in their own words
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 Dana's Shoe-venir - White House Press Briefing by Dana Perino 12/16/08 — Tuesday, December 16, 2008 — MS. PERINO: Ann. Q How is your eye? MS. PERINO: Fine. Q Does the President think that, had the gentleman thrown something other than a shoe, or thrown his shoe more accurately, that he was well enough protected, standing as he was, at that news conference? MS. PERINO: Well, it was just a shoe, and the President saw it from his vantage point. He felt fine about it. I think you saw he let the Secret Service know he thought he was okay, and the Secret Service jumped in as quickly as they thought they needed to. And then they were able to back off and let the Prime Minister of a duly -- the duly elected Prime Minister of a sovereign Iraq taking questions from journalists there who never would have been able to do that five years ago. And the President just thinks it was just a -- it was just a shoe. People express themselves in lots of different ways. Obviously he was very angry. I can't think -- I don't -- I can't tell you exactly what the shoe thrower was thinking, but I can tell what the President thought, was that he was fine. And he said immediately -- you saw his reaction was, don't worry about it; it was okay. So we hold no hard feelings about it, and we've really moved on. Q And he's satisfied with the -- satisfied with the protection -- had it been something other than a shoe? MS. PERINO: Look -- yes, he is satisfied that he was well protected by the Secret Service, as he always has been. Q Dana, specifically, does the President -- Q -- in the aftermath concerning the punishment? MS. PERINO: No, the only thing that he's -- what he said publicly is what he said privately to Prime Minister, was, don't worry about it, that he was fine. Q Why not worry about it? Doesn't it reflect the feelings of the people? MS. PERINO: I don't think that you can take one guy throwing his shoe as representative of the people of Iraq. And I will tell you that Prime Minister Maliki and the journalists who were there in the room, who apologized on behalf of the Iraqis, saying this is not how they would treat a guest -- I know that there are people in Iraq who are angry -- angry at their situation. It's been a very rough five years. What we were there talking about, though, is how much progress Iraq has made because of our troops and because of the wonderful work of the Iraqi security forces and their military, and how their economy is coming back. And they've grown in leaps and bounds, and so the country is on its way to becoming a wonderful country that can govern, sustain and defend itself, and they will be an ally of ours in the war on terror. Q But he wasn't a guest. It was occupied. MS. PERINO: No, we're not, Helen. We are absolutely a guest. Q It was occupied. MS. PERINO: We all went there and he signed the agreement, the status of forces agreement. If the Iraqis didn't want us there, we wouldn't have been signing that agreement that allows our troops to operate there for the next three years. Q -- a bunch of people self-picked by us who run the country. MS. PERINO: Are you suggesting that Prime Minister Maliki was not elected by the people of Iraq? That's preposterous. Q Why? MS. PERINO: Because there was an election and they -- he was elected. Q When you have an occupation, can you really have a free election? MS. PERINO: I have never once heard somebody suggest that that was not a free and fair election in Iraq. It was one of the highlights of the last several years that they were able to pull off an election like that, and how many people came out to vote. And absolutely, Prime Minister Maliki is their duly elected Prime Minister. Dana Perino | Democracy | Helen | Iraq | President Bush | Press Briefing | White House Press Corps Labels: Dana Perino, Democracy, Helen, Iraq, President Bush, Press Briefing, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 6:02:00 PM
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