Bush administration blogging Mideast trip

updated 1:20 p.m. ET Jan. 8, 2008

WASHINGTON - Everybody's doing it, so why not the White House? President Bush's team is joining the blogosphere, planning regular postings during his Mideast trip.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said Tuesday that the feature will be called "Trip Notes from the Middle East" and will showcase periodic musings from senior members of Bush's staff who are traveling with him on the eight-day trip. Bush leaves Tuesday evening to visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The blog can be found on http://www.whitehouse.gov.

"This is new to us," Perino said. She called it "just a little bit of a blog."

It's not clear yet how often new postings will go up. Hopefully daily, Perino said, "but we'll just see how the trip goes." Participants are likely to include chief of staff Josh Bolten, national security adviser Stephen Hadley, counselor Ed Gillespie, chief speechwriter Bill McGurn, Perino and others.

And it seemed the venture could be a test run for similar features to come, which would come in handy whenever the media's accounts of the president's activities veer from the preferred White House account.

"We'll see how it goes, and then we may do it in the future as well," Perino said.

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