Talk about complainers......
Early-morning pool play
• Read Rachel Graves' pool report: The information other journalists in Crawford will work from to write today's stories. George W. Bush today referred to his presidency as the "early-morning administration," and it was an accurate characterization.
I left my hotel at 5 a.m., and hundreds of others had to get up similarly early to make it possible for one man to play a round of golf. The press pool - 3 wire service reporters, me, a TV crew, a magazine reporter and several photographers - piled into two vans and went to the entrance to Bush's ranch for a Secret Service security sweep.
A White House stenographer also follows the president everywhere he goes, transcribing his every comment. The transcripts are distributed to the press, so reporters technically do not even need to take notes.
With it still dark out, we were checked with a hand-held metal detector while agents and then a German shepherd went through our belongings. The dog stuck his entire head into my bag and sniffed around, turning on my tape recorder with his snout.
We crammed back into the vans to join the motorcade. As the sun slowly rose, about fifteen cars, including the president's, snaked down desolate prairie roads for the half-hour trip to the golf course. In addition to everyone in the motorcade, scores of police were mobilized to stop traffic, and Secret Service agents swarmed over the golf course at Ridgewood Country Club, near Waco, to secure it. At least one helicopter circled overhead.
When we arrived at the course, the media jumped out of the vans and scrambled after the president to record his every action. Bush, seeming like a remarkably normal guy after all the fuss, yelled inquiries across the grass about one reporter's dog that was hit by a car this week.
We watched Bush tee off, and then he came over to answer questions. The press, still half-asleep at 7 a.m., was slow to come up with any, then asked several about Iraq. Bush made tough statements about the horrors of Saddam Hussein but said little new. In between two bleak statements on Iraq, he paused to compliment his own drive and express eagerness to "chip and putt for a birdie."
I've met Bush before, in South Carolina when he was running for president. Surely he doesn't remember, and yet he exuded a familiarity that made it easy to question him about Iraq, as though I had known him for a long time.
Bush hit the links while we waited in the club house, chatting and writing up the dregs of news from the brief exchange. When he was done, the entire production happened in reverse until Bush was back at the ranch.