Meet the prince

'The Press' gets Bandar-ed about

Since there are no new Washington books out this week, for a change, I found myself wondering what the Sunday morning talk shows would feed on this time around. So I turned on the TV, and there was the Saudi ambassor to the United States, Prince Bandar, on NBC News's Meet the Press. I turned the channel, and there he was again, on Fox News. Since his name had been mentioned so frequently in Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack, and even more frequently in the wake of that revelatory tome, and since he was obviously this week's designated interviewee, I stayed tuned to hear him out for a bit. I came away with some strong conclusions, some of them almost contradictory:

1) I would join the growing cry for this ambassador to be recalled, except that it seems unlikely his replacement would be very different.

2) De Nile, as they say, isn't just a river in Egypt -- but it sure doesn't flow through Saudi Arabia. (In fact, there are no rivers there; just dry riverbeds called wadis.) Bandar didn't really deny any of the stories that have been going around about the mysterious flights evacuating of Saudi citizens from the U.S. at a time when all civilian planes were supposedly grounded, about his country's influence on oil prices, especially at election time here, or about anything. Occasionally he would proclaim, out of the blue, "Absolute hogwash!" And then he would go on to not-deny whatever Russert had asked about, in a roundabout way, of course. When he got so roundabout that even he realized he'd have to wind it up, Bandar simply interrupted his ownself and concluded, "This is becoming exotic now," or "When a story like this, that has a prince, a princess, money, terrorism, it is exotic."

3) If this guy is as good a friend of the Bush family as they say he is, he's a wasted resource. No matter what influence he may or may not have on oil prices at election time, no matter what other favors he might be able to provide, they should be using him as their media coach. As you may recall, there is one rule and only one rule governing interviews with politicians, a hard and fast rule that almost every politician knows and only a few reporters have caught onto. And that rule is:

When a reporter asks a politician a question -- any reporter, any politician, any question, anywhere, anytime -- it means only one thing:

It's the politician's turn to talk.

There were times yesterday when Russert might as well have been a fly buzzing around the room, or a siren off in the distance, for all the notice Bandar took of the words coming out of his mouth. Bandar might have noticed that Russert was making sound, or maybe he just watched his lips move. Either way, he knew when it was his turn to talk, and that's what mattered. A few weeks of intense training with him, and the Bushes would never fear live press conferences again. I wish he hadn't been so deft at it, but I found myself in awe at Bandar's press-parrying skill. And he never once resorted to the Republicans' default comeback: "You got that from Michael Moore!"

4) I also concluded that this post should conclude with a reading assignment. If you are in one or more of the following categories, you owe it to yourself to read the transcript of Meet the Prince:

a) American
b) citizen of any other country

Especially if you were in the U.S. or traveling to the U.S. on or immediately after Sept. 11, 2001, when civilian air traffic was grounded.

And please let me know if you find it "exotic."

Meanwhile, when I turned on the TV this morning, I wondered for a moment if I had happened onto an alternate timeline. Iraqis were in the streets cheering, but not quite the way the White House hawks had predicted.
  ¶ 6:52 PM |