Talking To A Wall

Well at least the Bin Laden tapes gave the increasingly irrelevant Scotty McClellan something to talk about.

Any off-topic questions from the Press Gaggle met with the usual wall of silence:

I don't tend to get into discussing operational matters or alleged operational matters in the war on terrorism from this podium...

I'm not going to get into talking about any security matters...

I've already addressed this....

That last one was on the White House's links to the Abramoff scandal, which he most assuredly has NOT addressed! It would be interesting to compile a full list of the subjects which McLellan now refuses to discuss and then see what else was left besides pure propaganda.

Meanwhile, one of the reporters probably just lost his press pass with this exchange:

Q Why do you keep linking Iraq and 9/11 and so forth? Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and you keep -- we started the war in Iraq. We brought the terrorists in, so-called.

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that's a misunderstanding of --

Q -- and 20 to 50 people are dying every day in Iraq.

MR. McCLELLAN: I think, one, that's a misunderstanding of the global war on terrorism that we are engaged in --

Q We invaded.

MR. McCLELLAN: Some people take a narrow view of the war on terrorism. The President recognizes --

Q Innocent Iraqis are paying the price.

MR. McCLELLAN: The President -- well, first of all, the Iraqi people, we have heard from many of them who have expressed their appreciation for the removal of a brutal and oppressive regime --

Q Many are dead. Thousands are dead.

Nice try, mate.