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President
Bush explaining policy issues to White House Press Corps, which Roussel
describes as the toughest in his book.
"White House Gallows"
says Roussel
Even LA Dodgers
Coach Tommy
Lasorda became
a challenge
in the White House.
President Bush answers questions
from White House Media
Quiet
before the storm at the White
House Press room or "The Gallows."
His most recent stint in the White House was from 1981-87, when there
were 1,700 press passes issued there. "There were two briefings a day.
I would equate that with a baseball pitcher, who's in his seventh game
of the World Series at the ninth inning, the score is tied, bases are
loaded, and the pitch count on the batter is three balls and two strikes.
In the case of the baseball pitcher, he's only one pitch away from back
to the minor leagues. In the case of that spokesperson standing there
at the podium, in my view, it's the same deal," said Roussel.
"The speed of sound travels faster than the speed of light
in Washington DC," says Roussel
"When I was in the White House we used to have the 'Sam Donaldson rules
of engagement,' where you shout first and ask questions later," said
Roussel. "And I think Helen Thomas (UPI correspondent) has been covering
the White House since before the earth began to cool. She was a dear
friend and when I left the White House she wrote story that said '[he
knows how to keep a secret unfortunately,' which was a high complement
since the White House was the source of great leaks. I remember President
Reagan sitting there, after reading a big story leak on the front page
of the Washington Post, and looking at the ceiling and saying 'sometimes
I wonder how this place holds the rain out.' He also used to say, 'one
of these days I would like to announce one of these programs myself.'
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"Toughest Media Crowd" -In my view when you're dealing
with the White Press Corps, you're dealing with the smartest, toughest,
the most aggressive and I'm running out of adjectives here," said Roussel.
"Put yourself in my shoes. It's 8:00 a.m. and you're in the Roosevelt
Room in the White House for the daily senior staff meeting. You got
your yellow pad in front of you with domestic and foreign issues that
are leading the news that day. You got three on both sides you know
are going to be the front burner issues that day. You go around the
table at the senior staff meeting to get all the guidance you can, and
finally it comes time to go do the first briefing at 9:15 a.m. you're
walking out the door the West Wing and someone at the senior staff meeting
everyone recognizes and yells at you 'by the way, don't tell the press
anything today.' I'm saying what was that? Okay, yea, I got it."
"A walk down the White House hallways was like a walk to the gallows,"
says Roussel.
"It wasn't a very long walk to the briefing room, you step up to the
podium and you're looking at about 100 anticipated faces and the first
thing you hear from them is 'tell us everything.' My peers just said
don't tell the press anything, and the press is saying the opposite.
And I'm standing in between these two entities at the podium for an
hour or hour and a half, gee what do I do? How do I maintain my credibility?
How do I stand here and advocate the positions of the president while
being responsive to the fourth estate here? Many of whom were my friends,
too. That's why I say it's the toughest job in the White House."
Roussel's book reveals behind the scenes humorous situations
around the White House Roussel recalled several unexpected but hilarious
times at the White House.
For example, he bumped into LA Dodgers Coach Tommy Lasorda, and let
him do not one, but two of the briefings. On the six appearance six
months later Roussel admits the mistake of a repeat performance when
Lasorda returned to do it again? At that moment a major news story was
breaking, it involved at that time the high ranking KGB official (Chenko),
who had just defected over to the United States, and shortly thereafter
he redefected back to the Russians. Standing at the podium at the White
House briefing was the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. When asked
about the KGB agent, Lasorda talked about the left-handed Pacheco from
the San Diego Padres baseball team instead.
"No matter where you go the one universal language is laughter," says
Roussel. "On the last night of three days of meetings there was a reception
for the two delegations," said Roussel. "I said 'gee this is terrific,
now I get to meet Mr. And Mrs. Mikhail Gorbachov, and it should be an
interesting experience.' Well I was wrong. We had a ballroom that had
three separate rooms with two thousand members of the media there. At
the last meeting we had to do the briefing, so everyone else in the
American Delegation got to go to the reception. Finally, after 90 minutes
of answering questions like 'what's the president's position on dome
stadiums, etc., things started to quiet down and I turned to one of
my colleagues and said 'I'll bet you there is leftover food and drink.'
So we drove to this diplomatic house, where the reception had taken
place on the end of Geneva and when we got there we found a room to
the left, one straight ahead and an empty ballroom on the right. Thinking
the reception was over we walked toward the food and drink. To our surprise
they sealed off the ballroom so we couldn't leave and the reception
had started late so we ended up being the first to greet President Reagan
and Soviet Premier Gorbachev. President Reagan leaned forward me and
said 'Hello little boy. What part of Russia are you from?' and after
greeting the Gorbachov's and getting chewed out by the State Dept. on
protocol in the White House, he went through the line again behind 300
people. He said the Soviet Premier bumped his wife and pointed at me
and started laughing. Roussel told the crowd of PR Pros "no matter where
you go the one universal language is laughter."
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"Eye On PR"
