Bartlett: WH reporters are too tough on Bush.
Bartlett: WH reporters are too tough on Bush.
In an interview with the Texas Monthly, former Bush counselor Dan Bartlett said the White House press corps is too “critical” of Bush:
I think White House correspondents have been tagged, unfairly, with not being tough enough on the administration and President Bush in the run-up to the war. If you go back and look, they asked all the right questions. The problem is, they’re acting now like they have to be five times more critical, and I think they’ve gone overboard.
Like Karl Rove, Bartlett also claimed that “Iraq is not going to be the front-burner issue in the way that everybody initially predicted.”
UPDATE: TPM and Kevin Drum note that Bartlett also said the White House enjoyed communicating with right-wing bloggers because “they regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them.”
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typical righty crybabyism
it’s SO pathetic to see the overdog in the fight cry foul.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:37 pmBartlett will never stop lying, now that he’s gotten used to it.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:37 pmWith advisors like Rove and Bartlett, no wonder Bush’s approval ratings hover around the 30% mark. Maybe reporters should be asking if Bush feels Republicans are the right people to fix the Republican mess he made.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:38 pmF’in crybabies.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:39 pmBWAAHAHAHAHAH!!!~~!
December 5th, 2007 at 6:39 pmBush counselor must have crying towels to hand out, or in severe cases, put on his shoulder for the poor press secs to moisten with their weeping.
I think White House correspondents have been tagged, unfairly, with not being tough enough on the administration and President Bush in the run-up to the war. If you go back and look, they asked all the right questions.
Hey jerkoff Bartlett
You mean they asked all the “right questions” as far as the Chimpy administration is concerned ; not the American public.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:40 pmI love it when Tighty-righties play the Victim card.
Makes them seem so manly, doesn’t it?
December 5th, 2007 at 6:48 pmBush is a weak-sister; a child in a man’s cloths – at age 60. If they wish to say that Bush is not intelligent enough to withstand press questioning, then this is what they should say. Bush is the president and should be able to carry himself well regardless of the attitude of the press. The fact of the matter is that Bush has caused his own problems and he alone should stand for them and not have his minnions cry “ooh, the press is soooooooo though on me.”
Bush, the GOP and the neocons suck the big one.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:49 pmOh boo-frickety-hoo.
What a load of bull.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:51 pmActually the NIE makes the issue about Iran even though they say it isn’t.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:52 pmThis tells you how much the idiot President is missing his brain, Tubby McTreason Rove. It’s becoming Ringling Bros. and Bush & Cheney circus. We had nothing for clowns this week spining the crapola on Iran and NIE and defending the out to lunch President: Hadley/Badly, crocodile teary eyed Boner Boy, Fox News nimrods, Tony Fratto, and so on. Now we have Bartlett. Barney the dog will be next to bat to fill in the pot holes to defend Bush.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:54 pmDan’s crying, and I’m laughing.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:56 pmDan can cry me a damn river.
December 5th, 2007 at 6:57 pmAh, your all so right. Send him to the HAGUE. And Peace!
December 5th, 2007 at 7:01 pmHeck, I think Nixon actually said he liked tough questioning because he thought it made him look good.
Comment by Progresso — December 5, 2007 @ 6:55 pm
Funny, Chimpy prefers softballs from Faux News for the same reason.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:02 pm“they regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them.â€
“regurgitate” is a polite way of saying puke. based on the comments of the trolls that frequent this site i’d say dano is correct… right cold_hard_left?
December 5th, 2007 at 7:04 pmBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…
Oh man… oh man… that’s a hoot!
December 5th, 2007 at 7:05 pmI am not going to comment on that comment [by Amenjihad] except to say that what the National Intelligence Estimate shows, and the transparency with which the administration released it, is what it means to live in a democracy and I hope one day that the people of Iran will live in a democracy too,” she [Rice] said.
Huh. So they released the NIE [1 year late] to show transparency yet Bush doesnt believe it…even though he overhauled the intelligence community, created the national counter-terrorism center [NCTC] and the DHS to create better intelligence.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:06 pmBartlett also said the White House enjoyed communicating with right-wing bloggers because “they regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them.â€
Yeah, it’s called PROPAGANDA. I’m sure they just love it.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:06 pmExcerpt from the “Texas Monthly” interview:
“What do you think we in the media haven’t understood about this president?
(Bartlett) “I can’t tell you how many times reporters who didn’t really know the president came in and had a personal session with him and said, “Wow, he’s smarter than I thought.â€
He can’t tell us how many times, because this scenario never happened….
December 5th, 2007 at 7:09 pmReporters can legitimately be called tough on Bush when one of them kicks him in the balls and throws him into the street. That would be tough, but not too tough.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:12 pmMORE GANNON
December 5th, 2007 at 7:22 pmMORE GANNON
MORE GANNON
MORE GANNON
MORE GANNON
MORE GANNON
MORE GANNON
I dont think the media has been critical take Judy Miller for example.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:26 pmComment by rastaman — December 5, 2007 @ 7:22 pm
I was just going to bring up Gannon/Guckert. An actual whore as compared to the other “whores’ in the press room.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:27 pmOK Dan, your right. Here’s a question for bush. ‘If you were a tree,who would you be?’. ….no…to tough?…ok here: “Mr President,do you prefer salt or pepper?”. there….
December 5th, 2007 at 7:29 pmYeah, why is the press so critical? You would think we had an unnecessary war based on a pack of lies, killing four thousand of our troops and 1.1 million Iraqi civilians, costing us $2 Trillion, and boosting our enemies—or something.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:31 pmIf you ask me, which no one ever did, the White House has gotten pretty much a free pass with his beneficial low expectations. The MSM has NEVER questioned this president in the manner ANY other President would have been questioned. Not after 9/11, not in the run up to the Iraq war, and certainly not about the whole Valerie Plame affair. IMHO, it is justifiably time that this President finally have to answer some hard questions. If they have to be about the NIE, then so be it. Truth is , we cannot afford another war.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:32 pmHere’s a tough question: “Mr. Preznit, can you pronounce nuclear?”
December 5th, 2007 at 7:32 pmThere’s just no pleasing some people.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:34 pm/sarcasm
It’s finals week at our community college. If a student stated Bartlett’s argument — you can’t ask hard questions — they would fail the course anyway. Nice try kid, but you get an F.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:34 pmComment by LibertyLover — December 5, 2007 @ 7:32 pm
Well said. But I would add that we cannot afford our current war.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:36 pm“they regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them.â€
should go down in the book of Bartlett’s Quotations.
December 5th, 2007 at 7:41 pmKeith re: ““they regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them.â€
The day after the NIE was released, three different conservatives around here started their Bush defense with the words, “You’re missing the point…”
By sheer coincidence, Clifford May, who runs a Neocon propaganda mill was on MSNBC the night before starting his argument with, “You’re missing the point…”
December 5th, 2007 at 7:50 pmI regurgitate on a picture of Bush everyday, but he still won’t tell the truth about anything.
Bush/Cheney
Hague Trials ‘09
Buck Fush
December 5th, 2007 at 7:51 pmComment by Ret. Col. Jack Ripper — December 5, 2007 @ 7:50 pm
and trolls here are constantly saying liberals can’t think for themselves and just spout talking points!
December 5th, 2007 at 8:00 pmDoes anyone here think it is a shame that guy went to the mall when he could have gone to the Bush fundraiser in Omaha today instead?
December 5th, 2007 at 8:03 pmThat is just too funny. Where are all the trolls? I guess they’re waiting to be told what to regurgitate!
December 5th, 2007 at 8:29 pmwell if bush didn’t f**k so many things up and did his job competently then maybe he wouldn’t need to answer (or in his case,skip around by way of mangling the english language) these so called tough questions
December 5th, 2007 at 9:25 pmI can’t believe I never read Georgie’s Wiki Quote entry before:
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_W._Bush
Pay especial attention to “grammatical errors”, but, make sure you aren’t drinking. Enjoy!
December 5th, 2007 at 9:41 pmIn an interview with the Texas Monthly, former Bush counselor Dan Bartlett said the White House press corps is too “critical†of Bush…
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Talk about your Bushbots! What planet has this man been living on?!? It sure as all hell hasn’t been this one. The only way that some of the White House press corps could soften their treatment of GWB would be to stop asking him questions altogether and instead simply nod like bobble-head dolls whenever he says anything, just like Stephen Colbert suggested in that infamous speech of his. It’s supposed to be part of the White House press corps’s job to ask tough questions because that’s the whole point and the whole purpose of a free press — to serve as a check to the powers of the government and to call attention to problems to which the government would rather have people not pay attention. Anything less, and the White House press corps becomes little better than a governmental propaganda office. The truth is that many if not most journalists in the mainstream media have been derelict in their duty to the American people over the past few years by neglecting to investigate and follow up on stories which have hinted at unethical if not outright criminal conduct by members of the Bush administration. They didn’t give Clinton even close to this much leeway.
December 5th, 2007 at 9:41 pmOh, for the love of God.
Tell Bush to shake the sand out of his panties and man up, Bartlett.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:30 pmbut….Bartlett gets to play with chimpys chain saw when he retires! So there.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:50 pmWhat? The slow-pitch softball the press is playing with the President is too rough? Did little Georgie get a boo boo?
December 6th, 2007 at 8:49 am