Retorting From The White House

"She knows everyone in government, and she tells me nothing," Gregory grumbles.

As a test, Wilkinson says, "I pretended I was representing a certain person" in the investigation involving missing intern Chandra Levy, and Gregory immediately picked up the phone to call an NBC colleague. "I totally flunked," Gregory admits.

Despite his prominent role on "NBC Nightly News," Gregory says he gets far more attention for joking around in frequent calls to Don Imus's radio show.

"I'm not afraid to show my personality," he says. "It's who I am. I'm not a two-dimensional, totally serious guy. I think the public can handle it. I don't think it diminishes my credibility."

Gregory was widely mocked when he phoned Imus during the president's trip to India and had a giggling fit. Imus asked whether he was drunk, a comment that was trumpeted by the Drudge Report and caused considerable chatter in media precincts.

"This guy is trying to advance his career by being a clown," Fox News commentator Juan Williams said on the "O'Reilly Factor," adding: "He's laughing and pretending. We don't know if he was drunk, but it sure came across that way."

Gregory says he hadn't had a drop to drink but "cracked myself up" after Imus's disinterested reaction when he started speaking Hindu. "People will take their shots," he says of the critics.

His wife says he shrugs off the barbs. "He's sincere without taking himself too seriously," Wilkinson says. "I don't want to reinforce the notion that he's a ham and a comic and a mimic -- he's all of those things -- but he also brings intelligence and passion to his work."

Gregory, who last year signed a five-year contract, has occasionally filled in for Matt Lauer on "Today," Russert on "Meet the Press" and Chris Matthews on "Hardball" -- a far cry from when he was imitating such luminaries as an AU student.

Gregory demurs when asked whether he has ambitions beyond reporting. But Russert showed no such reticence on whether NBC views its White House correspondent as anchor material.

"Absolutely," Russert says.