Every now and again the curtains are pulled back ever so slightly on the inner working of the White House press corps, giving the public a glimpse of the daily lives of those rare, pampered souls who cover the White House for their respective news organizations.
It appears, among other things, that they’ve all read the same issue of the same magazine — The Economist. Studying reports of yesterday’s joint press conference between President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, again and again we came across references to an Economist cover blurb, which earlier this month labeled Bush and Blair an “Axis of Feeble.”
The tale of the tape, from this morning’s papers:
Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post:
“As The Economist magazine put it earlier this month, the Bush-Blair partnership has become the ‘axis of feeble.'”
David E. Sanger and Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times:
“The British news magazine The Economist pictured the two on a recent cover under the headline ‘Axis of Feeble.'”
Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times (they get a twofer!):
“Last week even The Economist, a British magazine that has been more favorable to Mr. Blair than most, called his partnership with Mr. Bush the ‘Axis of Feeble.'”
Paul Richter of the Los Angeles Times:
“The meeting of the two weakened leaders drew ridicule from some parts of the British press; The Economist magazine referred to the pair as an ‘axis of feeble.'”
Nicholas Wapshott of the New York Sun:
“The British press, sensing blood in the water, has billed this Blair visit to Washington ‘The Swansong Tour’ and has passed on The Economist‘s snarky assessment that the pair now make up an ‘Axis of Feeble.'”
Geoff Elliott of The Australian:
“Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair have been described as the ‘axis of feeble’ for their drastically weakened popularity.”
Craig Gordon of Newsday:
“Both are in their waning years in office, weighed down in the polls by the war in Iraq — leading one British journal to dub them the ‘axis of feeble.'”
Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the Baltimore Sun:
“London branded the meetings a ‘lame duck summit,’ while The Economist called Bush and Blair an ‘Axis of feeble,’ a play on the president’s 2002 ‘axis of evil’ speech about threats from Iraq, Iran and North Korea.”
A simple Google search of the term “Axis of Feeble,” reveals that the oldest reference was a May 12 piece in the Orlando Sentinel, which quoted The Economist bon mot a day after it came out. But it wasn’t until this morning, with all those pieces about yesterday’s joint press conference, that the deluge came.
Now granted, it was a great headline, and while we’re a little disappointed, we can’t say we’re surprised by the utter lack of creativity displayed by these D.C. bureau desk jockeys.
The sad thing is, they all probably thought they were being funny and original, and in a sense they were — but in lockstep.
And that’s what strikes us as feeble.
Paul McLeary is a former CJR staff writer. Since 2008, he has covered the Pentagon for Foreign Policy, Defense News, Breaking Defense, and other outlets. He is currently a defense reporter for Politico.