JULY 29, 2005

The 29th was the feistiest day of hot and cold-running hostilities I'd seen since I got in there.

David Gregory dug into McClellan over Sen. Bill Frist's departure from the president's position on stem cells, and the number of federally funded stem cell lines the president would make available for research.

The party line, delivered by McClellan, was that while the president was "strongly committed to advancing medical research," "taxpayer money should not be used to create life for the sole purpose of destroying life."

Gregory dived into the deep with a knife in his teeth:

GREGORY: The Republican Party appears to be moving away from this president on this issue. How does he react to that?

McCLELLAN: I think that there are many Americans that share the president's view that we need to continue to explore and advance science, but we need to make sure that we maintain ethical standards. As I said, these are decisions that have far-reaching consequences. And that's why the president worked to find common ground on this difficult issue.

GREGORY: OK, let me just interrupt. Most Americans --

McCLELLAN: Hang on, hang on.

GREGORY: Most Americans don't support the president's decision, according to polls.

McCLELLAN: Hang on. This is a difficult issue ... The president has always worked to try to find common ground on difficult issues...

[Mud began slinging.]

GREGORY: ...The fact is that the Republican Party is moving away from this president, and there is a feeling that Senator Frist articulated today that, in effect, the president is stuck in a 2001 decision when the science is passing him by.

[McClellan became visibly upset and defensive.]

McCLELLAN: OK, I'm going to disagree with you right now on saying the Republican Party is moving away. The Republican Party is united and moving forward to implement important priorities for the American people. This week has been one of the most successful weeks --

GREGORY: On stem cell -- I'm talking about this issue.

McCLELLAN: No, no, you made a general statement that they're moving away.

GREGORY: No, no, I meant on this issue. I meant on this issue.

McCLELLAN: Well, but let me talk about this issue, because some of you in this room, and some of your colleagues, two months ago, were saying that this president is facing lame-duck status, that we can't get things done that --

GREGORY: Let's not divert off of that, Scott. I was specific to this issue. Let's not get off on that.

McCLELLAN: Of course, you don't want to talk about it.

GREGORY: That was your opening statement, you had time about that. No, the Republicans support you on any number of things, I can list them --

McCLELLAN: You don't want to talk about it.

GREGORY: I'd love to talk about it, let's lengthen the briefing, but one question about --

McCLELLAN: I'm not going anywhere.

Gregory managed to momentarily swing the conversation back around to the amount of available stem cell lines, but Scott wasn't having it. His dander was up, and the briefing escalated into what, in any other room, in any other century, with the addition of even the smallest amount of ale, would have resulted in cheeks slapped with gloves, fisticuffs and armed Satisfaction at dawn.

McCLELLAN: Now I want to back up, because I do think it's important to talk about the accomplishments. Maybe you don't want to talk about it, because a number of people in the media were saying just two months ago --

GREGORY: Don't start with that.

McCLELLAN: No, let's start with that.

GREGORY: Don't take me on like I don't want to talk about it. That's ridiculous. You want to make your statement, make your statement. I was asking you a specific question on a specific issue, and don't try to turn this into a screed about the media.

McCLELLAN: Then don't make a broad statement, like you did.

GREGORY: I corrected myself. I meant on this issue.

McCLELLAN: Of course you don't want to talk about it, because you don't want the American people to hear about the great progress that we're making on the legislative front.

GREGORY: I thought I heard your opening statement pretty clearly.

McCLELLAN: I'm sure you'll be reporting on it later tonight.

GREGORY: Watch the broadcast tomorrow.

Booyah! This was fucked-up ... this was adrenal. It was the best pit fight yet, and it was absolutely necessary, because it showed, after a week of dribbling the ball, that there was muscle in the corps that was still livid and ready to rumble.

Jessica Yellin fearlessly strode into the fray, needling McClellan about the 400,000-plus frozen embryos sitting in fertility banks, which will be discarded if they are not used:

McCLELLAN: Well, in fact, [Bush] just had an event a short time ago, talking about how there are embryo adoption families, people that can adopt these embryos and --

YELLIN: But that's a nominal -- nominal -- number compared to the hundreds of thousands of embryos --

McCLELLAN: Well, no, no, go back and look at what I said at the time, because I gave out some statistics. I think that you need to look at the statistics I gave out at the time. But this --

YELLIN: But you never came up with a policy on what should be done. Do they all have to be given up for adoption?

McCLELLAN: Are you going to let me respond?

YELLIN: Sure.

McCLELLAN: OK, thank you. No one seems to want to talk about the great progress this week in Congress, but -- (laughter).

This was a man in retreat.

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