GOP party hacks such as MNJohnnie are incapable of seeing the bigger picture. Although Bush is in the right on this, the way he and his flunkies on the WH press staff handles the MSM is beyond horrible.
Iam hoping that one of the changes that Josh Bolton makes is to find a good replacement for Scott McLellan. He has done an OK job, and I think the way he handled the latest "leak" story was OK. It is not a big deal, and Scott made the case for that. But he does stumble too much, he lets the press get away with too much, and President Bush needs someone in there that can laugh at the presstitutes and respond to the ridiculous questions in a fashion that puts them in their place. I think we will see a change in this post in the not too distant future.
"Bush needs to have a presser and get this information out IMMEDIATELY. Half the country thinks the guy is illegally leaking intel, and the liars in the MSM are willing to set this template and perpetuate it."
"GOP party hacks such as MNJohnnie are incapable of seeing the bigger picture. Although Bush is in the right on this, the way he and his flunkies on the WH press staff handles the MSM is beyond horrible."
It's hard to argue with you, given that the White House is getting beaten up - AGAIN - over something where they did NOTHING WRONG, and their poll #s are in the basement. The WH press office and PR has been spotty the whole second term, and in fact I would argue has been bad since mid-2003, when Bush lost Ari Fleischer. The very good 2004 campaign obscured the weak WH press office.
But aside from wishing we get a better press secretary in a WH shakeup, too much blaming White House could become a blame-the-victim behavior, when the real issue is a hostile media that is gettign away with smears and bias.
The drive-by biased media has put such biased headlines out there, and mixed-up the facts so clearly, I doubt this is mere negligence, but an orchestrated media attack by a liberal media that has decided they can go after Bush without recrimination. In the past, their targets were the underlings - Rove, DeLay, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, even Cheney. Now, they are going after the big game.
Unleashing Bush in more direct communications and press conferences may help. Letting the media itself be the filter is like asking the school bully to take care of your lunch money. Dont even ask.