Interpreting Tony Snow
Thu Jul 26, 2007 at 10:46:06 AM PDT
I'm cheered reading the transcript of today's press gaggle. This exchange took place:
Q On Gonzales, this Negroponte memo shows an apparent contradiction in what he told the committee two days ago about that briefing at the White House. But yet Gonzales' spokesman says that what he said on Tuesday was true. How can that be? Can you explain that?
MR. SNOW: Unfortunately we get into areas that you cannot discuss openly. It's a very complex issue. But the Attorney General was speaking consistently. The President supports him. I think at some point this is going to be something where members are going to have to go behind closed doors and have a fuller discussion of the issues. But I can't go any further than that.
Compare that to yesterday's statement by Tony Snow:
MR. SNOW: Hello, everybody. As you probably know, the House Judiciary Committee has just voted along partisan lines to have a criminal contempt of Congress referral against White House legal counsel and the White House Chief of Staff. For our view, this is pathetic. What you have right now is partisanship on Capitol Hill that quite often boils down to insults, insinuations, inquisitions and investigations rather than pursuing the normal business of trying to pass major pieces of legislation, such as appropriations bills, and to try to work in such a way as to demonstrate to the American people that Congress and the White House can work together.
So, yesterday the White House felt they were on solid legal grounds and could have Snow be his usual flippant annoying self, i.e. using the term "pathetic" to reference actions by the Democrat Democratic Congress.
Today however, he's being asked about Gonzales obviously perjuring himself in front of Congress. Rather than calling the investigation "pathetic" or "a stunt", he actually sounds reasonable:
It's a very complex issue. But the Attorney General was speaking consistently. The President supports him. I think at some point this is going to be something where members are going to have to go behind closed doors and have a fuller discussion of the issues. But I can't go any further than that.
I mean, I know he's still lying, but he's not being as obnoxious or flip. Could that be because he knows Gonzales lied through his teeth and doesn't want another "130 degrees in Baghdad" moment thrown back in his face when Gonzo is busted?
I realize I may be grasping at straws here, but I'm looking for anything to cheer me up on this issue :)
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