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Skriven 2007-08-14 23:30:54 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0708142) for Tue, 2007 Aug 14
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Press Gaggle by Dana Perino
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary August 14, 2007

Press Gaggle by Dana Perino Crawford Middle School Crawford, Texas

˙˙Press Briefings


11:57 A.M. CDT

MS. PERINO: Good morning, everybody, from Crawford junior high [sic]. Today
the President had his normal briefings this morning. He also had three
foreign leader calls, which I will read out for you. The President spoke
this morning separately to President Karzai and to President Musharraf. He
congratulated both leaders on the successful conclusion of the joint peace
jirga which was held in Kabul on August 9th through the 12th, just last
week.

The President also spoke to Prime Minister Singh of India this morning. The
President congratulated the Prime Minister and the Indian people on the
60th anniversary of India's independence, which happens tomorrow. The two
leaders also discussed the civil nuclear cooperation initiative, climate
change, the importance of a successful outcome in the Doha round, and
regional security.

One scheduling announcement and one -- just a reminder. After attending the
North American Leaders meetings on August 20th and 21st in Ottawa, the
President will attend a Norm Coleman for U.S. Senate Reception at a private
residence outside Minneapolis; closed press. And as you already know, the
President will remain overnight in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 21st.
He will make remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars national convention in
Kansas City on August 22nd. That will also be -- that will be open press.
And then he will return to his ranch the afternoon on the 22nd.

That's all I've got. You might have to shout your questions, since we've
got the air conditioner going.

Q Two things. One, what's the President doing, what's he spending time
doing on his mini-vacation? And, two, Ahmadinejad said that he has serious
doubts that his country is supplying arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan.
And he says that the United States just wants -- doesn't want Afghanistan
and Iran to be friends. But Gates has said the opposite, and Bush pretty
much agreed with him up in Camp David, so do you have anything on that?

MS. PERINO: First of all, the question was what the President is doing at
his ranch this week. Again, I don't expect to have detailed readouts on
this every day. But what the President loves to do when he's at his ranch
is to spend time outdoors. And I know today that they were maybe going to
do some trail building, some bike trail building that they do out there, so
that they can then mountain bike. And I wouldn't be surprised if the
President got in some fishing, as well as some time with his wife, Laura,
Mrs. Bush, and maybe other family and friends. If other family and friends
do arrive, and I'm able to provide that information, I certainly will.

But I think that we should just all expect that this week, with the
President not having any public events, that when he's out on his ranch
what he loves to do is spend time in the outdoors; he loves to get his
exercise. And I would expect that there would be some brush cutting to do,
although it is 107 degrees, so I don't know how many people are going to be
able to stand it. The President, obviously, likes the heat, so maybe
everyone else is just going to have to suffer through it.

On the second question you asked, which is regarding the President of Iran
being in Afghanistan, yes, of course the President stands by what Secretary
Gates has reported, and what General Petraeus has reported about what they
are finding in terms of weapons in Iraq, and then again the NATO troops and
what they're saying out of Afghanistan. And if the President of Iran
believes that that is not to be the case, well, then -- I don't know how to
reconcile those two things. I think that we put our trust in our
intelligence, and what we're hearing from our security forces in
Afghanistan and Iraq.

As to the visit, the President has said as early as -- as late as just last
week that it is important for Afghanistan and for Iraq to have good
relations with its neighbors. We understand how important that is, having
good relations with the two neighbors to our north and our south. So beyond
that, I don't think we'll have any comment.

Q Following Karl's departure, Dana, do you have a sense of how strategy and
tactics may change, in terms of showdowns with Congress?

MS. PERINO: Well, I think we're going to have to see, in terms of how much
of a showdown Congress wants to have. The President has said that he needs
the appropriations bills to his desk -- they have not sent him one. So the
showdown actually might be within the Democratic Party while they need to
reconcile with one another before they can come and have a conversation
with the President about the budget priorities that they're going to place.

We are going to have some fights on our hands; we know that. We are going
to be asking for the FISA law that was just modernized last week, and which
the President signed before he left for Maine, to be made permanent. Right
now there is a sunset on it, and we think that's inappropriate. So we're
going to be asking for that to be made permanent. Obviously, there is going
to be a report from Ambassador Crocker and General David Petraeus in
September. We'll have to take a look at those.

But how that effects -- that is not going to change just because Karl is
deciding to leave us. And while we will miss having his voice at the table
-- and as he said yesterday, the President and he have each other's phone
numbers, I'm sure they're not going to be shy about calling one another.
And there are people around the White House, including new people that we
have, including Ed Gillespie, who can help fill that strategic
communications role as well.

Q I'm wondering if you have a sense of White House priorities going
forward. Obviously, August is a time to kind of re-focus on what's ahead,
and if you have a sense of how much is left in the tank, in terms of
getting legislation through?

MS. PERINO: The Chief of Staff, Josh Bolten, made a comment yesterday that
I think is accurate, which is, while the window on major legislation might
be closing, there is certainly enough time to get some things done,
especially in the foreign policy realm. We are going to continue to push
for our judges to be confirmed. I think that Senator Leahy had said that he
would do one a month, but I think that they've fallen short of that in the
Senate. We are going to continue to push for the No Child Left Behind
reauthorization. We have health care legislation that we're interested in
pursuing. We also have energy legislation that the House and the Senate
have tried to push through. But it's certainly not as bold as what the
President would have liked to have seen, and so we're going to push them
more on that.

What the President would like to do is reduce gasoline consumption in the
country by 20 percent within 10 years, and replace it with alternative
fuels. That's something that the Congress has there for the taking, for
them to bring up and debate on the House floor, and decide how they want to
move forward, in terms of energy legislation.

Beyond that, we're going to have areas in regards to free trade -- we want
those free trade agreements with Colombia and Peru and South Korea, as well
as the Doha round, to be completed. So we have a lot of things that we can
get done. I think I would put it this way, that there is enough time to get
a lot done, but we can't afford to waste a single day.

Olivier.

Q Dana, can you elaborate a little bit on the conversation with Mr. Singh,
especially the civil nuclear pact? What were they discussing -- making
changes to it, the way it's been received in India, the way it's been
received in the United States?

MS. PERINO: I don't have specific details as to what they both said, but
what I would point out to you is that the President and Prime Minister
Singh have been very supportive of it, as it is debated there in India.
We'll see if we can get you some more, in terms of how we can support Prime
Minister Singh. The civil nuclear agreement has many wonderful aspects to
it, one of them being bringing India into the system of some monitoring and
compliance.

But in addition to that, you have a country that has explosive population
that very much needs access to clean-burning electricity, of which nuclear
power certainly would be. And that would help raise economic levels across
the country, help with their job -- help create jobs, as well as make sure
that people aren't suffering from the ill effects that you can get from
traditional energy uses like coal, that can harm people's health. And
nuclear power, obviously, doesn't have greenhouse gases, which can
contribute to helping us reach the goals that the President has set for
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Remember that the President, at the end
of September, September 27th and 28th, has invited the major emitting
countries, including India, to come to a conference that the State
Department will host on greenhouse gas emissions. And so that will be one
of the topics, as well. If we can get more, we will.

Q Also the Japanese media is reporting that the President had planned and
then canceled a stop in Japan as part of his travels in early September --
the travels that are anchored on the APEC forum. Can you confirm that that
kind of a trip was in the planning stages, and that it was canceled because
of the --

MS. PERINO: The trip that we announced is the trip that we're doing. And,
obviously, there's a lot of -- going into September that we're going to
have to be contending with, as Congress returns. But I would decline to
comment as to any other possible travel plans.

Mark.

Q Dana, do you want to respond to a new ad that Senator Clinton is running
in Iowa, in which he claims and charges that people without health care
coverage are invisible to this President, and that U.S. troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan are invisible to this President>

MS. PERINO: Well, this is going to be tricky going into the campaign
season, when people start running ads, because as tempted as I am to take
that head on, I think I will refer to the RNC for the specific -- for
answers on the politics of it. But as to the merits of it, I think it's
outrageous. This is a President who, first and foremost, has helped
millions of seniors across the country have access to prescription drugs at
a much lower cost. That system that the President put in -- helped put in
place, with the help of both sides of Congress, Republicans and Democrats,
Medicare Part D, is helping millions of people, and working better than
anyone would have expected. In addition to that, the President has tried to
take on the issue at the root cause of it, and tried to change our health
care system so that we actually are helping provide less expensive but
still great quality care to people all over the country.

And as to whether or not our troops are invisible to this President, I
think that that is absurd, and that is unconscionable that a member of
Congress would say such a thing.

Go ahead.

Q How might Karl Rove's duties be distributed? Might we see someone new
coming in to take over part of them, and then the rest be distributed, or
just having the responsibilities redistributed across the --

MS. PERINO: The Chief of Staff, Josh Bolten, has said that he does not
anticipate bringing in someone from the outside, and that there will likely
be a redistribution of Karl's duties across the White House. Not ready to
make any announcement on that yet. Stay tuned, and we'll let you know as
soon as we can.

Q There was some talk yesterday that there would not be a one-to-one
replacement. Does that mean there will be maybe two, three people doing
Karl Rove's job?

MS. PERINO: It's possible. If you think about all of the things that Karl
Rove was responsible for, he had I think maybe 60 people who reported to
him directly -- the Office of Public Liaison, the Office of Political
Affairs, and the Office of Strategic Initiatives, among others. So that's a
lot for one person to handle. Obviously Karl did it very well; better than
probably anybody else could do. When you have an opportunity like this, and
a challenge -- it is both a challenge and an opportunity as Karl is
leaving, then I think that the Chief of Staff will make those decisions
based on whatever he thinks is the best way to serve the President. And as
soon as we can give you more, we will.

Q Dana, with the departures of Dan Bartlett, Rob Portman and now Karl Rove,
does the President feel he's being abandoned?

MS. PERINO: No, I don't think that at all. If you look at the -- just look
at Ed Gillespie, one of the most talented communicators and political
strategists of our time, wanted to come and work for this President to
replace Dan. These people have very different circumstances, but they all
-- surround family. Obviously, Dan Bartlett became a husband and then a
father to three young boys under the age of three who he needed to spend
some more time with. The President never would have stood in his way to go
spend some more time with his family. Rob Portman, who had first served as
a member of Congress, and then moved on to work in the administration, has
three teenaged children, and he very much wanted to help his wife raise
those children back in Ohio. And Karl Rove gave you his explanation
yesterday.

And I think that one thing to remember is that this President has had
remarkable longevity of staff; people have stayed many, many years. And if
you compare how many years people have stayed with this President, compared
to others, I think it is the measure of the President. And that's why we
stay as long as we do. But it is not without some hardship and sacrifice on
the part of the staff, whoever the staff member is, but even more
importantly, the family, because for us, we're getting to do things that is
a part of making history. And for our families, they sometimes sit on the
sidelines and take a backseat.

And I find myself apologizing to my husband many times for not hearing what
he said, because I was looking at my BlackBerry. So now I have made a
public -- I'm very sorry, but I do that very often. And, you know, taking
calls on the weekends and things. We also have very supportive families.
But there comes a time when you know that it's the right thing to do, which
is to leave. And the President appreciates everyone's service very much,
and he also appreciates the fact that we all very much care about our
families.

Q Mattel Incorporated announced that they'll be recalling 14 million toys
with lead products in them. Two months ago, I believe, the President
announced a panel on this. I was wondering if you could give us an update
on this --

MS. PERINO: I don't think it was two months ago. I think it was just about
a month ago. I'll see if there's an update on that. Secretary Leavitt is
heading that up, and I have not -- I don't know an update. We can ask Tony
Fratto, who is back at the White House. He's on point on that issue for us
back at the White House, so maybe if you could check with him, as well.

Q Should we expect any recess appointments in the coming days?

MS. PERINO: That is a good question. I don't know. Let me check.

END 12:11 P.M. CDT
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