Bush Administration mouthpiece Tony Snow — who doesn’t know, will find out, will rephrase previously stated information, or just won’t play that ‘hindsight’ game — has been absent from his post for about a month while being treated for a recurrence of cancer.
In his absence, the daily press corps wrangling is being handled by his Deputy Dana Perino, a 34 year-old fast-talking bobbed-blonde. Her brief tenure has seen exemplary Bush controversies like the Scooter Libby verdict, the Walter Reed scandal, the US Attorney firings, and continuing societal chaos in Iraq (here for all the press briefings and gaggles ).
Given all that she’s had to deal with, I am impressed with Perino. She’s got a grace and humor that mitigates the frustration of her feigned ignorance. And instead of avoiding meaningful engagement by endlessly repeating the same snide official party line with slight variation, she says flat out: I’m not going to speculate on a wildly hypothetical situation at this time. I’m not going to comment on it. I just really don’t have any more information. I just don’t have a clue. And if she’s feeling generous, I believe that that would have been within the realm of possibility. Her upfront manner of bullshitting is quite refreshing.
