Tony won't be missed

Tony Snow won't be missed at all. Dana Perino can obviously handle the job just fine. From today's White House press briefing (my italics):

Q: And you're saying that you will be taking care of all of the neediest children -- child health care?

MS. PERINO: We believe our funding proposal is sufficient to cover the kids we expect to be covered by S-CHIP in the next five years.

Beautiful, isn't it? Just beautiful. And then this exchange on Iran:

Q Dana, the administration has made a real point of saying a lot of weapons in Iraq, or a significant amount, have come from Iran. And critics have suggested that those weapons could have been stockpiled in Iraq earlier, could have been captured by Saddam -- they don't necessarily come from the Iranian government. How do you know that these are new weapons? I mean, this is an argument that the Pentagon has cited --

MS. PERINO: I would refer you to the Department -- yes, I would refer you to the Department of Defense, who has the information, and also our intelligence agencies that have information, and Department of Defense officials, including Secretary Gates and General Pace have made public comments as well as General Bergner and General Petraeus. They know that the weapons -- some of these weapons are coming from Iran, and I would just have to refer you to them.

Q Dana, can I follow on that?

MS. PERINO: Follow on that? Okay.

Q Yes, follow on that. This weekend the New Yorker magazine came out with an article claiming that this summer the President, or at least the White House in general, asked the Joint Chiefs to redraw plans to attack Iran. Is that true?

MS. PERINO: Look, you know, I'm glad you brought it up. Every two months or so, Sy Hersh writes an article in The New Yorker magazine, and CNN provides him a forum in which to talk about his article and all the anonymous sources that are quoted in it.

Q So the President --

MS. PERINO: The President has said that he believes that there is a diplomatic solution that we can use to solve the Iranian problem. And that's why we're working with our allies to get there.

Q That's what he said before we went to Iraq, too.

Q But what's the -- can you answer actually on the substance of whether or not the White House asked -- I mean, if it's not true, then you can say Sy Hersh is wrong and CNN was wrong to air it. You could say that, but --

MS. PERINO: We don't discuss such things, Ed.

Q -- what about the substance of whether we --

MS. PERINO: We don't discuss such things. What we have said and what we are working towards is a diplomatic solution in Iran. What the President has also said is that as a President, as a Commander-in-Chief -- and any Commander-in-Chief -- would not take any option off the table. But the option that we are pursuing right now is diplomacy.

Q But the article very specifically said that this summer in a video conference -- secure video conference with Ambassador Crocker, the President said that he was thinking about "hitting Iran" and also --

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to comment on -- one, I don't know. I wouldn't have been at any -- at that type of a meeting. I don't know. I'm not going to comment on any possible -- any possible scenario that an anonymous source, you know, continues to feed into Sy Hersh. I'm just not going the do it.

Q Why should anybody believe that the President wants diplomatic solutions? He said that before going into Iraq.

MS. PERINO: The President sought a diplomatic solution in Iraq and Saddam Hussein defied the U.N. Security Council 17 times.

Q Some of the history we've learned since suggests otherwise.

Some? Some? But I'm interrupting.

MS. PERINO: That the President didn't -- that Saddam Hussein defied 17 U.N. Security Council resolutions?

Q No, that the President was intent on going to war in Iraq in any case.

MS. PERINO: No, the President pursued a diplomatic option. He went to the U.N. Security Council, and then we proceeded.

Q Did he consult -- would he tell Congress before attacking Iran -- before he attacks Iran?

MS. PERINO: Helen, we are pursuing a diplomatic solution with Iran.

Q I'm asking you does he feel committed to ask Congress for permission?

MS. PERINO: We are pursuing a diplomatic solution in Iran.

Helen. Of course, Helen.

And there's more. Like this:

Q Okay. And another one is, at the APEC summit, the President invited all the ASEAN countries to Texas, including Burma. Has that been rescinded?

MS. PERINO: No, we did not -- we did not say who would all be invited.

Q You did.

Q Actually, you did. And I have it --

MS. PERINO: Did we say --

Q Oh, yes.

MS. PERINO: I thought that we said that we would be -- I thought we were non-committal.

Q No. Believe me, at the time, it was surprising enough that so much --

MS. PERINO: Now I'm remembering. You're refreshing my memory. I don't know. And that meeting is way in the future.