I have resolutely sorted through the garbage-heaps of ungrammatical claptrap that Tony Snow spouted as usual in incomplete sentences at yesterday’s press briefing, and I have ferreted out why Bush, Cheney, Tony, McCain and Lieberman are so confident the “clear, hold and build” strategy will work this time around.

In one word, sleepovers. That’s what we’ll do differently this time around:

In the past, you would have forces going in by day and out by night. And that’s not a very effective way to deal with militias that are gathering up arms.

In other news, the White House has so far been unable to determine whether anyone bears responsibility for the state of things in Iraq:

Q How much responsibility do you think General Casey bears for a failed plan?

MR. SNOW: The President has made it clear that if anybody bears responsibility, it’s the President.

So when will someone make it clear whether anybody bears responsibility? (Meanwhile, is there any money to be made selling plaques that say: “If the buck stops anywhere, the buck stops here”?)

Did he just say what I think he said:

Q Is the President disappointed that some key Republican allies like Senator Warner have been instrumental in pursuing this resolution?

MR. SNOW: Again, let’s see where these things go. Even this issue is in considerable flux. And we’re aware of the conversations that have been going on on Capitol Hill; we’ve been monitoring them.

Warrantless wiretapping is being practiced on members of the Senate? And the White House is bragging about it?

You know, when you’re press secretary to the POTUS, you can just stand there and say whatever you want. Make up whatever numbers you like. No one challenges you. Presumably because no one expects anything you say to bear any recognizable relation to reality. Take for example:

As I pointed out before, in any given month we create millions of new jobs. The economy sheds millions, but creates even more. And many people go through a variety of careers.

No kidding? In any given month, huh? A variety of careers? (And for the record, even 200,000 would be an overestimate for the number of jobs added every month. Last month, economists expected the economy to add 150,000 jobs, and the actual increase came in at 111,000.)

In case you were wondering what Bush will say when he meets with the Democrats tomorrow, it’ll just be the same old stuff:

And I think this is going to be an opportunity for the President once again to repeat things that he has said on a number of occasions, which is, there’s an opportunity to work together…

You have probably forgotten that out of “all the other governments of the world”, the Bush government actually took the lead on global warming, so Tony emitted this helpful reminder:

You also have an administration — and, Paula, we’ll be happy to do chapter and verse with you — where not only on regulation but also environmental issues, we’ve spent more money on environmental research than all the other governments of the world. This is an administration that actually has a better performance in terms of CO2 emissions. It is an administration where the President in the summer of 2001 was talking about man-made global warming and the need to address it through innovation, and created a panel that involves key Cabinet members in going after the sources of pollution and emissions.

Offered without comment, just as Tony said it without apparent irony:

As I said, I will be happy to provide you — without getting into the vagaries of one survey, we’ll be happy to swamp you with data so that you will be in a position to assess fully and completely the varying claims.

Early in the briefing, Snow was asked:

Q General Casey testified today that securing Baghdad would take fewer than half the additional troops that President Bush has proposed, and he said that he had asked for two brigades, based on the recommendations of his subordinate commanders. So how did we wind up with five additional brigades?

His answer at that point was essentially: That’s how many brigades the President wanted, and “you also know that General Casey supports the plan”. But it looks like he inadvertently answered the question towards the end of the briefing:

…part of what’s built in here is the ability to respond to some of those shifts in the landscape so that you don’t find yourself in a position of saying, oops, we need another thousand forces. At that point, you’re not going to have the political capital to do it because the American people then will come back and say, why didn’t you, and fill in the blank.

So the plan was let’s just overdraw the account to start with, because we get to make only one single withdrawal?