QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN THE WHITE HOUSE….Editor & Publisher reprints a priceless exchange in the White House briefing room between Terry Moran and Scott McClellan. Since McClellan’s answers don’t have any semantic content worth spending pixels on, I figured I would edit the transcript just to reproduce the questions:
Q Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its ‘last throes’?
Q But the insurgency is in its last throes?
Q But they’re killing more Americans, they’re killing more Iraqis. That’s the last throes?
Q Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?
Q What’s the evidence on the ground that it’s being extinguished?
Q Well, I’m just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.
Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a ‘last throe’ lasts for?
Here’s an idea: maybe the White House should institute “wiki-briefings” that allow us all to go in and edit the transcripts. That would be fun, wouldn’t it?
