Don't Get Around Much Anymore

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Washington Sketch: Lame-Duck Bush

The Washington Post's Dana Milbank and the washingtonpost.com's Akira Hakuta sketch President Bush's press conference on Wednesday.

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But is the country listening? The White House had limited attendance at the news conference to one reporter per news outlet, but this proved unnecessary; there were two rows of empty seats in the back, and even after foreign journalists filled in the empty seats, there were a few vacant when Bush entered.

Just before he arrived, the network correspondents doing their stand-ups sounded skeptical about the potential for big news. "The president is using a press conference to once again lean on Congress to get legislation he wants passed," announced CBS's Bill Plante. "Is this possible for a lame-duck president with low numbers?"

The duck in question got quickly to his familiar lines about the Democrats' weaknesses on terrorism: "We cannot protect our country from terrorist attack." But when Fox News's Mike Emanuel tried to provoke Bush by asking if Democrats "are playing a high-stakes game" with the nation's security, Bush pulled back. "No, I don't think so," he said. "I don't think they're that cynical or devious."

Likewise, he delivered a not-quite-ultimatum to Turkey about its incursions into northern Iraq. "The Turks need to move quickly, achieve their objective and get out," Bush said.

"How quickly, sir, do they need to move out?" asked Matt Spetalnick of Reuters.

"You know, as quickly as possible" was Bush's line in the sand.

"Days or weeks?"

"Well, as possible."

But then, why should Bush worry whether the Turks spend days or weeks in Iraq when he himself has only months left in Washington? Neither did he seem concerned by Gregory's accusation that he "badly misjudged" Russia's Vladimir Putin ("We've had some head butts, diplomatic head butts") or the suggestion by Cox News's Ken Herman that he would take foreign money for his presidential library ("Yes, probably take some foreign money"). Even the lack of a replacement for his top homeland security adviser, who resigned more than three months ago, caused him no worry.

"We got a fine man named Joel Bagnal working that office right now," Bush said. "He's a real good guy. . . . He knows what he's doing."