Column-writing is a brutal occupation. The beast is insatiable; it must be constantly fed. Some days you can serve up filet, some days stale fish sticks with freezer burn. In sitting down to write her regular Monday White House Letter, The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller faced a refrigerator stocked with nothing but leftovers.
How else to explain her rehash this morning of last Tuesday night’s prime-time press conference, which offered nothing we haven’t heard before? Empty space and deadlines loomed. Her editors wanted copy. So, Bumiller recounts Bush’s dread of facing the media; his handlers’ efforts to prep the Prez, and the obligatory comment from veteran White House communicator David Gergen. Yawn. We’re getting perilously close (we hope) to “Elisabeth Bumiller is on vacation, and her column will resume when she returns” country.
But wait. As the clock ticks down, Bumiller proves herself a pro with a ninth-inning shot over the right field wall. Saving the best for the end, she signs off, perfectly deadpan, with a reference to “… Karl Rove, the president’s chief political aide (who, like Adlai Stevenson with a hole in his shoe, inexplicably turned up in the East Room with holes in the ankles of his socks).”
–Susan Q. Stranahan
Susan Q. Stranahan wrote for CJR.