Bush White House Excuse #9,242

Earlier this week I wrote about Scooter Libby and his appeal dropping… well, it now seems that the White House and mouthpiece Dana Perino have a new excuse to not talk about it…

Some background; after Scooter Libby was convicted earlier this year, Dana Perino said that the White House wouldn’t and couldn’t comment on it because it was an ongoing criminal proceeding.

Flash-forward to a July 2007 press briefing with Tony Snow. Snow assured the White House press corps that “we’ll deal with it” after Libby’s appeals were exhausted.
This past Monday Libby dropped is appeal and, almost immediately, the White House avoided commenting on the case…

QUESTION: Okay. Well, now that the appeal — there is no longer any appeal, can you speak to what the President thinks about Scooter Libby disclosing the name of a CIA official?
PERINO: I did not have a chance to talk to — chance to speak to the President after this announcement was made this morning, and so I don’t have his immediate reaction. He gave a lengthy statement in July in regards to the commutation and so I’ll have to refer you to that for now.

Reporters asked again yesterday if Perino could comment… I’m sure you can guess the response;

QUESTION: Have you had a chance yet to speak with the President about Scooter Libby since he dropped his appeal?
PERINO: Well, you might have missed the gaggle, but I’ll refer you to those comments I made in the gaggle.

Which obviously leads to the question of what exactly Dana said in the gaggle, right? Well, knowing this administration, what she says would obviously lead to yet another convenient excuse to NOT answer the question about the White House’s involvement in the Plame leak.

What do you know, I was right…

Perino said that she hadn’t spoken to Bush yet, but she cited the Wilson’s ongoing civil case as a reason not to comment, saying;

“I did talk to our counsel’s office because I forgot that there is a civil case that is pending on this issue. I did forget. The Wilsons have filed a case in civil court, it was dismissed, and they are on appeal.”

Wow… how convenient…