Word: pressingly
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...height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, she trained her Hungarian hunting dog, Henry, to bark when asked, "Should Clinton go to jail?" He growls when you say, "Al Gore," and retrieves a flip-flop when you mention John Kerry. To those critics who say the White House press corps has been conditioned to respond meekly to the Bush Administration, such skills might seem to make her a fitting replacement for Tony Snow, who stepped down as White House press secretary on Sept. 14. But after just a month on the job, Perino--who is only the second woman...
...past, Perino's ease might have earned her a honeymoon with the White House press corps. But the sunshine days are over. Tasked with selling an unpopular war and a weakened President to a skeptical audience, Perino is unlikely to make many buddies in the briefing room. Attempts to promote Bush's policies immediately collide with his 68% disapproval rating. At a recent briefing that took place prior to Bush's veto of the expansion of health-care funding for low-income children, Perino found herself in the unenviable position of arguing that Bush does not want children to suffer...
...journalists in the briefing-room chairs are in no mood to give her a pass. Since the invasion there have been hundreds of articles and books dissecting the Washington press corps' handling of the prewar debate. Old pros who thought they were immune to spin are feeling particularly bruised by criticism of their coverage. So when subjects like the possibility of war with Iran arise, the questioning gets aggressive. After a recent story in the New Yorker suggested that Bush is considering an attack on Iran, reporters hammered Perino. Cornered, she repeated, "We are pursuing a diplomatic solution in Iran...
Perino recognizes that she has been thrown to the dogs. "Sixteen months is probably the right amount of time to be press secretary," Perino says, with an eye to her departure date, but "I don't know if this is the best time to be doing it." She has already begun thinking about what comes next. After the election, she and her husband, a British businessman whom she met on a flight from Denver to Chicago in 1997, are planning a cross-country drive with Henry to the Rockies, but she imagines staying in Washington for work in one form...
Ultimately, however, it will take more than a thick hide. White House press secretaries are judged on their credibility, and Bush's low approval rating threatens to undermine Perino before she even opens her mouth. As Bush likes to say, quoting the old political adage, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." Fortunately for Perino, she already...