Reporters 'MOCK' McClellan -- No Need to Notify Bush Re: WH evacuation

Rad the questions put to IDIOT McClellan! He waffled all over the place when asked questions from the reporters and -- can we say -- he lied.......
=================================================================
McClellan Spars With Press, Says No Need to Notify Bush
credit: Aya Kawano

By E&P Staff
Published: May 12, 2005 5:25 PM ET

NEW YORK On the day after more than 30,000 people -- including the vice president, the first lady, and a former first lady -- were evacuated from their offices or homes in Washington, D.C., but the president, who was biking in Maryland was not notified until the threat passed, reporters grilled Press Secretary Scott McClellan at his daily briefing.

For those who might have missed it on TV -- that is, nearly everyone -- here are some choice excerpts, as McClellan continually refers to "protocols" and reporters essentially ask, "Wouldn't most men like to know when their home is evacuated and their wife is hustled to a secure bunker?" They also wonder about the small matter of the president being commander in chief and the capital, theoretically, coming under attack.

Some reporters also suggested that the off-kilter Cessna had come much closer to the White House than McClellan's claim yesterday of three miles.


http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000920092

a sham and that the man behind the curtain is Cheney. Maybe a few are getting tired of the charade. It's very evident from this episode that chimp is irrelevant.

He was covering up and the reporters knew it....no matter how much eh waffled or weaseled, there was no denying that the Emporer-in-Chief isn't and doesn't want to be in charge.....

Great questioning! Wish I could have seen it on tv.

...to distract from the questioning about the first distraction.

...in no time they will be in full compliance mode again.

WE have to be the new media!

we are the METEORITE!:patriot:

and he is irrelevant now. A figurehead, a puppet. Go ride yer bike Georgie, the grown ups need to talk.

...of a funny late 70s movie called "The First Nudie Musical".

The director is soooo incompetent that the producer sends him out for doughnuts every day and does the directing himself. I imagint that thats what cabinet meetings are like.

"Mr. pResident, we have a lot to do. We're going to need LOTS of doughnuts!"

"You can count on me, dick!"

I vaguely remember that movie, the part where they held auditions.

..."Just sing Scales for us"....."O.K. SCAAAALLLLLEEEESSSS".

For the rest of the movie, every time Cindy Williams thinks the producer has a bad idea, she leans down to him and says "O.K. SCAAAALLLLLEEEESSSS".

Lot's of good questions - No good answers, of course. I REALLY like this one:

Q: Might there be something wrong with protocols that render the president unnecessary when the alarm is going off at his house?

Q: Right, but there seems to be so many disconnects here. You've got a plane that was assessed as not being a threat, you've got 35,000 people evacuated, you've got a person who you claim is a hands-on commander in chief who is left to go ride his bicycle through the rural wildlands of Maryland while his wife is in some secure location somewhere, it's just not adding up.

McCLELLAN: Well, John, I disagree, and let me tell you why: You have highly skilled professionals who are involved in situations like this, in a variety of different fronts, from our Homeland Security officials to our National Security Council officials to our Secret Service officials and to others and to local officials, and they work very closely together. The protocols that were put in place were followed, and I think they were followed well.

lobbing grenades, wandering planes, whatever...

Q Scott, may I just maybe take a slight step back? Aside from the particulars of what happened yesterday and when, maybe the larger issue has to do with whether this President is sufficiently at the levers of power on his job during the day or night. When we think of the event at the ASNE meeting, when the President said he didn't know about the issue of possibly requiring passports of all Americans who are returning from Canada or Mexico until he read it in the papers -- and I think that's the larger question we're all trying to get at.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I disagree and I think that's unfounded. Absolutely the President is. I disagree with your characterization completely, and I think the American people reject that, as well. And the President was informed immediately upon the conclusion of the bike ride, as well, about what had occurred. But by that point, it was well in hand.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050512-2.html

Secret Service guy: "Sir, we need to get you to a secure location. An unidentified plane is headed toward the White House."

George: (grabbing for nuclear football) "w00t!!!!!"

Bush had just taken his meds.

...but seldom does anyone mention that protocol of intercepting errant flights was in place long before 9-11. I wish one of these cub reporters would ask why planes weren't scrambled on 9-11 like they were in this 'non-threatening' case.

It is great to see the media types finally demanding some satisfaction from little Scottie.

"In a post 9/11 world, everything has changed..."

Blahblahblah.

They had F-16s up in two minutes for a fucking Cessna. :eyes:

First:

McCLELLAN: John, the protocols that we put in place after Sept. 11 were being followed. They did not require presidential authority for this situation. I think you have to look at each situation and the circumstances surrounding the situation. And that's what officials here at the White House were doing. ...

Then:

Q: They don't require presidential authority, but they don't obviate the need for presidential authority, do they? They don't say the president cannot be involved --

McCLELLAN: Like I said, that depends on --

Q: -- wouldn't he want to be involved --

McCLELLAN: It depends on the circumstances and it depends on the situation.

Did I read that wrong, or did he just say that there are military protocols that the president of the United States CANNOT BE INVOLVED IN?

Just who in the hell is running the military in crisis mode if the CiC is not allowed to participate?

(Anyone else notice that Ari Fleischer was a better liar than this idiot?)

what he was saying anymore. A drowning man clutching at his "protocols" for support. Heh.

have ever come to shooting down a what turned out to be a harmless civilian plane,albeit one being piloted by an idiot IMO...the CnC doesn't need to be aware of that?

No need to wake the president from his nap.

And I still can't get over the fact that it is for real! It is just amazing.

In all reality, that press briefing transcript sounds more like satire then althedcats satire earlier, seriously! (not calling althecat out, it was a great bit!)

My favorites:



"Even on a personal level, did nobody here at the White House think that calling the president to say, by the way, your wife has been evacuated from the White House, we just want to let you know everything is OK?"

"Might there be something wrong with protocols that render the president unnecessary when the alarm is going off at his house?"

"You've got a plane that was assessed as not being a threat, you've got 35,000 people evacuated, you've got a person who you claim is a hands-on commander in chief who is left to go ride his bicycle through the rural wildlands of Maryland while his wife is in some secure location somewhere, it's just not adding up."



ha ha ha

the last one hysterical for me. i keep hearing that Queen song "i want to ride my bicycle, i want to ride my biiike..."

but if I were the head of the President's Secret Service detail and got word that a small plane was in restricted airspace heading toward the White House and had drawn fighter jets to try to divert it, my first thought would be that this plane could be a diversion or, perhaps, part of a larger scheme to do some real damage. My instinct would be to get my protectee to the safety of the armoured limo, lickety -split, if not to the White House or to some other secure location. I would certainly figure is that it's probably not a good idea for the Commander-in-Chief to be bopping about in the wide open out in the middle of nowhere.

And if I were the President and my Secret Service detail didn't make that suggestion, I'd have fired the whole lot of 'em.

But the Secret Service aren't stupid and they aren't that cavalier, so I just don't believe they decided all on their lonesome that the president shouldn't be notified but should continue on his merry way. I am certain the agents - some of the most anal people around - alerted the staff to the problem and recommended the president take cover and the STAFF decided it wasn't necessary, for some reason.

But, hey - that's just me.

He's in a melt down mode. Wouldn't answer the question on the memo.

The U.S. burns down as Bush peddles.

of course the people really in charge didn't inform numbnuts what was going on, and let him finish his 1-1/2 hour bike ride.
But the real question is, isn't there like "WORK" or something for a president to do? Why was he bike riding at 11 AM Wednesday??

If George Washington weren't consulted in times of crisis this wouldn't be America. George W Bush is just an incompetent trust slug

I bet he *WAS* involved, and couldn't make the right decisions, was overriden by someone with common sense and they fabricated the bicycle story to cover for *.

* must be close to a breakdown... I bet he's barely holding together and we may even see a resignation this year.

and the emporer has no clothes.

NGU.

at his age. i dont

First, he isn't that old. In my dad's apartment complex was a 71 year old who regularly rode 14 miles round trip down a bicycle path. Bush isn't even 60 yet. I also know a 73 year old who still plays softball.

Second, Bush is in great physical shape, it is his mental accuity that I would be worried about.

He's like Rumsfeld and all the rest. When asked a question, just act surprised and retort "why would you ask ME such a thing?"

The press just sit back and shrink in their seats. I've been around since McGovern and I've NEVER seen so many WIMPS!! The corruption of our media, our shall I saw the BOUGHT media is overwhelming!

The FOURTH ESTATE no longer exists!

They were the LAST to be notified. The LAST out of the White House. Some of them were just hitting the sidewalk by the time the all clear was sounded. Almost as though they were 'expendable'...which to the mind of this maladministration, they are.

Christ, McClellan repeated that mantra so many times he sounded like a myna bird with a short circuit.

Anyway, if indeed they were following these "protocols put in place after 9/11", and this is the extent to which those protocols require the commander-in-chief to be informed and involved in a crisis situation, then it's obvious what the between-the-lines implication is: Bush is so vaccuous and ineffective that it would only complicate matters and he'd get in the way. In other words, you must ask your self "What would Gilligan Do" to imagine the Boy King making hard and fast decisions about any situatiuon of any importance.

It's been clear to all of us from day one that Bush is just a puppet with Dick's hand up his ass. Why WOULD they involve Bush? You'd think the ones with the actual power would at least concoct the illusion of Bush being "in control", but then again we all know how brazen these henchmen are with their tactics.