Scott McClellan, Traffic Cop

Sure seems like McClellan has been put on a shorter leash in answering questions at White House Press Gaggles.  He's even more of a traffic cop or a reference librarian now - ask a question, be pointed in the direction of where an answer might be.  For example...

April 21 Press Gaggle:

McClellan's different answers:

I think those are questions that are best directed to the coalition in Iraq

And those questions would be best directed to the coalition.

The Office of Management and Budget Director has said this year, and that's what he has said -- and you should look back -- you should look back at his remarks.

Again, those are questions best directed to the military leaders.

Those are decisions that are best made by the commanders in the theater

Finally, somebody asked a question about Iraq (but it really could be about anything based on these kinds of answers):

Q So the White House has a pretty passive role in this -- you just wait for them to tell you if you they need more, and then you say yes?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I disagree with that characterization...

But then he returned to...

Well, I think our Management -- the Director of the Office of Management and Budget has testified in recent months about the needs going forward. And he's talked about those levels. So you can look back at his very comments.

By the way, the most tortured line of yesterday's press conference had to be:

MR. McCLELLAN: We cannot -- we can't not afford to make sure we succeed in Iraq.