Following up on a couple of diaries (
here and
here) on the press corps' pathetic fawning over President Bush during an off-the-record poolside meal at the Crawford Ranch.
WaPo's Dan Froomkin wrote that about 50 reporters overcame their "squeamishness" about passing Camp Casey on the way to attend the invitation-only [free] catfish dinner. The [free] meal, Froomkin writes, was Bush's way "of saying thank you to journalists for whom an extended stay in the Crawford area is anything but a vacation."
Reporters can blame Cindy Sheehan if they've actually had to work during their stay in the Texas hellhole, `cause sure ain't the White House's fault. In fact, the White House Press Office has held exactly nine press briefings and gaggles since setting up shop in Crawford.
The average time for each press event: less than 12 minutes. Toss out a 25-minute briefing by economic advisors on Aug 9 and a 27-minute national security briefing on Aug. 11 (Tough week), and the average time per session drops to less than eight minutes.
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Press Secretary Scott McClellan has been notably absent from Crawford. (He's probably off recharging himself at a cyborg regenerating facility, downloading fresh versions of such key phrases like "We must fight them over there so we won't have to fight them here" and "Resistance is Futile!") That has left the strenuous work of "briefing" the press to deputy flaks Trent Duffy and Dana Perino.
Perino presided over my personal favorite Crawford press gaggle on Aug. 16. Here's a few representatives answers from the clueless Perino's eight-minute performance:
I'll see if I can get some more on that. I don't know.
[...]
I'll see what I can find for you. I don't have it right now.
[...]
I'll need to get back to you in terms of the press component, if there is any.
[...]
...I will have to see if there's any more I can get. I have a request in.
[...]
I don't know. ...
[...]
This is all the information I have right now, and I can see if I can get you some more.
[...]
I'll see if I can give you an update on that.
[...]
As you know, I've been sitting here. That breaking news just happened, so I'll have to get back to you.
[...]
I have nothing to add on what Trent Duffy provided you yesterday. Is that it?
You get the idea. BushCo retreats to Crawford to escape the nasty questions and the glare of DC, to let Rovegate fade from the public consciousness, and to allow Bush to bicycle blithely while Iraq burns. It would have worked, too, if not for Cindy Sheehan. Thank you once again, Cindy.
PS: Froomkin notes that the press crops flocked to the off-the-record affair at the Bush ranch, "in spite of all the recent press demands for senior administration officials to stay on the record more often." And he adds this:
Meanwhile, Ken Herman of Cox News Service writes in a story not available online: "The White House News Photographers' Association, in a letter to top Bush aides, said the administration increasingly is refusing to allow news photographers into some events. Instead, the White House has been releasing photos shot by its staffers, a process deemed unsatisfactory by the photographers association.
The lesson here, boys and girls, is that all it takes to get the press to put aside the serious, vital concerns about access to public information is a [free] McFish platter, a [free] beer, and a chance to kiss the president's ass beside the pool.
I wonder what Jeff Gannon would look like poolside?