Friday

 

Punchline

The House Judiciary Committee held hearings today so that Scott McClellan could testify about his book. I don't know if this is a good use of the Judiciary Committee's time, it could be if there were important items that they wanted read into the record or to otherwise have media attention focused upon, but I'm sincerely uncertain and that's not what I wanted to talk about, anyway. In his opening remarks (link is to a word document because I can't find Smith's prepared statement posted anywhere else, including his own web site) ranking minority member Lamar Smith both mocked the committee for holding the hearings and attacked McClellan in a variety of ways, wrapping up by saying, “While we may never know the answers, Scott McClellan alone will have to wrestle with whether it was worth selling out the President and his friends for a few pieces of silver.” How McClellan1 possibly resisted responding to that by saying, “I'm very interested in your theory about how George W. Bush is the second coming of Christ, can you please say more on this point?” is a mystery I don't believe I'll ever know the solution to.

1. Given the format of the hearing, in which McClellan and others gave prepared statements and then McClellan answered questions, it's not clear to me that he ever had an opportunity to respond. But if he didn't, Smith's fellow committee members certainly could have as a prelude to their own questions, and someone should have said this, dammit.

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