04-19-2006, 09:02 AM | #1 | ||
Death Herald
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Le stelle la notte sono grandi e luminose nel cuore profondo del Texas
|
POL: Washington Wil joins Baghdad Bob in retirement
Can't say this is too surprising. The press corps was starting to really turn on him and he spent more time trying to duck and cover than get a message out.
Unfortunately for Texans, he's probably headed back here to help work on his mom's gubernatorial campaign. hxxp://msnbc.msn.com/id/12387465/ White House press secretary resigning ‘I have given it my all,’ Scott McClellan tells president WASHINGTON - White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday he is resigning, continuing a shakeup in President Bush’s administration that has already yielded a new chief of staff and could lead to a change in the Cabinet. Appearing with Bush on the White House South Lawn just before the president boarded a helicopter at the start a trip to Alabama, McClellan, who has parried with reporters on Iraq and on intelligence issues, told Bush: “I have given it my all sir and I have given you my all sir, and I will continue to do so as we transition to a new press secretary.” The president and McClellan joked about how they hoped to meet up again in Texas, where the two first worked together when Bush was governor.
__________________
Thinkin' of a master plan 'Cuz ain't nuthin' but sweat inside my hand So I dig into my pocket, all my money is spent So I dig deeper but still comin' up with lint |
||
04-19-2006, 09:05 AM | #2 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Illinois
|
I've only been paying attention to politics for about 20 years, but I can't recall a more uncomfortable, unpolished press secretary. Every one of his meetings with the press made me feel uncomfortable.
Good riddance. |
04-19-2006, 09:16 AM | #3 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicagoland
|
I'm surprised he lasted this long.
|
04-19-2006, 09:26 AM | #4 | |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Berkley, MI: The Hotbed of FOFC!
|
Quote:
Seriously. He was friggin awful. |
|
04-19-2006, 09:43 AM | #5 |
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: MA
|
Got to be one of the worst jobs in the world though. The guys pulling his strings kept contradicting the scripts they gave him.
|
04-19-2006, 09:53 AM | #6 |
Coordinator
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Jacksonville, FL
|
I felt sympathy for him, he had one of the hardest jobs ever. I wish him good luck in the future as Im sure half of what he said or had to say he probably didnt believe.
__________________
Jacksonville-florida-homes-for-sale Putting a New Spin on Real Estate! ----------------------------------------------------------- Commissioner of the USFL USFL |
04-19-2006, 10:50 AM | #7 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Jan 2002
|
I love White House press secretaries. Every press conference is like a guy getting busted by his girlfriend, just many times more polished.
Her (walks into computer room unexpectedly): Hey, you're looking at porno! Him (covering screen): I've said in the past, quite emphatically, that I don't do that and will not do that. Her: But I can see it on the screen. Him: I don't believe that to be the case. Her: It's right there! Look! Him: I really don't see any reason to conintue this line of questioning. Her: So you're saying you're not looking at porno even though it's right there on the screen? Him: (sighs) I believe I've already covered this.
__________________
Down Goes Brown: Toronto Maple Leafs Humor and Analysis |
04-19-2006, 10:51 AM | #8 |
Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: The State of Insanity
|
The other part about Karl Rove giving up policy:
Rove will remain deputy chief of staff to President Bush, but he will drop his portfolio as policy coordinator -- a job he assumed a year ago -- and once again concentrate his focus on politics as the 2006 mid-term elections approach, senior administration officials said. In other words, expect the dirty trick machine to be turned up.. no.. not to 11.. to 12. (It still boggles my mind to see more people haven't been arrested for the Election 02 incident in NH (and the fact that the National Republican committee paid over $1million in legal expenses for the folks who did it)
__________________
Check out Foz's New Video Game Site, An 8-bit Mind in an 8GB world! http://an8bitmind.com |
04-19-2006, 10:56 AM | #9 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
|
It's likely we'll never know whether McClellan was a bad press secretary because of his own weaknesses or because of the situations in which he was placed. The only other press secretary in the last 15 years to get pounded like McClellan did was Mike McCurry, and I think McCurry fared slightly better simply because he got into fewer instances where his credibility was in question but rather the credibility of his boss was more in question.
There are certainly a myriad of possibilities for the failings of McClellan as press secretary, and unless he writes a tell-all book I'm not sure we'll ever know. Did people lie to him and send him out to lie to the press? Did people tell him the truth about what was happening and he went out and lied to the press on his own? There are ways to diffuse questions without answering them, and McClellan and the White House have rarely taken that tact -- instead of side-stepping questions, they answered them head-on only be shown later the answers were not accurate. That will lead to a credibilty hit every time. Right now, I'll give McClellan the benefit of the doubt and believe that instances in he provided information to the press he later retracted or has been show to be incorrect was due to people lying to him -- i.e., Scooter Libby telling McClellan had nothing to do with the CIA leak. But clearly this is the best for both him and the White House. The press corps hammered him pretty good last week, and as they have been pounding him he's been getting testier and testier. That's not a good situation for a press secretary. |
04-19-2006, 10:56 AM | #10 |
College Prospect
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Portland, Oregon
|
and lets not forget the 3 indicted of rigging the vote recount in Ohio...
http://www.cleveland.com/election/pl...340.xml&coll=2 |
04-19-2006, 11:00 AM | #11 |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Burke, VA
|
I don't have much (any) love for Scotty, but my god has one man ever had to make more chicken salad out of chicken shit in his life than this guy? Knowing what we know now that likely went on on the oval office - I'll use the Plame leak as an example - and how the Press Sec was necessarily kept out of the loop, I'm surprised he lasted this long. I hope he gets a good pension and retires comfortably somewhere.
|
04-19-2006, 11:01 AM | #12 | |
Pro Starter
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Kansas City, MO
|
Quote:
|
|
04-20-2006, 02:42 AM | #13 | |
College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jun 2003
|
good times...
Quote:
|
|
04-20-2006, 09:16 AM | #14 |
Coordinator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicagoland
|
That was a particularly good one.
NPR had Mike McCurry on last night and he was pretty sympathetic for McClellan. Said the job was even tougher now than when he (McCurry) was press secretary. He also suggested that it might be time to do away with the role. Since it's more efficient to distribute news via other channels, all having the press secretary up in front of the press serves to do is give the press a punching bag. |
04-20-2006, 10:42 AM | #15 | |
"Dutch"
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: Tampa, FL
|
Quote:
Maybe we should just cut through the bullshit and just let George Stepanopolis distribute the news each day to everybody. |
|
04-20-2006, 10:46 AM | #16 |
The boy who cried Trout
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: TX
|
he's one of those guys who may actually be in pretty good shape but looked fat.
|
04-20-2006, 01:32 PM | #17 | |
College Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: PA
|
Quote:
|
|
04-20-2006, 02:04 PM | #18 |
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: MA
|
I'm not sure he could actually get a full sentence out in that kind of environment.
|
04-20-2006, 03:54 PM | #19 |
College Prospect
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Boston, MA
|
I remember reading abook that detailed McCurry's time as Press Secretary. Not sure if it was a biography or what, I couldn't find it doing a quick search on Amazon, but it was a very interesting read. Suffice to say, there's a lot going on in between briefings and what's shown on TV is usually only a glimpse of the full story.
That being said, the job of the press secretary gets exponentally more difficult the more ducking and covering they have to do. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like when there's little/no BS'ing going on from both sides(admittedly not very often), the job works the way it's supposed to. As soon as that breaks down, it seems like press conferences devolve into entertaining TV and not much else. Last edited by Fighter of Foo : 04-20-2006 at 03:54 PM. |
04-20-2006, 06:29 PM | #20 | |
College Starter
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: PA
|
More greatest hits:
Quote:
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | |
Thread Tools | |
|
|