The Washington Post's Dana Milbank is apparently unhappy about the way President-elect Barack Obama blew off the Chicago Tribune's John McCormick yesterday when the reporter attempted to dig into the Blagojevich story at the presser for Education Secretary Arne Duncan. To an extent, I understand: when you play it like Obama did, interrupting McCormick with, "John, John, let me just cut you off, because I don't want you to waste your question," you only invite an escalation of aggression from the press. And, yeah: woe betide you if it turns out it was deserved.
Unfortunately, you also risk an outpouring of overheated slop from process puppies like Milbank, who's decided that this single -- and not entirely unjustified -- instance of Obama responding tartly to a reporter warrants a broad comparison with President George W. Bush, whose own appearances before the press corps were rare, and whose factotums were experts at glib dodges themselves. Milbank, nevertheless, is insistent:
But Obama's response to Blagojevich questions has been decidedly junior varsity. Begging off because of an ongoing investigation? Hiding behind Patrick Fitzgerald's skirt? Warning a reporter not to "waste" a question and asking for an alternative question? All four techniques were popularized by Bush.
Notwithstanding the fact that Milbank only enumerates three techniques (Arne Duncan might be able to help with that!), I find this to be a bit melodramatic. Also, a bit unfair. As Jason Zengerle correctly observes:
Obama didn't hide behind Fitzgerald's skirt to dodge McCormick's question, and Obama didn't time the release of his campaign's report so that he'd be in Hawaii when it came out. Unless, that is, Dana has evidence that Obama planned all this with Fitzgerald, since it was Fitzgerald who requested that Obama hold off releasing the report until next week. Now, is it convenient for Obama that Fitzgerald did this? Sure. But it's not like he's just inventing excuses to not answer Blago questions.
That's the rock in the road that reporters like Milbank have yet to surmount. Sure, the fact that the Obama team has been instructed to withhold the release of the report until December 22nd appears convenient from a press-process standpoint -- something self-obsessed reporters rarely tire of pointing out. But the order either came from Fitzgerald or it didn't. Obama is either complying with Fitzgerald's office or he isn't. If there's any question regarding what Fitzgerald has requested or instructed, then surely those questions should be directed at Fitzgerald, instead of simply being deployed as a suggestive pollutant at every Obama press conference between now and the report release.
Besides, if Obama were to provide reporters with the details of a report that Fitzgerald has specifically asked not be released until December 22nd, the headlines would become "Obama Defies Order, Impedes Blagojevich Investigation." Doesn't sound like a smart call!
Zengerle is also left wondering why it's such a burden for reporters, called to an event announcing the Secretary of Education pick, to ask questions that are appropriate to the occasion. "I concede that the Blago scandal is certainly more entertaining; but, in the annals of what's important, I'd say that the country's education policy tops the legal travails of a midwestern governor," he writes. "Is it really too much to expect the press to ask Obama some questions about education during a press conference held to unveil his Secretary of Education?"
I sympathize, but it's probably due to the fact that most reporters aren't well versed in education policy or the major players involved. Milbank works very hard to project his own ignorance upon the readers of his report: the unveiling of Duncan is termed "insomnia treatment," and Milbank insists that the "whole thing might have ended in snores if McCormick hadn't piped up about Blagojevich." What's snoozy to Milbank, however, isn't boring to the rest of the world. And Milbank's insistence that Duncan was a "previously unknown nominee" is a fatuous dodge. Duncan's name was floated as a potential nominee as early as November 12th. He had a meeting with current Education Secretary Margaret Spellings on December 4. That's a lot of time and a lot of chances to get to know Duncan! I guess whoever was supposed to bring this matter to Milbank's attention was asleep at the switch.