At today’s press briefing, White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked about the letter Rep. John Conyers sent to the President asking questions about the Downing Street Memo. The letter has been signed by 112 members of Congress and 550,000 concerned citizens.

QUESTION: On another topic, has the president or anyone else from the administration responded to the letter sent last month by Congressman John Conyers and signed by dozens of members of the House of Representatives regarding the Downing Street memo? Has the president or anyone else responded?

MCCLELLAN: Not that I’m aware of.

QUESTION: Why not?

MCCLELLAN: Why not? Because I think that this is an individual who voted against the war in the first place and is simply trying to rehash old debates that have already been addressed.

So remember, if you opposed the war in Iraq don’t bother asking questions. You don’t count anymore.

Poor word choice and evasive talk was on full display at yesterday’s Gitmo hearings. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) issued gems like: “Guantanamo Bay would make a magnificent resort.” (Perhaps if he plans to take a trip to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he can remember to bring Tom DeLay back some cigars.)

Later, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) found herself frustrated as she tried to question Gen. Thomas Huntington, one of the panelists, and gets mired in a game of semantics.

FEINSTEIN: Seven months in solitary confinement [as reported by Lt. Commander James Smith] doesn’t violate the Geneva Convention?”
HUNTINGTON: I wouldn’t call his condition solitary
FEINSTEIN: Would you call it isolation?
HUNTINGTON: I would call it segregation.

Is he using Plessy v. Ferguson to justify violating the Geneva Conventions? Now there’s one I hadn’t heard.

The room was aghast when this little rhetorical struggle ensued between General Huntington and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT):

LEAHY: How many detainees are there at Guantanamo Bay?
HUNTINGTON: That’s outside the scope of my responsibility I would suggest you ask the Secretary of Defense.

Ah, yes, our open-book source, Secretary Rumsfeld.

LEAHY: Are there any detainees from countries other than Afghanistan?
HUNTINGTON: That’s outside the scope of my responsibility said the General.

Yet, a mere two minutes later, when defending the decision not to return detainees to Afghanistan for trial, Huntington responded, “But we have 47 different countries represented at Guantanamo Bay.”

Hearings where the only folks heard from have a stake in defending behavior at Gitmo isn’t going to provide results. The only account of abuse yesterday was from Inspector General Glenn Fine reporting on, well, the Brooklyn Detention Center. Close, but definitely no Cuban cigar.

Read the rest on CampusProgress.

– Amy Schiller

Majority Leader Bill Frist this morning on the Today Show:

LAUER: But when you stood on the floor and you said, She does respond, are you at all worried that you led some senators…

FRIST: I never said, She responded. I said I reviewed the court videotapes — the same ones the other doctors reviewed — and I questioned, Is her diagnosis correct?

Frist on Senate Floor, 3/17/05:

I have looked at the video footage. Based on the footage provided to me, which was part of the facts of the case, she does respond.

More from Frist, 3/17/05:

She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli…

If you happen to have a hard copy of today’s Washington Post, please open it up to page A8 and A9. The headlines tell the story of an administration that has misplaced priorities.

The headline of the story on the left side of the page reads: “Bush Is Expected to Address Specifics on Iraq”

The headline of the story on the right side of the page reads: “Exit Strategy on Social Security Is Sought”

The White House appears to have it backwards. What it really needs is an exit strategy for Iraq and more specifics on its Social Security proposal.