I looked through the search engine and found no reference to this part of the 6/23/05 Daily Briefing. The reporter gets out of the gate by asking whether or not the President agrees with the last throes thing.
We of course get no straight answer, but I'll be damned if he doesn't say that we are NOT in the last throes and that the VP was wrong. Plus, when did the Press Corps find their balls?
Q Does the President agree with the Vice President that the Iraqi insurgents are in their last throes?
MR. McCLELLAN: He agrees with ... [The Vice President] was talking about the significant progress that's being made...Democracy is taking hold...
Q Do you think that the insurgency is growing weaker? Or is it getting stronger?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the commanders on the ground were just briefing on that, Terry. You should look to General Abizaid's comment, and he talked about that...
Q So stronger, not weaker?
MR. McCLELLAN: Again, the commanders are briefing right now, and they are the ones who are on the ground...
Q But he (Cheney) seems to have contradicted -- Abizaid seems to have contradicted what the Vice President said, on the face of it.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I think you have to look at the context of the Vice President's comments.
Q I did, I looked.
...
Q So he was talking about the political process moving forward, not -- let me ask you this. What is the Vice President basing his -- where is he getting his evidence? What is he basing his claim on, if the commanders on the ground are saying --
...
Q He did not mean political, he meant the whole situation in Iraq.
...
Q You can't change his meaning. You guys are trying to step back now, and I don't blame you.
MR. McCLELLAN: No, I disagree with you.
Go ahead though, Jessica.
It only got worse from there as they switched to Rove. Looks like the press corps finally has some balls, now if they will just take on the President in his next faux conference.