Serious absurdity

Presidential press briefings and gaggles are always high camp since Scott McLellan took over from Ari "there is no falsehood too preposterous for me to utter" Fleischer. McLellan is no master of the breathtaking, staggering untruth like his predecessor. Instead he chooses to employ the much less inflammatory but equally frustrating method of endless, unbreachable stonewalling. He likes saying "I disagree with your characterization" a lot. A lot! I mean, all the time! And he always says, "You need to look at the facts", when in fact, the facts say the exact opposite of what he's asserting. It's a great device because it makes the person arguing with you go nearly insane with frustration. You'll find plenty of examples in today's press briefing, during which McLellan gets no relief at all from a press rabid with the 9/11 commission's conclusion that there was no link between Iraq and al Qaeda of any substance. He argues that the Bush Administration's stated position is consistent with the 9/11 commission findings, but as can be seen here, it feels as though he's trying to fight back the deluge of evidence to the contrary being thrown at him by the press with a couple of broken chopsticks, statements made by Powell and Tenet, the first of which has actually been largely retracted by Powell himself, and, well, we all know what happened to Tenet... he's now on his way out "for personal reasons"... Scott McLellan press briefings...always high comedy. I wonder why Kerry doesn't just hand copies of these out as campaign material...