MS. MYERS: But there’s a conversation going on now among people who are starting to look at running in, in 2008, and it’s about will the Democratic nominee or the Republican nominee or the next president adopt the Bush strategy. And I think it’s—that’s a fascinating conversation, because it has wrought what Ron pointed out, which is you’re only talking to, at best, half the country, and then it’s not a very effective strategy for governing. And yet it’s been effective politically at certain times for the Bush administration, and I think everybody else is wondering, should they adopt it?

MR. RUSSERT: One of those examples: Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense. Here was President Bush on Tuesday defending Mr. Rumsfeld.

(Videotape, April 18, 2006):

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld. I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I’m the decider, and I decide what is best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Now Tom DeFrank of the Daily News, David, said that in private the president has been venting about some of the recommendations Mr. Rumsfeld gave them. A senior White House official said, “No, that’s just not true.” Where are we on Donald Rumsfeld?

MR. BRODER: Well, I think you have to take the president at his word. I think he has made that decision, I think he’s committed to it, and I don’t think that argument about whether Rumsfeld stays or goes is much of a useful exercise as long as president is where he is.

MR. RUSSERT: One Bush friend told me “to fire Rumsfeld would be the equivalent of the president firing himself because it would be an admission that everything that had been recommended about the war had not, in fact, happened.”

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MS. MYERS: Well, if they hadn’t let it get to this point, though, he could have used Rumsfeld as an opportunity to separate what was bad about his strategy from what was good, and say, “We were right to go to Iraq, it was badly handled in execution. That’s the secretary of defense’s job,” and he wouldn’t have said it quite that bluntly, but, “It’s time to move on.” It’s too late now.

MR. BLANKLEY: Look, I mean, I think much more important than whether Rumsfeld’s done a good or a bad job—and we all have our opinions on that, I think he’s done a pretty good job, but I disagree on some areas—is the way in which this revolt of the generals has come out. We—you know, where you’ve got generals, not only retired, but apparently active now, lobbying, virtually, in public, to try to get the secretary of defense fired. And, and Richard Holbrooke in The Washington Post, leading Democrat, indicated in his column last week in The Post, that, that he was aware of these plans, these agreements to start releasing information. I think there’s a very serious—as The Washington Post editorial said a few days later—question of, of civilian and control of the military.

MR. RUSSERT: Ron, 10 seconds.

MR. BROWNSTEIN: I would say that that soundbite says more about where the president’s going than all the shake-up in the White House: Basic same strategy, “I am a man of resolve, I believe what I believe and you can like it or not, but I am sticking with my course.” And I think that’s the overriding message that he sent, and probably one that’s going to guide the rest of his presidency, for better or worse.

MR. RUSSERT: To be continued. We’ll be right back with our MEET THE PRESS MINUTE.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back. George Christian was the press secretary for President Lyndon B. Johnson, another embattled president whose poll ratings suffered from an unpopular war. He offers some interesting advice in his final days on the job.

(Videotape, January 19, 1969):

MR. LAWRENCE E. SPIVAK: Our guest today on MEET THE PRESS is the special assistant and press secretary to President Johnson, George Christian. He leaves the White House Monday after almost three years of service.

Mr. Christian, you’ve been both a newsman and a press secretary, have you any suggestions as you leave the office for improving the relationship between the presidency and the press and the public interest?

MR. CHRISTIAN: The presidency and the press, I believe, Mr. Spivak, have a fairly good relationship. I’m not sure it ought to be a close relationship. It should be rather arm’s length. It should be a critical relationship. I think presidents ought to be free to criticize the press, and the press ought to be free to criticize the president. And I think both presidents, in the plural, and press in the plural sense, are sensitive to criticism, and I think this is partly what makes the country tick. And God save the republic if we ever have a president who isn’t sensitive to criticism.

MR. RAY SCHERER (NBC News): What advice might you offer to your successors, Mr. Klein, Mr, Ziegler, as a holder of one of the most thankless jobs in Washington?

MR. CHRISTIAN: Probably the same advice that my predecessors gave me, merely to tell the truth and keep your sense of humor. I think if you, if you try to do that, the other things come along.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Pretty good advice for life. And we’ll be right back.

(Announcements)

MR. RUSSERT: Yes, it is what you think. It really is the Stanley Cup for supremacy in National Hockey League. And, yes, you know what’s coming, you know where it’s going, the Buffalo Sabres. Big game last night. Oh, yeah, Stanley Cup, I can feel it now. Big Russ, this baby’s coming back to Buffalo.

That’s all for today. We’ll be back next week. If it’s Sunday, it’s MEET THE PRESS.

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