If You Don't Show Up, Everybody Talks About You

The New York Times has been taking hits of late for its new policy of boycotting the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. The Times apparently has decided that the media-politician chumminess is unseemly and maybe even borderline unethical.

In the Loop, of course, wholeheartedly agrees, despite attending most of the last 20 dinners. Therefore we must distance ourselves and repudiate remarks at the dinner Saturday by late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson and condemn a follow-up dig yesterday by President Bush.

Ferguson recently passed his citizenship test despite a Scottish brogue that -- abetted by an ancient sound system -- was at times impenetrable Saturday. (Good thing it's a written exam.) But everyone heard him loud and clear when he hit The Gray Lady for not showing up.

"I just want to make sure I get this right: They felt that this event undercuts the credibility of the press," Ferguson said. "It's funny, you see, I thought that Jayson Blair and Judy Miller took care of that." And then: "Shut the hell up, New York Times, you sanctimonious, whining jerks!"

Then yesterday, at a Rose Garden news conference, President Bush took another pop at the Times. After Bush called on Times White House reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg, she said: "I'm still waiting for my exclusive at the ranch," referring to ABC News White House reporter Martha Raddatz's private interview with Bush in Crawford.

"I'm at a loss for words," Bush said. "If only you'd have been at the White House correspondents' dinner, I would have invited you. [Laughter.] Anyway, please, go ahead."

We should note that several publications have debated for years about whether to continue going to the dinner, a fundraiser for the nonprofit White House Correspondents' Association, which gives journalism scholarships and awards to kids and coordinates press-White House issues, such as transportation, seating in the press room and such.

Unholy War

Also at yesterday's news conference, Bush, speaking with precise enunciation, said, "We're in a long struggle, as I've told you many a time, against these jihadists."

Jihadists? No, no. That word is no longer to be used, according to an Associated Press report we cited last week. Various government agencies -- including the departments of State and Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center -- are telling their people not to describe Islamist extremists in those terms because, among other things, it might give those people a veneer of religious credibility.

New Pakistani Ambassador?

Buzz around town is that Hussein Haqqani, a longtime critic of former Pakistani president and Bush buddy Pervez Musharraf, is in line to become Pakistan's ambassador to the United States. Haqqani, a confidant of assassinated former president Benazir Bhutto, is teaching at Boston University and awaiting approval from Washington to take over.

The Dotted Lines Form Here

Petition drives are the rage these days. A group of people believe that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who'll be leaving in less than nine months, should be forced to resign sooner. They recently put up Web site -- http://www.condimustgo.com-- to gather signatures for the proposition that: "America will not stand for a Secretary of State who approved torture and then misled Congress. We call on the Presidential candidates to ask Secretary of State Rice to resign." They say they have 69,750 signatures.

Also, some Georgetown University students have put up a Web petition urging that former undersecretary of defense and best-selling author Douglas Feith be retained after his two-year teaching stint ends next month. They say they have 66 signatures.