In the waning days of the Clinton administration, my brother arranged a special behind-the-scenes tour of the White House for my wife and me.
We showed up at a security checkpoint on the southeast corner around midday. I was curious about what precautions and levels of scrutiny I would be subjected to.
As I slipped my driver’s license into a retractable metal tray, I wondered whether I had some outstanding parking tickets somewhere…would they would be placing me under arrest?
I never found out what kind of information their computer systems brought up…did they know about that ‘buying alcohol underage’ arrest from 1987?
The process did not take too long, and soon we were greeted by Clinton speechwriter, Paul Glastris. Mr. Glastris is now the editor in chief of The Washington Monthly and a senior fellow at the Western Policy Center. But at the time he was special assistant to the President of United States. It was pretty heady stuff.
We made small talk as Paul walked us up the long driveway between the Old Executive Office Building and the White House. My memories of that day are somewhat scatter-shot.
I remember walking into the basement where the White House caterers work. We looked at a wall still smoke-stained from the War of 1812.
We visited Paul’s office in the OEOB, and he showed us the office Nixon used there. Apparently Nixon hated the Oval Office, and liked to escape across the street. We were stunned to learn that most of the Nixon tapes had been recorded there.
I was most anxious when we entered the West Wing. Somehow I felt that a terrible mistake was being made. Surely they had better sense than to let someone like me walk around the inner sanctum of American power during working hours.
There was a brightly painted lobby area, with several distinguished foreign-looking gentlemen sitting patiently, waiting to meet some bigwig or another. It almost felt like a dentist’s office.
I got my first sense of Mr. Glastris’s clout when he calmly marched us right past the secretary’s desk into the Roosevelt Room. It had an enormous mahogany desk and, over the mantle, a huge painting of a rough-riding T.R..
And then we were standing in a hallway peering into the Oval Office itself. There was a guard posted, and a movie-theatre style barrier. Paul asked the guard if we could take a peek inside. The guard gave us a wary look, shrugged, and unlinked the rope.
:::There’s More:::
To me, the most striking thing about the Oval Office was the garish, red-striped couches. I quickly identified the passage where Clinton had led Monica Lewinsky for their secret trysts.
We didn’t linger long, and we didn’t meet the President. He was out of town that day. Soon we were in the Cabinet Room, and Paul helpfully explained where each cabinet member sat.
I remember going down a flight of stairs covered with pictures of a smiling Al Gore until we arrived at the door to the Situation Room. I tried to picture Lyndon Johnson pouring over intelligence from Vietnam-era bombing runs.
Our next stop was the press secretary’s office and then we moved into the Press Briefing Room. I had watched many press briefings on television, but I was stunned at how tiny the room was. Imagine cramming 48 theater seats into your living room and then adding a half-dozen cameras and all the equipment that goes with them.
Paul explained that there was a swimming pool below the floorboards where FDR did physical therapy for his polio. Hillary had made an unsuccessful attempt to re-open the pool.
I noticed that all the seats had little plaques on them: Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Christian Science Monitor. I didn’t see Talon News, but then Talon News didn’t exist yet.
Looking back on it, I think the claustrophobic atmosphere in the briefing room contributes to a level of intimacy between the Press Corp and the Press Secretary. It certainly is not a pleasant atmosphere for the press to work in, but they definitely benefit from such close proximity.
That’s why is was intrigued to see the following headline today in the Washington Post: White House Media May Get Temporary Boot: Cramped, Stuffy Space Is Being Considered For August Renovation.
Apparently:
The stuffy, packed, run-down White House briefing room has become something of a safety hazard over the years and may require a top-to-bottom renovation this summer, according to administration officials. President Bush, who sometimes holds news conferences in the room, recently made a personal pitch for a new, airier briefing room, taking some reporters by surprise.
But being temporarily relocated may be the least of their worries.
“My only concern is they use this as a Trojan horse to kick us out or shrink our space,” said White House reporter Ron Hutcheson, president of the White House Correspondents Association. “I am in the trust-but-verify mode. There is nothing in there that sets off the alarms that there is a nefarious plan here.”
I hope the renovation doesn’t diminish the access of the press corp to the administration…something valuable would be lost. And I really hope I don’t wake up one day to read about male-escorts in White House underground bunkers.
If that would happen, I’m sure the media would go bezerk, and talk about flame wars..LOL
Might be the loose thread to unravel the blanket of secrecy.. ; )
should the first sentence read “my wife and me” or not? Grammar muse needs coffee.
well, your ask’n a country boy, so I could’nt gaurantee anything but a country answer..
sounds a lot better than, me an the ol’ lady…for sure, LOL
that, will get you in da dawg house now… ; )
when I taught in a Maryland Middle school I too went to the White House. In those days I attended the same synagogue as Rahm Emmanuel, and I invied him to come out and talk to the kids. He said it was hard to get way, would I like to bring a group to meet with him at the White House? I jumped at the changce, and we took about dozen student leaders.
We did not get a tour per se. We also came in through the West Wing, and also went to the Roosevelt Room. I saw TR’s Nobel Prize on the mantle. I wasable, as a history teacher, to explain waht Rahm couldnb’t, all the streamers on all the military flags in the corner.
Rham spent 45 mintues with the kids, answerong questions from silly to serious. And then he arranged for us to go into the hallway, and to peek into the Oval office, two at a time.
It was quite an experience for my 7th and 8th graders. Heck, it was an experience for me.
Clinton was in Vancouver, and Rahm got called out at one point to talk with the President on the phone. Gore was in the building, but unavailable (that would have been a total capper for the trip!).
Your post brought back fond memories.
I have never been in the same room with a President, except in a large ballroom at Clinton’s first inaugural (at which I was later in a room with far less people with ghore, around 2:30 in the morning). I have been in a room with GHW Bush when he was VP, at a reception at the Smithsonian. In none of those cases was I particularly overawed or impressed. Being in the White House still had more of an impact on me, although I cannot fully explain why.
I have no doubt they’re distancing themselves from the corps. Contact with anyone other than the devout is uncomfortable for GWB. Besides, this way, if the press is elsewhere & the whole thing run on cameras, they can have technical difficulties whenever things get touchy (no need for a loaded Gannon). Or simply cut off reporters’ mikes.
The thing that really gets me though is that this bunch behave as if their guy were going to live in that house forever & that all his preferences should be made permanent, structural.
Yep, bet they come back to the press room to find a glass partition between themselves and the spokesman. Behind that glass will be a Disney automatron with the latest software to enable daily talking points updates. A vitural experience!
I doubt they’ll go that far. I say they take the cheap route and just get a second hand Chuck E. Cheese articulated mannequin and put a suit on it. Oh, wait, that’s what they’ve already got, isn’t it?
Thanks for a fascinating diary.
I wonder, though, whether the intimacy of the press corps with White House staff, aided by the smallness of the room, has the benefits that you describe.
Such a situation can create a sense of privilege for journalists that makes them feel detached from those who don’t share it. They feel their proximity to power gives them an obligation to unduly respect that power. The “Stockholm Syndrome” comes into effect.
And, of course, they don’t want to lose this special sense of closeness to those who rule our lives – even if shared with a two day trained, allegedly male prostitute.
We have a similar issue in the UK with Westminster Lobby Correspondents. Some journalists removed themselves off the list, especially for special, unattributable briefings, as it limited their ability to write freely and to to use their objectivity.
In turn, political parties use this proximity to decision makers as a privilege that can be awarded or withdrawn depending on the “behaviour” in print of the journalist.
as do most things.
I think it is easier to judge the sincerity and truthfulness of a person if you can see them up close and observe their mannerisms, whether they are sweating, do they show any tics, or signs of discomfort?
After a period of time of close observation, one can take a very good read on a press secretary.
On the other hand, there are issues of clubbiness and all that you describe.
It’s an interesting topic.
That’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to the White House! Thanks for sharing your experience with us.