<i> This </i> President Really Lit Up Tree

President Bush pressed “the real thing” when he switched on the National Christmas Tree, spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Friday, but he hesitated when asked the same question about former President Reagan.

“I better let that go,” Fitzwater said when asked if Reagan had used a phony button in the years that he lit the tree from the safety of a White House balcony.

“Is your non-answer an answer?” he was asked.

“Well, sort of,” responded Fitzwater, who served as press spokesman to Reagan before taking on the same assignment with Bush.

Asked about this year’s ceremony, Fitzwater asserted without hesitation: “Last night was the real thing.”

Bush lit the 35-foot national tree on Thursday night in person at a public outdoor ceremony on the Ellipse. During his eight years in office, Reagan stayed within the White House complex for the ceremony, supposedly lighting the tree by remote control.

Fitzwater was pressed about speculation that the button Reagan pushed each year was not attached to anything, and that a National Park Service officer actually lit the tree from the site.

“I think that’s a question for Mark Weinberg,” Fitzwater said, referring to the current press spokesman in Reagan’s California office.

“All I know is when the President pushed the button, the tree lighted up,” Weinberg said in a telephone interview.