Bush Puts On His ‘Presidential’ Look : Media: His news-conference demeanor is in marked contrast to recent harsh words and vacation images from the golf course.

Unhappy with the image of a testy President playing golf while the country is at the brink of war, the Administration tried to put George Bush back on the “presidential” road Wednesday in the war of words and images with Iraq.

President Bush appeared in suit and tie--something rare for him at his summer home in Kennebunkport, Me.--and conducted a press conference with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at his side.

There was a conscious attempt, according to at least one Administration source, to have the President seem “calm, measured” in his language as well as more “presidential.” At least some aides had argued in recent days that Bush’s bellicose descriptions of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as “evil” and “a liar” were not serving American interests overseas.

All this stood in marked contrast to what have been the dominant images of the President on vacation--fishing, driving his gas-guzzling cigarette-type boat Fidelity or stomping off a green at the Cape Arundel Golf Club complaining that he did not want to answer questions about Iraq while he is “recreating.”

At his press conference, the President also offered an unsolicited critique of the media, another apparent sign of his displeasure with how he has fared in the war of pictures and verbal exchanges with Iraq.

“I hope the same tough questions are asked (by the press) in every country as they are in this country,” Bush said, “and I’m speaking of Iraq, particularly.”

The remark seemed an implicit barb aimed at the ABC and CBS television networks, whose anchormen had been granted passage into Iraq and given interviews with Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz.

“It’s not a criticism,” the President then insisted. “It is an objective statement.”

But Administration officials conceded privately that Bush had felt that CBS anchorman Dan Rather and ABC anchorman Ted Koppel had been too soft in their questioning of Aziz. The officials said the President also was concerned about interviews Rather conducted with Western “hostages” in Iraq who expressed sympathy toward average Iraqi citizens.

Koppel has conceded already that Iraq was trying to “use” him. “We were there for an express reason,” he told a reporter earlier this week. “The foreign minister was presenting the soft line on Iraqi policy. That’s why they let me in and why they let me talk to him.”

Spokesmen for ABC and CBS declined to comment Wednesday on Bush’s remarks.

The President also hinted at another controversy involving the press. Earlier this week, media representatives were hearing reports that the Saudi Arabian government, unaccustomed to open media, was considering restricting the access granted reporters covering the American troop deployment there. The access the Saudis have granted American reporters has been limited, but, for that country, unprecedented.

When asked if he could “ensure that Americans will have free, complete and open press coverage of their young men and women abroad,” the President deferred to Defense Secretary Cheney but conceded that the issue “had been discussed.”

Cheney seemed unwilling to offer the assurances reporters sought. “In the final analysis, they (the Saudis) will make the decision,” he told reporters.