Bush Gets Outraged

When press secretary Dana Perino announced the roundtable at the morning gaggle yesterday, some reporters laughed out loud.

Later, one reporter asked: "Regarding the columnist roundtable, was there any logical standard used in issuing the invitations?"

That got even more laughs.

Perino replied: "We regularly meet with conservative columnists. The president is proud to do so. We meet with many other journalists, as well."

Kathryn Lopez and Kate O'Beirne quickly turned around a summary of the meeting for the National Review Online yesterday. Their startling conclusion: "[T]he president is optimistic about the U.S. military's ability to accomplish its mission."

William Kristol writes for the Weekly Standard: "Much of what the president said was, naturally, familiar; and some of his most interesting comments and reflections he put off-the-record. But there was at least one on-the-record answer by the president that should make news. For the first time, President Bush weighed in on the debate over the MoveOn.org ad."

Kristol quotes Bush as saying: "When I saw the ad by the far left-wing people, I was incredulous at first and then became mad." Then Bush continued, using almost the exact same words he used this morning.

Ronald Kessler writes for NewsMax about his attempt to get Bush to take swipes at the two top Democratic presidential contenders: "As noted in a recent NewsMax article, even though it could be their greatest vulnerability in the general presidential election, the media have virtually ignored Clinton's and Obama's votes against revising FISA," Kessler complains.

"Referring to the two presidential candidates' nay votes, I asked Bush, 'What does that tell you about someone who would do that?'

"'Well, the American people are going to have to figure that out themselves,' said Bush."

In a blog post on National Review's Corner, Lopez writes that "the president was in a serious but confident mood -- clearly sending the message that this administration is not close to over."

Kessler e-mails me that "everyone behaved except the president, who kept tormenting Kim Strassel of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, whose baby was due yesterday, about whether she was about to give birth in the Roosevelt Room."