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Press Briefing 12/13/05
Scott McClellan:
...and even though it's getting a lot of praise from the critics - most of
whom, I hasten to point out, are quite liberal - the president thinks that
there is something inherently icky about the whole topic of gay cowboys. And
I hasten to agree. So no, Karen, I don't think the president will be
watching 'Brokeback Mountain' any time soon.
Reporter:
Follow up, Scott. How about 'King Kong'?
SM: Oh, yes. The
president is very anxious to see that. All he's wanted to talk about this
week is that 'big gorilla'. The studio is sending a print over later today,
and he's as excited as a kid at Christmas. As you know,
Prime Minister Berlusconi
is scheduled to meet with him later today for talks, and the president hopes
to make short shrift of it, then head straight to the screening room. Mr.
Lanihan?
Q: Speaking of Italy, The Pope
has...
SM: Good transition there,
Philip.
Q: Thanks. Pope Benedict, as
well as a host of other foreign leaders, have issued statements highly
critical of the execution of Tookie Williams which took place last night,
some going as far as to call it barbaric. I wonder if you know whether the
president was at any time tempted to intervene.
SM: You're kidding, right?
Q: No.
SM: Well, I don't think the
Pope, or any of these other self-styled experts, have ever overseen the
execution of anyone, so they're really speaking from a void. Let me just
remind you that President Bush oversaw 150 executions while he was governor.
That's fifteen percent of all the executions in the past thirty years by
one man in only a six years span. A remarkable feat. So I guess we know
who the real expert is. Stretch?
Q: Yes, Scott. In his speech
yesterday, the president compared the war in Iraq to the American
Revolutionary War. Can you explain in what way that makes any sense at all?
SM: I think that what the
president was getting at was, uh, that both events are wars, and a lot of
people die in wars, and America was and is involved in both of them, so yes,
in many ways they are quite similar. Ms. Thomas?
Q: Scott, a lot of the experts
believe that after we begin removing our troops from Iraq, the country will
quickly descend into an all out civil war.
SM: And that's why we are going
to keep our troops right in there. Helen, you're just reinforcing what I
said a minute ago to Stretch about the similarity between the war in Iraq
and the Revolutionary War. If you remember your history, after this country
achieved it's independence, it ended up fighting the Civil War. And perhaps
if we had had somebody occupying us at the time, that never would have
happened. Mr. Carlyle?
Q: Scott, the president told NBC
yesterday that, quote, 'I don't feel in a bubble'. Isn't that a rather
disingenuous statement? As well as being grammatically incorrect?
SM: Ed, I think you're trying to
second guess the president about the bubble that he may or may not be in. He
also said the everyday he looked at a newspaper. And it's not just the
comics, either. He doesn't even look at those until he's finished with the
sports section. Ms. Everett?
Q: Scott, getting back to the
holiday movies for a second...
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