Briefly, via Poynter:
A question posed to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan at this morning’s “gaggle” by CBS White House correspondent John Roberts has attracted quite a bit of chatter on the Internet. Of course, the topic of the day is the Supreme Court nomination of Samuel Alito, and the question from Roberts, was, “Scott, you said that – or the President said, repeatedly, that Harriet Miers was the best person for the job. So does that mean Alito is sloppy seconds, or what?”
OK, that's funny. Much funnier than his Family Show version of the question (with McClellan's answer) in the afternooner:
Q Scott, on the subject of rude, my apologies for my unfortunate choice of words this morning to you, but I think the question bears asking again, and that is that the President said repeatedly when he nominated Harriet Miers that she is the best person for the job. Does that in any way indicate that while Sam Alito may be well-qualified for the Supreme Court, he is not, as was described of Harriet Miers, the best person?
MR. McCLELLAN: He's extremely well-qualified. When the President selected Harriet Miers, he was taking into consideration what members of the Senate had said, that he should look outside the court. But we recognize now that in the culture of today's confirmation process, it is very difficult to nominate someone who comes from outside the court and has little public record on constitutional issues to be confirmed. That's something we recognize.
The President looked at someone who -- to fill this vacancy at this time, and he believes Judge Alito is the best person to fill this vacancy at this time, based on his extensive experience and his judicial temperament.
So beyond the naughty reference laugh, a couple of points on this:
- CBS lucks out to be the outlet to have hired Roberts, so that they can make a story out of it and use an extened "what happened" quote from the reporter. Cheesy, but OK (and I did say it was funny). But why puff it up by trying to make it sound like a blog zeitgeist with that "quite a bit of chatter" nonsense? For one thing, that's a load of crap--I found just five other news references to the incident, and at least one of them was written after the CBS story. Secondly, look at the two cites they use: Drudge (which I'll admit is publicity, but not "chatter") and something called Anchoress. Odd choices, although I guess if you're having to manufacture chatter, links are definitionally hard to come by.
- At least somewhat on topic: look at McLellan's pussbag reply, the exposure of which makes Roberts' rather gutless apology worth it. Forced to confront a logical construct he cannot get around (if Miers was the best, was it a tie or is Alito naturally second best?), he tries the "best choice right this minute" angle. For the current situation--that is, having to nominate someone else because the person you called "the best" just pulled out--Alito is definitely the best possible choice!
- Speaking of pussbags, what on earth is Roberts doing apologizing to Scotty? Is there any hint in the last two years that he's deserved being apologized to on any level? OK, it's a rather rude connotation, but he ought to apologize to his network for being less than professional. Apologizing to the President had he asked him that question personally--I'll reluctantly buy that too. But Scotty? In the spirit of rudeness, fuck that.
--TJ
Comments