{"id":9352,"date":"2006-12-15T12:30:36","date_gmt":"2006-12-15T17:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9352.html"},"modified":"2006-12-15T12:30:36","modified_gmt":"2006-12-15T17:30:36","slug":"putting-bush-on-the-couch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/putting-bush-on-the-couch\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting Bush ‘on the couch’"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all have certain words and phrases we use frequently, but White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has one that stands out for me. Consider this exchange from yesterday’s briefing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Q: Why did he decide to give enemy body counts? That’s something that they’ve generally tried to stay away from.<\/p>\n

SNOW: Well, that’s a good question. I won’t try to — rather than trying to tell you why the President said what he said — because I can’t give you the exact — I can’t put him on the couch right now<\/b> — what I can do is at least offer one possible reason why that’s an important data point for Americans, which is there’s a lot of concern about U.S. casualties and deaths, as there should be — 103 deaths in October alone. (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s put aside the substantive issue about of war body counts for a moment and take a look at that phrase, “I can’t put him on the couch right now.” Snow uses it quite a bit, and I think I understand what he means, but it’s become an easy and overly used cop-out. Questions about the president’s decisions and perspective are easily batted away — if Snow doesn’t like the subject — by suggesting that answering the question would require some kind of psychoanalysis.<\/p>\n

On yesterday’s question, for example, it’s a fairly important substantive point. The president had previously announced<\/a> that the White House had “made a conscious effort not to be a body-count team.” This week, the Bush gang reversed course<\/a> and said they would begin publicizing body counts to disabuse people of the notion that “our people aren’t doing anything” in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Reporters understandably wondered what prompted the change. The answer, Snow said, would lead him to put Bush “on the couch.” What obvious nonsense.
\n
\nSnow keeps pulling this stunt. A month ago, en route to Ho Chi Minh City, Snow held a quick press gaggle about Air Force One. Noting that the president said he’s “fascinated” by Vietnam, a reporter asked what the president was referring to with the comment. Snow said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“No, I mean, take a look at the history of this country — again, I don’t want to — I, frankly, didn’t get him on the couch for this one, so I don’t have his inner feelings about it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A week earlier, two days after the Republicans got a “thumping” from voters, a reporter asked about how the president is reacting to his party’s defeats in Congress. Snow responded<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The President is not a guy who’s — I’m afraid he doesn’t get on the couch, Jim.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does Snow realize what the phrase actually means? Getting a sense of the president’s perspective — on a country, a policy, an event — does not require that the press secretary probe Bush’s inner-most thoughts and feelings. Asking why Bush feels the need to show up his father — that<\/em> would be putting Bush on the couch. Asking why Bush reversed course on war body counts is just a basic policy question.<\/p>\n

Snow could just dodge these fairly straightforward questions — he has plenty of practice — but he seems to believe it’s best to deride the questions themselves by suggesting the reporters are asking for far too much personal information.<\/p>\n

Why does Snow keep doing this? Maybe he<\/i> needs a little time “on the couch.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all have certain words and phrases we use frequently, but White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has one that stands out for me. Consider this exchange from yesterday’s briefing. Q: Why did he decide to give enemy body counts? That’s something that they’ve generally tried to stay away from. SNOW: Well, that’s a good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}