Today we discover that Pony Blow doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “benchmarks”.
First, the House is going to be taking up a war supplemental spending bill — a couple of notes on that. It is a withdraw-the-troops bill, not a fund-the-troops bill. It requires the Iraqi government to meet certain conditions or benchmarks;but even if the benchmarks are met, it would require the withdrawal of U.S. troops and forces without regard to whether we’re making progress against the enemy. It would also force failure of the mission in Iraq and forfeit the sacrifices made by our troops.
Um, Pony? If the benchmarks are met that will mean we are “making progress”. Let’s have a gaggler try to explain.
Q Tony, can I ask about the string that’s in the House bill? September 2008, is their deadline. The President said today, don’t judge my plan in days, don’t judge it in weeks — but months we should know whether it’s working. Eighteen months in the future seemed a pretty far period of time.
MR. SNOW: Well, again, the concept of trying to create withdrawal without reference to the conditions on the ground, the President considers that irresponsible.
Q Does that mean that the — and I know we’ve gone over this before, but it seems like the message today is the same. Is this not an open-ended commitment?
MR. SNOW: No, it’s a commitment to win, that’s what it is. It’s a commitment to succeed.
[snip]
Q But isn’t the message, at the same time, don’t worry if you don’t meet the benchmarks, because we’re going to be there as long as it takes?
MR. SNOW: No, the President has made it very clear to Prime Minister Maliki he understands the political atmosphere. But, frankly, that’s not been the situation.
Next Topic: Alberto Be-Out-Of-Your-Office-By-Five
Q You said this morning that you hope that — the White House hopes that Alberto Gonzales stays as Attorney General. Your comment has been seen as a rather tepid endorsement. Has he —
MR. SNOW: No, I didn’t —
Q Has he offered his resignation?
MR. SNOW: No, he hasn’t. Let me — a couple of things. And the President has not spoken to him since he spoke to him in Mexico. What I was trying to do is, you ask a hypothetical question about things that are going to happen over the next two years. None of us knows what’s going to happen to us over the next 21 months, and that’s why it’s an impossible question to answer: Will somebody stay throughout? However, the reason I said, we hope so, is we hope so. He has the confidence of the President. But I do not — as a pure and simple matter, nobody is prophetic enough to know what the next 21 months hold.
Q And there’s backing away from him?
MR. SNOW: No.
Q There’s full confidence?
MR. SNOW: Yes.
Continue reading “Today On Holden’s Obsession With The Gaggle”
