Special to BRAD BLOG by BTC News White House Correspondent Eric Brewer

Today at the White House I asked Scott McClellan about this bombshell buried near the end of R. Jeffrey Smith and Dafna Linzer's article on the firing of Mary McCarthy from the CIA in last Sunday's Washington Post:

Now why would the White House care about whether a CIA intelligence officer was a Democrat or a Republican? Has Dick Cheney decided that the only way to avoid future embarrassments like Plame and Pillar and Drumheller is to make sure all employees at U.S. intelligence agencies are plugged into the Borg mind? I asked Scott:

Naturally, Scott knew nothing:

As David Corn and Dan Froomkin have noted, we need to get some better answers.

Special to BRAD BLOG by BTC News White House Correspondent Eric Brewer

Today I finally got another chance to get Scott McClellan riled up. Ever since the last time I did it, back in January, he's been lucky enough or tricky enough to avoid having to call on me, but today, the briefing room wasn't quite as crowded as it has been, and I got my chance to ask a question that has been puzzling me ever since the Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte, testified to the Senate on http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1195\" target="_blank">February 2 that:

Among the many reasons (detailed by BTC News chief Weldon Berger in his article that I linked to above) that Negroponte's statement was odd are the following: 1) Iran-connected Shiites now dominate the U.S.-backed government in Iraq, 2) IED attacks have been coming primarily from the Sunni insurgency, and 3) Iran would have nothing to gain from helping its U.S.-supported allies in Iraq attack coalition forces with IEDs.

Then last Monday, President Bush repeated Negroponte's claim in a speech that appeared to be the opening round in a new "drumbeat to war" against Iran. But the administration is perhaps getting sloppier, for the next day it appeared that not everyone was on the same page. When Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace was asked about the claim with these words, "Do you have proof that they are, indeed, behind this, the government of Iran?", Gen. Pace replied, "I do not, sir." Immediately afterward, Secretary Rumsfeld also failed to endorse the accusation, saying:

So today I asked Scott if he could clear up this slight inconsistency. Our exchange follows...

Special to BRAD BLOG by BTC News White House Correspondent Eric Brewer

Hundreds of people who came out on a cold January evening to hear Congressman and Marine Corps veteran Jack Murtha speak on the war in Iraq were turned away last night from an overflowing town hall meeting in Arlington, Virginia, that was organized by my congressman, Jim Moran, who supports Murtha's position that it's time to pull the plug on Bush's excellent adventure. But among the 600 or so who did get in were several Iraq War veterans, all of whom criticized the war. One young man, who had served a year in Iraq as a sniper, finished up his statement with the following question:

That got applause from the crowd, although little in the way of an answer from the two congressmen. C-SPAN has video of all two-and-a-half hours of it here.

Special to BRAD BLOG by BTC News White House Correspondent Eric Brewer

There have been some interesting recent developments in the CIA's Italian kidnapping caper...