White House press secretary Scott McClellan got grilled yesterday afternoon on Rove/Plame-mania and came under intense pressure from the MSM hounds, particularly NBC’s David Gregory and ABC’s Terry “The Royal” Moran:

Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof.

I actually have no problem with McClellan getting justifiably barked at during his daily briefings (if only we had more Les Kinsolvings to press the White House from the right, especially on illegal immigration). But isn’t it funny how Beltway reporters who get all prissy and whiny about one Fox News Channel reporter asking the DNC chairman one mildly aggressive question have no problem turning pack-rabid on McClellan?

Stephen Spruiell at the Media Blog raises another salient point:

Is [Judith] Miller refusing to testify because she herself outed Plame? Who knows? One thing is for sure: the press wants to have it both ways — attacking Scott McClellan today for not answering questions about Rove’s involvement, but reserving a place of honor for Miller, who has done more to obstruct the investigation of this incident than McClellan has. McClellan deserved the grilling he got today, but journalists deserve an equal grilling when they refuse to divulge information that the public has a right to know.

Lorie Byrd at Polipundit has a great takedown of the blow-dried boys, and notes that yesterday’s “questioning is disgraceful not because reporters beat Scott McClellan about the head over past statements. That is fair enough. What is disgraceful is today’s performance in the context of their past reporting on this matter, which has not accurately told the full story.” Read the whole thing.

The New York Times provides team coverage of the McClellan briefing. The most interesting stuff is, naturally, buried deep down in the last few grafs of the story:

The e-mail message from Mr. [Matthew] Cooper to his [Time] bureau chief describing a brief conversation with Mr. Rove, first reported in Newsweek, does not by itself establish that Mr. Rove knew Ms. Wilson’s covert status or that the government was taking measures to protect her.

Based on the e-mail message, Mr. Rove’s disclosures are not criminal, said Bruce S. Sanford, a Washington lawyer who helped write the law and submitted a brief on behalf of several news organizations concerning it to the appeals court hearing the case of Mr. Cooper and Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times. Ms. Miller has gone to jail rather than disclose her source.

“It is clear that Karl Rove’s conversation with Matt Cooper does not fall into that category” of criminal conduct, Mr. Sanford said. “That’s not ‘knowing.’ It doesn’t even come close.”

There has been some dispute, moreover, about just how secret a secret agent Ms. Wilson was.

“She had a desk job in Langley,” said Ms. Toensing, who also signed the supporting brief in the appeals court, referring to the C.I.A.’s headquarters. “When you want someone in deep cover, they don’t go back and forth to Langley.”

Captain Ed weighs in:

If the leaker keeps his or her mouth shut, no resolution will occur. That doesn’t indicate a cover-up, it demonstrates that we still can’t force people to testify against themselves. For those who can’t remember this, it’s in the Constitution, four amendments past the one that Miller and the Times claim as their prerogative to hide the wrongdoer — if in fact anyone can be cast as that.

The only people engaging in a cover-up are the media — the New York Times and Robert Novak. When they want this mystery solved, they’ll tell us who leaked the name. Until then, they’ll milk this for everything it’s worth to embarrass an administration they dislike.

Danny Glover at Beltway Blogroll rounds up coverage on both sides.

More…

John Podhoretz on the scandal implosion.

Betsy Newmark:

“…the media can rant all they want, but days when we are at war in Iraq, terrorists are bombing Londoners on the way to work, North Korea and Iran are inches away from getting nuclear bombs, and it’s summer and vacation time, I don’t think most people outside the Beltway and the political blogosphere care one jot about Karl Rove.

comments (0)   trackbacks (18)