Bush Breezes Through 1st Press Room Briefing

President Bush faced White House reporters for the first formal news conference of his presidency Thursday, taking on every issue from spies to pardons, Colombia to Iraq.

Bush successfully seized control of one of the singular tools of the presidency a month into his term. He demonstrated enough confidence to delve into some topics and skim easily over those he did not want to answer.

He insisted that last week’s airstrikes against Iraq were a success, despite the fact that, as the Pentagon acknowledged Thursday, only 40% of targets were hit. “We got his attention,” he said of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

He voiced concern about reports that China is helping Iraq build more effective air defenses. And he said U.S. involvement in Colombia should end at training that nation’s forces to reduce drug trafficking and should not include direct U.S. military engagement.

Asked about the pardon scandal engulfing his predecessor, Bush brushed off invitations to criticize directly, saying: “This White House is moving forward. We’ve got a lot to do.” But he did not resist one jab: “Should I decide to grant pardons, I will do so in a fair way. I’ll have the highest of high standards.”

He said that he is “deeply concerned” about the FBI spy case but gave agency Director Louis J. Freeh a vote of confidence two days after the arrest of FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen, accused of spying for Moscow. And he pledged that the case will not prevent his dealing with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in “a very straightforward manner.”

In late December, as they were getting ready to vacate their White House offices, Bill Clinton’s senior aides looked with glee at what they anticipated would be a stumbling, awkward Bush performance in his presidential news conferences. They even thought of putting on one last Clinton show just to set an impossibly high standard for the new president.

Certainly, Bush did not resemble Clinton--but the distinction was not the kind the Clinton staff anticipated. For one, he kept his responses short. For another, he arrived precisely on time, entering the press briefing room with a purposeful stride. He wrapped up one minute shy of the 30 minutes allotted.

And when he decided to leave, that was that. There was no turning back for a second or third “final” question.

The effect, and an important one at that, was to demonstrate, not necessarily to the 60 or so reporters in the room but to the television audience watching the live midday coverage, that he was running the show.

He did so almost from the start.

Helen Thomas, the veteran White House reporter, asked Bush: “Mr. President, why do you refuse to respect the wall between the church and state?” The question referred to his establishment of an office of faith-based and community organizations in the White House.

“Helen, I strongly respect the separation of church and state . . . ,” the president began.

She came right back: “You wouldn’t have a religious office in the White House if you did.”

And Bush, seeking to continue, responded: “I didn’t get to finish my answer, in all due respect.”

When he was done explaining the role of the new office, intended to serve as a liaison between government and private, often religious-based groups performing charitable work, Thomas sought to continue the debate. “You are a secular official,” she said.

He responded, curtly, “I agree. I am a secular official.”

Next question.

There were efforts, some forced but others a part of his conversational style, to interject informality, if only by using the nicknames for which he is becoming renowned.

“You’ve shown a lot of interest in Latin America issues,” one reporter stated in the opening of a question.

“Si,” the president said, before the questioner could proceed.

“Bruni,” he called out to one reporter who had covered him throughout the campaign--mispronouncing his name, as he had done for more than a year, as Broon-eye rather than Broon-ee.

The president also referred to one reporter by the nickname “Pancho.”

Bush refused repeated entreaties to talk about presidential pardons, in particular the role of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s brother in the pardon process of his predecessor.

But there was one question he was willing to answer: What guidance would he give the politically active members of his family about seeking to influence him?

“My guidance to them is, ‘Behave yourself,’ ” he said, adding: “And they will.”

And the topic itself did not seem to displease him.

He was asked whether the Clinton controversies might be a distraction. (As news coverage of the pardons controversy has continued, of course, Clinton’s approval ratings have slid downward and Bush’s have risen.)

He skirted the question but could not suppress a grin at the idea that Clinton’s troubles were distracting the public’s attention from what his White House is doing and are thus a problem for him.

Bush was more than willing to kick around one of the central topics of his tenure to date, and one that is likely to be a focal point next week when he speaks to a joint session of Congress: cutting taxes.

As a reporter began a question with the statement that some say his tax cut proposal is too large, Bush cut in: “Some are saying it’s too small, some are saying it’s too large and I’m saying it’s just right.”

But, he added, “sorry, I interrupted.”

Clearly, the president set out with a game plan for the news conference--at least to the extent that he came with a list of reporters he wanted to call on. The only trouble was that he turned to one of them, Kelly Wallace of CNN, for a question after she had already had a turn.

And he refused to be pressured into talking about some matters.

To a persistent questioner from the BBC focused on a meeting Bush will have today with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the president suggested, without sounding curt: “Well, why don’t we wait until after he and I visit, so I don’t have to give the same answer twice.”

Reporters were given less than an hour’s notice that a news conference was planned.

In that short summons, this Bush White House is operating much as the previous version did. Bush’s father routinely dropped into the briefing room, sometimes without warning, for news conferences as frequently as once a week.

The 43rd president said “yes, of course” he plans regular news conferences. Maybe not once a week, he said, and certainly not twice a week.

And with one more grin that suggested he was pleased with the answer, he added: “I’ll be running out of ties.”