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Washington Post national political reporter/Washington Sketch columnist Dana Milbank was online Friday, April 21, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss the latest in political news.

The transcript follows.

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Dana Milbank: Good morning. We meet (virtually) today at the end of a very strange week that brought exposed the world to what we'll call the Curse of the South Lawn. On Wednesday, President Bush, on the South Lawn, accepted the resignation of Scott McClellan, and then the two of them got on Marine One, along with Karl Rove, who got a demotion the same day. But the helicopter would not take off.

Almost exactly 24 hours later, Bush hosted the arrival ceremony for China's Hu Jintao on the same South Lawn, and a heckler interrupted the Chinese leader for an excruciating three minutes. The heckler, a repeat offender, had been admitted by the White House despite warnings from the Chinese to be careful about who was admitted.

Fortunately, the president is bound for the West Coast today, so everything should be safe on the South Lawn.

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Great Neck, N.Y.: So who do you think was more surprised by the Chinese heckler at yesterday's White House welcoming ceremony, President Hu or President Bush?

And I can't resist, but in my opinion, Hu's on first.

Dana Milbank: We are not amused by your word play.

There is reason to believe that Hu knew a heckler could show up. Hu probably wouldn't have known who, of course, but his staff had warned the White House. Bush had more of a "who knew?" expression than Hu, who just looked angry.

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Poughkeepsie, N.Y.: The "shakeup" at the White House seems to have confirmed the suspicion of many people that nothing significant is going to change and nothing, therefore, is going to stop the downward spiral.

In today's WSJ Peggy Noonan writes a despairing column on the president and yesterday Fox came out with a poll indicating that 33 percent approve of the job the president is doing (down from 36 percent).

Noonan writes of 'a distinguished former government official and prominent Republican saying, in conversation, "Those people [the White House] aren't drinking the Kool-Aid, they're sucking it from a spigot!".'

Your thoughts?

Dana Milbank: This poll is more evidence of Fox's liberal bias and shows why the White House should be very careful about hiring Tony Snow as the new press secretary.

I think "shakeup" isn't the right word. It's more of a stirring of the pot. Bolten's an old Bush hand, his new deputy is an old Bush hand, OMB's Portman's a longtime Bush loyalist, and certainly Rove will continue to do what Rove does.

Arguably Bush isn't making these changes because he perceives a need for change but because he needs to placate the likes of Noonan who are braying for change.

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Washington, D.C.: Dana, in your Wednesday Sketch you appear to have mistranslated Rumsfeld.

Your article says:

"Our Army will be vastly better than it was five to six years ago, and that's hard. That's hard for the people in the Army to do," Rumsfeld asserted.

Translation: My critics do not want a better Army.

Doesn't the second sentence of his quote indicate that he believes the Army doesn't want a better Army?

Dana Milbank: You may have a point. I was using the Oxford English Dictionary of Rummy, but if you consult Webster's Rummy it does indeed appear that, by Rummy's lights, the Army does not want a better Army.

The larger point, of course, is that Rumsfeld was using a clever tactic to respond to his critics on Tuesday. In the guise of understanding his critics, he was assigning them absurd motives: that they oppose change, that they don't want the military to improve, that they don't want to protect Americans, rather than the fairly obvious motive that they don't like Rummy.

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Charleston, S.C.: How can the White House control town meetings so carefully as to only allow people with softball questions and not keep out a serial heckler at the White House. Is there some collusion here?

Dana Milbank: Several questions on this. I can see why people might be tempted to think the White House let this woman in with a pretty good idea that she might cause some trouble. If we at the Washington Post can do a quick Nexis search and find out she's a serial heckler of Chinese leaders, why can't the Secret Service figure this out? I'm more inclined to think it's incompetence than malice, though, because Bush and his aides seemed genuinely horrified, and because they didn't really have anything to gain from teaching Hu a lesson about free speech. But that might be tough sell in Beijing.

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Austin, Tex.: Oh the irony! A heckler hauled off by the Secret Service as Bush is talking about free speech. Care to comment?

Dana Milbank: Well, let's not make the heckler a champion of free speech. The Bill of Rights doesn't protect the disruption of formal arrival ceremonies on the White House lawn. The woman, Wang Wenyi, was expected to be charged today with the ominous sounding offense of "attempting to intimidate, coerce, threaten or harass a foreign official in the performance of his duties," punishable by six months in prison or organ harvesting.

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Rockville, Md.: Absurd motives?

Not if they resist change and that is the reason, not that anyone would not want a better army. Definitions are different for many. There are lots who resist change.

Than makes more sense to me.

Dana Milbank: I stand corrected, Mr. Secretary.

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Pittsburgh, Pa.: Hello Dana, are you being considered for Scott McClellan's job? Could you get up every morning and carry the president's water to the press corps? How bad is it when the White House can't even get the name of the PRC's anthem right?

Dana Milbank: That's very flattering, but I prefer to carry the president's water from my current perch.

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Valley Forge, Pa.: Dana, I haven't seen you on MSNBC's Countdown recently, which I watch (almost) every night. After repeated trips to the woodshed, have they finally forbidden you from appearing and locked you in your cubicle?

P.S. I think all of your readers should lobby the Pulitzer people for a prize for you.

Dana Milbank: Thank you kindly. As a result of repeated woodshed trips I have had a face transplant and now appear as the handsome Richard Wolffe of Newsweek. With the latest four Pulitzers the Post won this week, I am one of only seven people on staff who have not won the prize. My best hope is a new category for public disservice.

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Austin, Tex.: Dana - please type faster. I need your snark today in a big way!

Dana Milbank: TYhuka/.sdnf l,oikja df asdf ast i sdkf;iena.

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Boston, Mass.: Though I personally can't stand discussing American politics through the lens of fundraising, it's what you guys write about and respond to, so here's my question: how significant do you think it is that the Senate Dems are beating up Liddy Dole's Republican counterparts in the fundraising battle?

Dana Milbank: The article about the Senate fundraising was written by Tom Edsall, so we must proceed carefully. But even so, it was quite striking. As you know, the special interests make campaign contributions as investments. They see the prospect of a Democratic takeover increasing, so they're investing more campaign cash in Democrats. But I'm still skeptical that the Democrats can actually gain control over either chamber in the fall.

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First Base?: Me: President Bush and Hu met at the WH

Guy: I don't know. Who?

Me: What?

Guy: Who met with Bush?

Me: That's right.

Guy: What?

Me:Third base.

Dana Milbank: I am so pleased to contribute to this elevation of the public discourse this morning.

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washingtonpost.com: washingtonpost.com:Senate Democrats Ahead in Cash Race (Post, April 21)

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Clifton 2: In today's article on fuel prices, I was surprised not to see noted the role of China's growth as an enormous resource sink. There was a story on NBC Nightly News last night; it has been widely covered, and Hu's visit would have made timely link.

washingtonpost.com: washingtonpost.com:The Battle Over the Blame for Gas Prices (Post, April 21)

Dana Milbank: We did not mention China so as not to offend Mr. Hu, and I have apologized to him for the NBC report.

Actually, the Post story, by the illustrious Steve Mufson, was about refining as opposed to crude. The refining problem is more of a domestic one. Mufson's an old China hand, so you can expect him to explore the supply subject much more as he proceeds on his new beat.

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Columbia University, N.Y.: Just tell me that Edsall is one of those seven other Pulitzer-less WP staffers!

Dana Milbank: Alas, he won the prize in 1920 for distinguished coverage of the Wilson administration.

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Bush had a "Who Knew?" look: Or was that a, "Hu Knew" look ..

Dana Milbank: Come on, tell me a gnu one.

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Seattle, Wash.: So, Dana, any chance they'll be appointing a replacement for McClellan today or is Rove busy counting the knives in his back? And when will Rumsfeld be resigning -- next week? Since Bush has blessed him, we know his days are numbered ...

Happy Earth Day! It's grey and cloudy here ...

Dana Milbank:

The Post's Peter Baker, knower of all things Bush, reports that there will be no McClellan replacement today. Next week is possible, and much more shuffling of positions should be announced then, too.

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Washington, D.C.: You are the only one who might POSSIBLY answer this question: who is the Senate's largest jerk? I don't mean politically, I mean personally.

Dana Milbank: I'm going with Kit Bond because he had a letter to the editor yesterday complaining about me and defending John Snow, the soon-to-be-former treasury secretary.

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Burke, Va.: Did you ever think of putting on a blonde wig and trying to get the other Dana's Pulitzer?

Dana Milbank: I put on blonde wigs all the time, but what I really need is her Rolodex.

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