one of the biggest fools of the day was NBC's David Gregory.
Not surprisingly, the NBC Nightly News led with the hunting accident story.
With David Gregory reporting from the White House, Brian Williams devoted the first six minutes of the broadcast to the issue. The two were wallowing in it.
Williams even trotted out a joke from Jay Leno to be aired on tonight's Tonight Show.
When has the lead story of the Nightly News ever included a piece of tape from a yet to be aired monologue of a late night entertainment show?
Crazy!
The Chicago Tribune's blog, The Swamp, offers a glimpse of the fireworks that took place at the untelevised morning press gaggle. David Gregory was already throwing a hissy fit.
Mark Silva writes:
The atmosphere can get pretty testy in the White House press briefing room from time to time.
But there were no cameras rolling in the Monday morning "gaggle" today, the morning after news belatedly broke about Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shooting a hunting companion on Saturday. The broadcast sessions of press encounters with White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan are saved for formal afternoon briefings, with the morning gaggles serving as more informal warm-ups. And David Gregory, the chief White House correspondent for NBC News, was warmed up.
Why was the White House relying on a Texas rancher to get the word of Cheney's hunting accident out over the weekend, asked Gregory, accusing McClellan of "ducking and weaving."
"David, hold on… the cameras aren't on right now," McClellan replied. "You can do this later."
"Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras," the newsman said, his voice rising somewhat. "Don’t be a jerk to me personally when I’m asking you a serious question."
"You don't have to yell," McClellan said.
"I will yell," said Gregory, pointing a finger at McCellan at his dais. "If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don’t appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that’s wrong."
"Calm down, Dave, calm down," said McClellan, remaining calm throughout the exchange.
"I'll calm down when I feel like calming down," Greogry said. "You answer the question."
"I have answered the question," said McClellan, who had maintained that the vice president's office was in charge of getting the information out and worked with the ranch owner to do that. "I'm sorry you're getting all riled up about."
"I am riled up," Gregory said, "because you’re not answering the question,"
McClellan insisted he understood that reporters deserve an answer.
"I think you have legitimate questions to ask," the press secretary said. "The vice president’s office was the one that took the lead to get this information out… I don’t know what else to tell you... That's my answer."
Yikes!
Stretch needs to take it down a notch. Make that a couple of notches.
What a nutjob!
"Don’t be a jerk to me personally...," Gregory snaps.
Note to Stretch: Heed your own advice.
The afternoon briefing was also contentious. Gregory was true to form.
Read his lunacy.
GREGORY: Well, it's not really a hindsight issue here. I mean, the Vice President made a decision about how the public should be notified that basically is at odds with the standard practice of how the President's own press operation and this White House notifies the public; isn't that right?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, again, this was handled by the Vice President's Office. The Vice President thought that Mrs. Armstrong should be the first one to give that information out, since she was an eyewitness.
GREGORY: But let's just be clear here. The Vice President of the United States accidentally shoots a man and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper, and not the White House press corps at large, or notify the public in a national way?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think we all know that once it is made public, then it's going to be news and all of you all are going to be seeking that information. And the Vice President's Office was ready to provide additional information to reporters. There was no traveling White House press corps with the Vice President, as there is with the President in a situation like this --
GREGORY: Right, that's a distinction without a difference, really. I mean, we have Blackberries --
(I bet Karl Rove is working on a plan to outlaw Blackberries.)
MR. McCLELLAN: So there is some different circumstances. And the other circumstance here was that someone was injured and needed medical care. And the Vice President's team was making sure he was getting taken care of and that he got to the hospital and received additional treatment.
GREGORY: I know you had a chance to speak to, I assume, the President and the Vice President today. Did the Vice President follow all of the appropriate safety procedures that are familiar to hunters in this case?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think if you've got specifics about that, probably direct them to the Vice President's Office. I don't know all the specifics about it, but I think Mrs. Armstrong spoke publicly about how this incident occurred. And if I recall, she pointed out that the protocol was not followed by Mr. Whittington, when it came to notifying the others that he was there. And so, you know, unfortunately these types of hunting accidents happen from time to time. And all of us were most concerned about Mr. Whittington. And as I said, the Vice President was glad to see he was doing fine yesterday and that he's in good spirits. He is someone that many of us here know and have great respect for, and we look forward to him getting out of the hospital soon.
_________________________________
A second exchange reveals more of Gregory over the edge:
GREGORY: Wait, wait, hold on. Human beings are not normally this inefficient. I mean, was the Vice President immediately clear that he had accidentally shot his friend, or not? Or did that information become available later? You make it seem like there's all this information that had to develop.
MR. McCLELLAN: I wouldn't suggest that at all. I'm sure that that was the case. I mean, Mrs. Armstrong was there and saw that --
GREGORY: I don't understand what information had to trickle in?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, David, again, what's important when it happened was to make sure the medical care was getting to --
GREGORY: Fair enough.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- Mr. Whittington.
GREGORY: Fair enough.
MR. McCLELLAN: That's where all the attention was focused, and making sure he was getting to the hospital --
GREGORY: That's been stipulated here. Everybody agrees that that's fine.
MR. McCLELLAN: That's correct.
GREGORY: And it doesn't seem to me that that would take an inordinate amount of time, it certainly wouldn't take 22 hours.
MR. McCLELLAN: This is happening Saturday evening.
GREGORY: But you've got a Situation Room here, you've got people who monitor stuff -- it's impossible to find out -- I mean, the Vice President knew immediately, oh, no, I've shot somebody accidentally, and it takes 22 hours for that --
MR. McCLELLAN: And you know what his first reaction was? His first reaction was go to Mr. Whittington and get his team in there to provide him medical care.
GREGORY: I'm sure his first reaction -- absolutely. But why is it that it took so long for the President, for you, for anybody else to know that the Vice President accidentally shot somebody?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, early the next morning, Mrs. Armstrong reached out to the Corpus paper -- that's her local paper --
GREGORY: Oh, come on.
MR. McCLELLAN: -- to provide them information.
GREGORY: But that's ridiculous. Are you saying that you don't know within the White House? What took you so long?
MR. McCLELLAN: Listen again to what I said. The first priority is making sure Mr. Whittington is receiving medical care. Secondary to that is making sure you get the facts together and then as quickly as possible provide that information to the public. Now, the Vice President agreed with Mrs. Armstrong that it was best that she provide that information publicly first --
GREGORY: Understanding that, but he doesn't even --
MR. McCLELLAN: -- because she was --
GREGORY: That's fine if you want to deal with the public that way --
MR. McCLELLAN: -- hang on, hang on -- she was an eyewitness to what occurred and could provide the facts to the press. And the Vice President's Office was ready, they were on point to provide additional comment on the incident that took place.
There was much more crosstalk than this transcript relays. I really suggest you watch the briefing to get a taste of the lib press at its foaming at the mouth best.
The award for the dumbest questioning, bar none, goes to "Connie."
CONNIE: Scott, would this be much more serious if the man had died? Would that change the --
MR. McCLELLAN: Of course it would, Connie. It would have been terrible. Personally, I don't know him very well, but I know Mr. Whittington and I have great respect for him from knowing who he is and what he's done. And it would be horrible news.
That question was beyond stupid!
Later--
CONNIE: Is it proper for the Vice President to offer his resignation or has he offered his resignation --
MR. McCLELLAN: That's an absurd question. Go ahead, Ken.
She is absolutely nuts!
NUTS!!!
What an embarrassment!
Clearly, Gregory and the White House Press Corps just loved calling Cheney "the shooter," OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
That crowd demonizes Mahmoud Ahmadinejad less than the Vice President.
There's something terribly wrong with that picture.
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