In her new, best-selling memoir, former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino gives readers an inside look at the White House Briefing Room, the character of President George W. Bush and how she was the only casualty of the infamous shoe-throwing incident in Baghdad.
The latter incident is how Perino open her New York Times best-seller, “And the Good News Is…Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side.” President Bush deftly dodged the shoes thrown at him in a press conference late in his administration. Perino was not so lucky.
“I was the only one who got hit in the face (my a microphone stand) and I ended up with this big black eye,” said Perino.
She said that backdrop actually led to a moment of respect from the press corps.
“On that trip, there were three photographers from news organizations. They made a pact among themselves that they would not take any photographs or release any photographs of my injury,” she said.
Perino served as press secretary from September 2007 until Bush left office in January 2009. She says there were certainly moments of tension in the press room but believes she successfully served the administration while respecting the rights of the press to gather and investigate news.
“I felt like I struck that balance pretty well, partly because I had been a reporter. So I knew what they needed. We had a lot of respect in the briefing room. For example if any of them came to me and they had some breaking news, but we weren’t quite ready to confirm anything yet, I would tell them I would get back to them if and when we had anything to say. And I never burned anybody,” said Perino.
Perhaps the toughest part of the job for Perino was succeeding the adept and personable Tony Snow, who left to fight a recurrence of cancer. Perino was the last person who wanted to replace him.
“I loved working for Tony Snow. I also loved very much being behind the scenes. I was happy there. One of the pieces of advice I give in my book is to always take the deputy job. You get to know the boss a little bit more on a personal level. You could do the job if you needed to but you don’t have the responsibility,” mused Perino.
She says Snow’s parting words were cathartic.
“He made me stand up. He was 6-foot-5 and I’m only five feet tall. He put his hands on my shoulders and tilted my head back and said, ‘You are better at this than you think you are,'” said Perino.
She soon found out he was right.
“I didn’t know what he meant because I was wracked with anxiety but I go forward. I do the briefings for about two weeks. Two weeks later I said, ‘Oh, I get it.’ I don’t have to be just like him. I can be myself and be successful,” she said.
Perino relates her deep professional and personal affection for President Bush throughout the book. Excerpts of his emotional visits with wounded and active duty military personnel have received a great deal of attention, but other accounts reveal other sides of the former president.
One of Perino’s predecessors as press secretary was Scott McClellan, a longtime family friend of the Bushes, who succeeded Ari Fleischer in the briefing room in 2003. McClellan struggled mightily in the job and was seen by many Bush loyalists as ineffective on key issues such as the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and the Valerie Plame investigation.
Eventually, McClellan was removed in favor of Snow in 2006. McClellan subsequently wrote a book about his time in the White House and was far more harsh towards Bush than anyone expected and the mainstream media couldn’t get enough of the GOP infighting.
By this time Perino was press secretary. She was friends with McClellan but furious about his criticism of Bush. It was the president who finally convinced her to move on.
“I was very upset. The president knew this and I was kind of paralyzed and unable to do my job. He heard about this and called me into the Oval Office at 6:40 in the morning and said, ‘I’d like you to try to forgive him.’ I said, ‘Can I throw him under the bus first?’ He said no. He didn’t want me to live bitterly, that no one would remember the book in three weeks and we had more important work to do,” said Perino.
Then the president addressed the issue Perino didn’t even realize was bothering her most.
“He did something that I think shows the measure of him as a manager and somebody that cared about the people that worked for him. I was leaving the Oval Office and he said, ‘Oh by the way, I don’t think you’d ever do this to me.’ I realized that’s what I was mostly concerned about. I was worried that my relationship with him would be hampered by my predecessor’s decision to write a negative book about his personal relationship with the president,” said Perino.
Perino says Bush, whom she refers to as 43, is a very funny man and it manifested itself most noticeably in his relationship with First Lady Laura Bush.
“I like watching husbands and fathers that can make their women laugh. With a look, he can make Mrs. Bush giggle. Their relationship of total commitment and love and fun really helped inspire me,” said Perino.
Once the Bush administration ended, Perino got involved in several different types of work, one of which was as a Fox News analyst. Soon thereafter, Glenn Beck left Fox News and the network decided to launch a temporary show called “The Five” to hold the time slot until a permanent replacement could be found. Perino was recruited for the show along with Greg Gutfeld, Eric Bolling, Kimberly Guilfoyle and the lone liberal, Bob Beckel.
Fox News never had to find another program for the time slot because “The Five” was an instant smash.
“That was the genius of Roger Ailes. He knew that the chemistry would be good. We didn’t know each other very well. None of us were close when we sat down. In fact, Gutfeld and I had only sort of said hello passing in the hallway. It turns out we get along so well and I call him the brother I never wanted,” said Perino.
