A few items from today's White House press briefing; first, on the Scooter Libby front:
Q Well, let me ask you this. We understand -- it's been said that the President's hand was somewhat forced when the judge said that Scooter Libby would have to serve his sentence, and while a pardon would not be anything to discuss, but "commute" is something that the White House is embracing and looking at --
MR. SNOW: April, I'm just not going to talk about anything that's under discussion or consideration.
So, they're discussing it, they just aren't willing to tell us what we already know.
And what about those missing Karl Rove emails?
Q We have been through this, but you were saying at the time there were, like, 50 staffers -- Waxman is saying, no, it's more like 88, and there are indications -- I mean, 140,000 emails is a lot of emails.
MR. SNOW: That is a whole lot of email.
Q And that's just Rove, that's not all the other folks.
MR. SNOW: That's a whole lot of email, absolutely right.
Yep, that's a whole lot of email...next question.
And finally, George Bush spoke to Prime Minister Maliki today and was reassured. Why?
Q Can you tell us anything specific about what that reassurance -- why he felt reassured, and also address whether or not they're taking a vacation and whether you know how long that vacation will be?
MR. SNOW: On the second, I don't believe so; and on the first, no, I can't give you any specifics. [...]
Q But, Tony, can you give us some sense of why he felt reassured, given that we've heard reassurances before?
MR. SNOW: ...and I'm not in a position to go into the details and what they were saying, but there are reasons we think they're very serious in moving forward on the key items.
Q But, Tony, we've heard that before, many times.
MR. SNOW: I understand. I understand.
Q I mean, why is there any more reason now to believe that they're serious about moving forward than there was the last time you said that? Or the time before?
MR. SNOW: ...I'm just not going to go into any greater detail, I'm going to let the -- that is a sovereign government and I will permit them to make the announcements about how they're doing and where they're going.
Q You think there will be announcements on something about where they're going?
MR. SNOW: No, I think, again, I'm just going to leave it at that.
Feel better?