Snow Melts at Debut 'Gaggle'

WP

Depending on how you look at it, Tony Snow's first briefing as White House press secretary this morning started either 18 minutes late or 12 minutes early.

Shortly before the start of his 9 a.m. "gaggle" --- the daily off-camera briefing --- the White House paged reporters to say the gaggle would instead start at 9:30. But to the dismay of reporters showing up at 9:30, Snow had already begun the briefing, at 9:18.

And the trouble was just beginning. After some 60 reporters crammed into Snow's office, which had room for less than half that number, Cox News's Ken Herman asked why he decided to move the gaggle from the White House briefing room. "I thought it was a little more informal," Snow said meekly. "I didn't realize it would be so highly attended."

Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News was steamed. "This was 9 a.m., then pushed back to 9:30, then I walk in at 9:20 and it's already well under way," she protested.

"It's my fault," Snow confessed. "It had to do with the vagaries of the schedule today and I apologize."

The complaints continued to pour fourth. Snow, who had been seated at his desk, his shirtsleeves rolled up to reveal a yellow wristband, finally stood up so everybody could see him. "I apologize," he said again. "I will make this a lot more predictable and regular. You've just got to give me a little forbearance."

"There's a lot of us out here in the hallway and we can't hear any of this conversation!" called out the Associated Press's Jennifer Loven.

Snow melted. "We'll move it back into the briefing room," he conceded. "I had this wonderful idea that this would be nice and collegial and relaxed, but it obviously at this point is just a mess."

It was 9:29. Snow's first official edict as press secretary has lasted all of 11 minutes. His apologies continued through the session: "Apologies . . . I was naïve. . . . I thought this would be a good idea."

But if the new press secretary stumbled on the logistics, he offered a refreshing humility, admitting when he didn't know something.

Has President Bush changed his mind on immigration? "You're asking me a state-of-mind question that predates me," Snow replied. "I'm not even going to try to fake it." ..........