Cat Fight
I heard reference to this, but I’m glad to find a report on the kerfuffle:
“A spirited affair” — that’s what the Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney is calling his Sunday talk-show smackdown with Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.
…
Long story short: Last week, during President Obama’s press conference, the president called on Pitney, asking him if he had a question. Milbank wrote a column in the Washington Post on the unusual exchange:
“Nico, I know that you and all across the Internet, we’ve been seeing a lot of reports coming directly out of Iran,” the president went on. “I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?”
It was Rush, I believe, who played this clip the other day. It sounded even worse than it reads—a complete set up.
Milbank slammed the exchange as “stagecraft,” calling Pitney a “planted questioner.” Pitney, who has been live blogging events in Iran, said he was contacted by the White House the night before the press conference.
From Politico:
“I received a call from White House staff saying they had seen what I’d written and thought the President might be interested in receiving a question directly from an Iranian. The White House didn’t guarantee that I would be able to ask a question. But I decided that if there was even a chance, I should try to reach out to as many Iranians as possible.”
Deputy press secretary Bill Burton told the Washington Post that Pitney’s wasn’t a “pre-planned” question:
“He wasn’t planted nor was the question pre-planned. He happened to ask the best question on the issue of Iran, and it isn’t one that we knew in advance nor that we asked him to pose.”…
(In a post today, Pitney claims that Milbank called him an un-nameable part of the male anatomy.)
A beer gut?
But you just have to love this. They’re all clamoring to love President Obama “long time, make him go boom-boom,” that they’re fighting over him.
I’m recalling Alexis and Crystal from the famous dust-up in Dynasty
Nico called Dana “pathetic,” Dana fired back that he’s never worked in “collusion” with a White House administration.
Oh, you’re the one.