Condigate
Condigate
State Department spokesman Adam Ereli was grilled about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s reported directive to her staff to keep mum on John Bolton’s nomination. Here’s how it began:
QUESTION: Also, The Washington Post reported that Secretary Rice said she didn’t want any information coming out of the Department that could adversely affect the nomination. Is there any truth to that?
MR. ERELI: That is a very inaccurate report and obviously I think you will understand that I’m not going to get into what is said in private staff meetings…
QUESTION: But you’re also saying that she didn’t say that she didn’t want any information coming up that could adversely affect the nomination.
MR. ERELI: That is just not an accurate reflection of the meeting.
First, Ereli says the report was inaccurate without saying how it was inaccurate. This is a classic way of deflecting the question without answering the question.
But then it gets even more interesting:
QUESTION: She wants information out that could adversely affect his nomination?
MR. ERELI: I would say that the Secretary strongly supports this nomination, feels that John Bolton should be confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
This was a perfect opportunity for Ereli to end the controversy. He could have simply said that Rice supports full cooperation with the committee. But he didn’t. Instead he said that Rice believe Bolton should be confirmed.
QUESTION: But that’s a different issue and a different question than whether she has asked the people in the Department not to say anything that would adversely impact the —
MR. ERELI: I’m not aware that any such thing was ever said.
Another carefully worded statement. He’s not saying that she requested her staff withhold information from the committee. Ereli is saying he doesn’t know whether or not that was ever said. It illustrates the thinness of his earlier claim that the report was inaccurate.
Here are the two questions Condoleezza Rice needs to answer to settle this controversy:
1. Should employees of the State Department provide the committee with any information on John Bolton they believe is relevant to his nomination?
2. Have you ever suggested, in any way, that employees of the State Department withhold certain kinds of information from the committee?
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Nothing new here… Orwell would understand… It’s pure Newspeak! But, those idiots in the press room are afraid to say, “but, YOU ARE NOT ANSWERING OUR QUESTIONS!” “All you do is to say generalities, like a worthless press release!”
But, what do you expect from a ..liberal press?
Geesh.
April 21st, 2005 at 11:22 amThis is the fallout…”we deny, yet er, we don’t know!”
Get it now? It’s the run-around.
April 21st, 2005 at 11:47 ami really hope nobody was actually surprised that the bush corp/ condi would stonewall an investigation. theyve stonewalled everything since jan 2001. what we need is a real reporter. i say lets gather some money and go buy one of those reporters from britain, the ones who ask real questions. i got 20 bucks on it.
April 21st, 2005 at 11:54 amThis is just another example what we have been hearing all along…Never answer a question with an simple answe, but just protect the power that is always there. It is just shameful to watch the effect that bullies have on our govnment.
April 21st, 2005 at 11:57 amI am surprised by the lapse though. Previously whoever managed the info to the outside world did a better job of just saying the spin to the press.
It isn’t the crime that gets folks upset about politicians, it’s the coverup. Here’s our chance…
April 21st, 2005 at 12:08 pmI have another $20 to go with Michael’s. There must be enough people with an interest in real investigative news reporting that we can cover this. I watch the BBC news every night on PBS because US news organizations have been completely gelded.
April 21st, 2005 at 12:08 pmWhile we’re at it, let’s indict her for felony obstruction for her lying under oath to the 911 Investigation (CoverUP) Committee. That, and $40 million, was enough to impeach Bill in 1998. Why not apply the same standard to this new breed of pond scum?
April 21st, 2005 at 12:38 pmRice is no more that a Bush puppet. She spends her time merely repeating in parrot like fashion everything the nazi fanatics want her to say. I don’t know how anyone can respect this puppet–oh yeah-that 51%
April 21st, 2005 at 1:19 pmAdam Ereli…had forgotten that liar’s name!! Isn’t he implicated in the Gannon/Guckert mess, as well?!?! I knew the first time I heard that guy take the stage for the State Department that he was a complete Bushit artist. They are all going down…don’t know how, or when, exactly…but they are going down!!
Keep up the good fight!!
Styve – Portland, OR
April 21st, 2005 at 1:20 pmWould it kill you to increase the font size on your web so that normal people could read your commentary? ( and no, I don’t need glasses. My vision is a respectable 20/15 in both eyes )
April 21st, 2005 at 1:26 pmHey John B., time to get the old peepers checked, I can read it, and I cain’t see nothin’ with these 20/700-20/1400 things! Bi-focals are the greatest.
Too bad Condi and her minions wouldn’t know the truth if they fell into a whole vat of it. I had hope for her years ago…
April 21st, 2005 at 1:46 pmHow will this affect Condi’s coiffure?
April 21st, 2005 at 2:13 pmYea, I wear glasses for small print. I can read what I’m typing now fine w/o ‘em.
I was over at MSNBC and saw new (yesterday) allegations about Bolton from the prior ambasador to S. Korea. I guess Condi can’t dictate to ex-employees but we can all see it here .
This is becoming more fun than a barrel of bushmonkeys…
April 21st, 2005 at 2:13 pmCondigate
April 21st, 2005 at 2:21 pmAs a follow up to this post from yesterday, Think Progress turns our attention to a press conference with Adam Ereli, State Department Spokesman:
Condi supports anyone dumbya supports, because Condi doesn’t have a brain of her own. If she did, she would have listened to Richard Clark when he told her time and time again that we were going to be attacked by al Kaeda.
April 21st, 2005 at 2:25 pmthis just in…sen. norm coleman, R-Bizarroworld, in an interview on MSNBC, actually had the balls to state that “prez. bush is sending Bolton to REFORM the UN…” since when are we supposed to be “reforming” the UN?
wtf?? is there no limit to the arrogance from these porch monkees?
hmmm….Dean was unacceptrable because he screamed enthusiasm….Bolton is de riguer because he screams insults??
the mendacity is piling up folks. someone please hit the flush handle….
April 21st, 2005 at 2:41 pmyea the BS has been piling high since 2001.it stinks. who do these idiots think they are? what we need to reform the UN because they actually told the truth about Iraq in the beginning. how dare they? how dare anyone question the high almighty God on earth, the holiness, George Bush!
April 21st, 2005 at 3:13 pmBring Down The Government
They don’t speak for us.
April 21st, 2005 at 3:23 pmPerhaps the committee needs to bring Mrs.Bush….er Condi back to the table and ask her the questions that need to be asked live on C-SPAN. Oops,I forgot the last time Condi was on C-SPAN in the lights of a televised hearing in Washington,her now infamous testimony before the 9-11 Commission.
April 21st, 2005 at 4:31 pmCondi’s pissed that Ann Coulter made the cover of Time. Condi figures she could have done a better Basic Instinct impersination than Coulter.
April 21st, 2005 at 6:00 pmI’ve mentioned time and time again on my blog, The Rational Lantoon, that the media is scared, real scared, of asking hard questions and making them answer them. Look what happened to White House reporter Helen Thomas. They seated her at the back of the bus uhh press room.
April 21st, 2005 at 6:01 pmthe only thing that condie has going for her is that she would make a dandy sly fox news analysist. anybody connected to bush is a liar and a theif because they support the reasons to do so
April 21st, 2005 at 6:11 pmHow I long for the good ole days of “Tricky” Dick Nixon.
April 21st, 2005 at 6:15 pmWhen DeLay starts waving his arms and proclaiming
“I am not a crook”.
Timothy Leary where are you when we need you?
April 21st, 2005 at 6:38 pmIt seems like it just never ends.
April 21st, 2005 at 8:14 pmWe just can not sit idly by and allow this
to continue without speaking out against it.
AnaCondi snaps her fangs at her staff
April 21st, 2005 at 8:26 pmBoy are we in trouble! [still] How on earth are we going to get out of this one? 2008 can’t come quick enough for me. Thank God for term limits. Unless the republicans will try to change that too! HELP!!!
April 21st, 2005 at 8:28 pmLove your idea Michael but I fear we’re going to have to go 40 or 50 to get these …. ah….errrrrrrr……ummmmm… reporters (tee hee) to report anything except “acceptable” news. I swear I’m suffering from BAD….bush administration depression …….. who can I get to sponsor an amendment to the list of disabilities? Bet we’d have lots of signees!
April 21st, 2005 at 11:40 pmRight from the start my nickname for Rice has been Con me with Lies. It is still applicable today. Once America was known as the good guys. But under the Bushavicks the world has a much different view. But for too many Americans who cling to the past and drink the Kool Aid they just haven’t a clue. If only some Great American could arrive on the scene and make things right again. Put these people on public trial for crimes against the State, Humanity and Christianity. No country on Earth has done as much damage to this Country as these criminals. The lives of millions have been crushed, more people have slid into poverty and there are no safety nets anymore. No American Leader has commited as many crimes against Humanity. And the list grows daily. No one has damaged Christianity as these heretics have. I hope I live long enough for the darkness that these creatures have put us under be lifted. The truth and nothing but the truth…no more Con me with Lies.
April 22nd, 2005 at 12:47 amWhat the human stain and his pirates have done is to create a new form of government. It’s called thugocracy and bush boy’s dominatrix is simply cracking the whip over her legion of trolls to insure submission in protecting another of bush monkey’s thugs, bizarro Bolton
April 22nd, 2005 at 6:17 amI don’t know what the hold-up is, but it’s about time someone held these people criminally accountable for what’s been going on in that ridiculous administration. Condi Rice, along with Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, and finally George W. Bush should all be sitting in a jail cell for the crimes that they’ve ALL committed against our great nation, nevermind trying to get some jerk with an attitude adjustment problem nominated to the U.N. ambassador position, a position which hopefully be further and further away from reality from the creep. I’m right there with “Paper Ballots Hand Counted.”
April 23rd, 2005 at 7:37 pmwtmoore, I would appriciate it if you didn’t use the term “Porch monkeys” the last time I checked, this was extremely racist and derogotory, regardless of who you are attaching this label to, and I would like not to see its use revived.
On a side note, I fear that the Repugs will never realize that they can’t just do whatever they heck they feel like for all time. I actually work for the media, and am often disapointed by what kind of work I see put out, but am not in a depatment to really affect it. The “Liberal” media goes so easy on these guys so often that it makes me ill.
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