White House Gaggle

By Gregory Gorman
December 13, 2005

President’s Schedule

President Bush had his usual intelligence briefings and participated in a briefing on the War on Terror and Iraq with a few Senate Republicans. He will have additional meetings this week with Senate Democrats and Republicans on the War on Terror and Iraq. Senators got updates on the political progress in Iraq, how more and more Iraqis are participating in elections as candidates, how there are more than 300 political parties, over 7,000 candidates and more than 6,000 polling stations open for the upcoming elections. Senators also heard about some of the challenges that remain regarding the security situation in Iraq and how the training of Iraqi security forces is moving forward. In addition to the president, the briefing including Secretary Rumsfeld, Secretary Rice, General Pace and General Casey and Ambassador Khalilzad on video from Iraq. This morning the president will participate in a roundtable discussion on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit at the Greenspring Village Retirement Community in Springfield, Virginia. There will be some senior citizens participating in the roundtable with the president. This afternoon the president will host a lunch for Congressman Dingell (D-MI) in the White House Residence in honor of his 50 years of service to the U.S. House of Representatives followed by a meeting with Secretary of State Rice. This evening, President and Mrs. Bush will attend a holiday reception for White House staff.

Torture Amendment

In response to a question on whether the White House has come to any agreement regarding Senator McCain’s amendment banning cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said that torture discussions are ongoing.

Texas Redistricting Case in the Supreme Court

When asked if the Supreme Court’s decision to review the case of the Texas redistricting plan has made the White House more apprehensive that Democrats will be able take back the House of Representatives in the 2006 Mid-term elections, McClellan said that this is now a legal issue. He mentioned that the Department of Justice was now involved in the matter and recommended that questions on the issue be directed to the DOJ.

President’s Iraq Speech in Philadelphia

McClellan stated that the president’s response to a question on Monday about the number of Iraqi citizen casualties standing at 30,000 is a figure that he received from media reports. McClellan joked that now the press corps would have to report that the president does in fact read newspapers. He said that although the United States military does not monitor numbers of Iraqis killed in the war, the Iraqi government would be the best ones to keep track of the information. McClellan said, "Our military goes out of its way to make sure that civilians are not targeted and one of the things that the president has talked about in the past is that because of the advances in technology, we were able to go in and remove a regime with minimal casualties to civilians".

Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage Plan

McClellan responded to a question regarding the number of people who have been enrolled in the new Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage by saying that 28 to 30 million people are expected to sign up for the program but that enrollment does not end until May, 2006. At this time, McClellan said that approximately 17 million have already been automatically enrolled and that people eligible for the plan are continuing to learn about the new services that are available to them.