Making News At the White House

Perino, the White House deputy press secretary and a former Hill aide, has been thrust into the spotlight as a substitute for the ailing Tony Snow. (By Carol T. Powers -- Bloomberg News)

"I see your point, Jim," Perino said, laughing.

That -- conceding that transcripts could be useful in other contexts -- was no accident. "Instead of fighting it, I just said, 'You're right, you got me,' " Perino says. "You have to be willing to give an inch . . . and admit when you've been inconsistent with something."

But she can stick to the talking points when necessary, as when journalists asked her on Tuesday about the decision by Gonzales aide Monica Goodling to invoke the Fifth Amendment rather than testify before a Senate panel. Instead of acknowledging the obvious -- that it looks bad -- Perino, glancing down at her notes, smoothly defended the constitutional right against self-incrimination, and kept repeating that answer. And she is conversant with the art of tortured defense, as when she said of the prosecutor firings that Gonzales "doesn't recall having a recollection about having deliberative discussions about the ongoing process over that two-year period."

Perino, who is diminutive even in two-inch heels, affects none of the world-weary cynicism of many veteran spokesmen. When telling reporters Tuesday that everyone is rooting for Snow to return to work soon, she added with a nervous laugh, "I certainly hope so," adding that if she thought he were watching at the moment, she'd "start blushing." (Snow later told Perino that she had done quite well.)

"She's enormously disciplined," says Axelrod. "Her approach is not as glib or as engaging as Tony's, but that doesn't mean she gets knocked off her mark."

White House counselor Dan Bartlett says Perino has developed a strong relationship with the president while accompanying him on numerous trips.

"She really has become the glue of the press operation," Bartlett says. "Nobody here has even flinched at the prospect of her stepping into this role during this period. She may be petite, but she brings a lot of punch to the job."

One former boss, former congressman Scott McInnis (R-Colo.), recalls initially assigning Perino, then 23, to sit near his front door and deal with complaints by constituents. "Some of their temperatures were very high," he says. "She could calm them down."

McInnis says he quickly concluded that "the kid's a star. She's very talented in communications, and should circumstances continue to be unfortunate for Tony Snow, I think she could provide the president with a seamless transition." It is not clear how long Snow, who is deciding on a course of medical treatment, will remain on leave.

Perino hasn't gotten any in-person support from her husband, British businessman Peter McMahon, who frequently travels overseas for the medical marketing company he founded and is in South Africa this week. She has been comforted, however, by the other resident of their Capitol Hill home, a short-haired vizsla named Henry.

A Colorado native whose father had her read the Denver newspapers as a third-grader and pick out articles for dinnertime discussion, Perino was on the speech team in high school and at the University of Southern Colorado. She briefly worked as a reporter for the intriguingly named WCIA in Champaign, Ill., but says: "I sort of realized the world of daily television news just wasn't for me. I didn't think I was very good at it."

In 1997, while working as a congressional press secretary, Perino met McMahon on a plane. "I loved his accent," she says. Seven months after their first date, she moved to Britain, and they were married four months after that. The couple later landed in San Diego, where Perino handled publicity for technology companies.

In 2001, after asking a friend in the Bush administration whether there were any openings, Perino was hired as a Justice Department press aide and later moved to the White House's Council on Environmental Quality.

"What's great about Dana, besides how smart and quick and funny she is, is that she really does her homework," says Jim Connaughton, the council's chairman. "She doesn't let you out of a room until she can explain an issue in plain English."

As Snow's principal substitute on the podium, Perino has been thrown into the breach before. Earlier this month, she had to brief reporters 35 minutes after a jury convicted former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of perjury and obstruction of justice. But such occasional stints, she says, have not been of much help this week at the morning "gaggle" with reporters or the televised afternoon session.

"If you only gaggle or brief once every five months, it's like doing it for the first time every time," she says. "It's really hard."

As the first woman to semi-regularly brief White House reporters since Dee Dee Myers was Bill Clinton's press secretary, Perino had already been attracting attention. The satirical Web site Wonkette last year called her "exceedingly attractive" and said she resembled Heather Locklear, although that was a couple of hairstyles ago.

Despite the sudden attention, Perino takes pains to emphasize that she is merely a temporary replacement for Snow.

"Tony has really big shoes to fill," she says. "I'm a size 6."