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When the Inner Circle Cracks
April 02, 2007 4:14 PM
White House correspondent Ann Compton blogs:
When former Bush campaign strategist Matthew Dowd dished his criticism of the war, and the president, to a New York Times reporter, the White House turned the other cheek. Dana Perino, standing in for press secretary Tony Snow, lavished praise on Dowd, calling him a "really wonderful person" even though she didn’t know the guy.
And subtly, Perino undercut Dowd's criticism.
"Obviously," Perino told her daily briefing, "not being a close friend of his, I don't know as well as others might about the personal journey he's been on over the past couple of years. But we certainly can respect his views, but respectfully disagree with some of the assertions that he made in the article. But we certainly wish him the very best. He's a really good guy."
Reporters asked, what personal journey?
"Well, I think that he's had some personal hardship," Perino replied, not mentioning the Times information that he had lost an infant daughter and gone through a divorce. "And also he has a son who's volunteered to serve in our Armed Forces and he's going to be deploying to Iraq. And I can only imagine that that affects a parent's thinking."
So the White House line is this is Matt Dowd's problem, not the President's.
April 2, 2007 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (1)
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The relationship between a President and his adviser can be prickly. Colonel House was a trusted friend and adviser of Woodrow Wilson for years but after the President married for the second time his wife seems to have taken that place and the Colonel was frozen out. More recently, President Reagan's Chief of Staff, Donald Regan, was dismissed, reportedly at the insistence of Nancy Reagan; he later wrote a book complaining that the First Lady's astrologer influenced the President's engagements. Two individuals who were once very close falling out is a part of both political and non-political life.
Posted by: Candadai Tirumalai | Apr 3, 2007 11:55:59 AM
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