1115.org

(1)
Scott Stanzel has clearly learned at least one of the lessons of Plamegate:

Democrats have charged that some White House aides used non-government e-mail accounts to avoid official scrutiny of their actions. Stanzel neither confirmed nor denied that possibility: “I can’t speak to people’s individual practices. So I can’t speak to that question.”

He ain’t gonna take nobody’s word for it that they didn’t never do nuttin’ wrong.

(2)

…some of the e-mails turned over in a congressional investigation of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys showed that Rove deputy Scott Jennings repeatedly used an RNC e-mail address (sjennings@gwb43.com) in his official communications. One e-mail to Rove was sent to a kr@georgewbush.com address.

Strikes me that there is absolutely no reason why outraged citizens shouldn’t express their outrage directly to the public servants who are the source of that outrage.

Equally, if you think that helping Jennings or Rove with any penis envy issues they might have might help make America a better place, who am I to disabuse you of that kind, generous notion?

(3)
We already celebrated Dana Perino yesterday as the Queen of Making It Up.

It’s also time to pay tribute to her as the reigning world champion of Pushing Credulity to the Limit:

Q This seems to be — at least Senator Leahy seems to be suggesting now this is a credibility issue; that the explanations coming out of the White House don’t pass some sort of sniff test for him.

MS. PERINO: I don’t know how you could possibly say that when what we have done is endeavor to be very forthcoming and honest in talking about a policy that we’ve had. Now, it would be different if we hadn’t said anything at all. But we didn’t. We have come forward. I would prefer to have every single answer available to you, because you have a lot of questions. And as Scott Stanzel said to you this morning, we don’t have all the answers yet, but we are working with the committees –

Q But what you’ve said has shifted even over the last couple of weeks.

MS. PERINO: Give me an example of that.

Q Fifty, 22, handful.

MS. PERINO: Look — and I explained that. You have to admit that when I said a handful, I was asked based on something that I didn’t know.

Here’s what I think. I think that Dana Perino has always known that she’s very good looking. She has always known that she can wrap middle-aged men around her little finger. Despite her endearing protestations when she took over Tony Snow’s job, she was never afraid to step into Tony’s shoes. She thinks she doesn’t have to work anywhere near as hard as Tony used to. She thinks sex appeal allows her entitles her to get away with all kinds of crap.

That is probably a sufficient explanation of her “I don’t know how you could possibly say that we lied to you when I lied only when you insisted on asking me about things I didn’t know about. That doesn’t count, silly.”

(4)
Why wasn’t the sexy, the gorgeous, the altogether too cute Dana Perino willing to categorically deny that the President has a secret RNC-maintained email account?

Q Does the President have one of these RNC-maintained accounts?

MS. PERINO: I don’t think so, no. The President says he doesn’t email.

Hey, Dana, it’s not perjury if you lie to the White House press corps. Promise. What you can’t do is leave the President twisting in the wind.

(5)
Sexy, maybe. Smart, maybe not?

Q Senator Leahy said this morning, “They say they haven’t been preserved, I don’t believe that. You don’t erase emails today. They’ve gone through too many servers. These emails are there, they just don’t want to produce them.” What does it say about the lack of credibility that the administration has that he would say something like that?

MS. PERINO: Well, it’s troubling. I don’t know if Senator Leahy is also an IT expert, but I can assure you that we are working very hard to make sure that we find the emails that were potentially lost…

When you’ve just been caught lying, and flat-out making it up as you go along, the one thing you don’t do, dear Dana, is turn sarcastic when someone goes: “Excuse me if I have trouble believing this cock-and-bull story of yours”.

And since you bring it up, dear Dana, what exactly are you an expert at, again?

Sorry, I just got ahead of myself. Dana Perino made it perfectly clear what she’s an expert on:

Q Have you thought about calling in the FBI?

MS. PERINO: Let me check — in terms of, like, the forensics — that’s one of my areas of — I just don’t have a clue. You can ask me about global warming, I’ll know, but IT forensics is not my strong point. But we’ll work to get back to you.

One of these days there will, of course, be some questions on global warming. Maybe by then Perino will be an expert on forensics?

(6)
You probably never realized this because nobody has put it as clearly as Dana Perino was able to do yesterday.

When Defense Secretary Gates suddenly announced that deployments were going to be stretched from 12 months to 15 months — right after President Bush started telling the country that Democrats playing war funding games were going to be responsible for extending deployments if they didn’t watch out — really what he was doing was announcing good news for soldiers: “you see some troops have been there for 16 months, and that’s what we’re trying to avoid”.

(7)
If you read the official transcript of Dana Perino’s press briefing briefing yesterday, and if you’re a member of her target audience (i.e. a male between the ages of 15 and 95, with a pulse) you’re probably asking yourself who is Les, and what’s his home address, and when does he next plan to be in the vicinity of a dark alley. Because he is one mean and rude dude. He totally blindsided Dana, I mean totally:

Q I can’t believe the President has no concern about the three Duke lacrosse players whose families face huge legal fees because they were falsely accused of rape by a female stripper. And my question, surely you can tell us that the President is glad that all charges have been dropped against these three young men, because you don’t want to leave the nation in any doubt as to where the President stands on this issue, do you?

MS. PERINO: Les, I’m going to decline to comment on a legal matter –

Q It’s a legal matter that’s been settled.

MS. PERINO: — I haven’t spoken to the President about it. If I get a chance to, then I’ll be able to respond.

Q You will speak to him?

MS. PERINO: If I get a chance to see him, I will do that.

She really didn’t know what was the safe thing to say? He made it sound like a trap, and she panicked?