I LOVE READING THE WHITE HOUSE POOL REPORTS, which are an art unto themselves.
Wonkette posts these from time to time, so you can get a more regular diet of the creative commentary of presidential pool reporter drudgery from her.
While Fox News has been absolutely gleeful about Dan Rather eating crow on the questionable origins of the Killian memos and arguing that Rather didn’t really want to confess on TV, but was forced to — I’d love to see what they are going to say about Bush toasting the United Nations and Kofi Annan’s leadership.
Here is today’s White House pool report:
Sept. 21, 2004
Pool Report #6
United Nations lunch
President Bush arrived for the United Nations luncheon 20 minutes behind schedule at 1:35 p.m. He shook hands and exchanged informal greetings for a few minutes, then followed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a toast.
“Mr. Secretary-General, with admiration for your leadership and with confidence in this organization,” the president said, “I offer a toast to you and your service, and to the United Nations.”
The full transcript is posted.
Annan, in his toast for peace, said he was surprised at the large turnout of heads of states and heads of government and urged even better attendance next year, when he said some crucial decisions could be made about the future direction of the United Nations.
The lunch was held in the delegate’s lounge, which had been converted into a dining room of about two dozen round tables of 10 seats each.
Your pool arrived early for the toasts, at the beginning of the lunch, and left promptly after them.
Bob Hillman
Dallas Morning News
Toasting Kofi? Maybe Bush is going to give up on the neocons after all, withdraw from Iraq, and become a genuine multilateral sort of guy next term.
— Steve Clemons
