White House Under Siege

Mark Knoller Takes On Viewer Mail

(CBS)  CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller takes another stab at answering "Ask the White Booth" viewer mail.

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If the President and Vice President are so convinced that they are right and the rest of us are wrong why will they not hold an open press conference and take questions from all journalists ?
Kevin Quish

By my count, the president has actually appeared at some 120 press conferences since taking office. But the vast majority of them were joint sessions with foreign leaders.
As for the formal, solo press conference at the White House, President Bush has had 20 of those in nearly five years. The last one was on October 4.

It must be noted that Mr. Bush more frequently takes questions from reporters during photo opportunities. He did one of those on Tuesday after touring the U.S.-Mexican border at El Paso.

He was asked two questions about withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, one about Iraqi troop capability, two about border security; one about the bribery guilty plea by Cong. Randy Cunningham, and one about reports of secret U.S. detention centers abroad for terrorism suspects.

We know President Bush prefers the photo-op q-&-a sessions to the formal White House news conferences — where he thinks reporters are more concerned about showing off for their bosses than asking worthwhile questions.

Vice President Cheney rarely does news conferences. He prefers one-on-one interviews, most often with reporters deemed friendly.

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Has there been any discussion (behind-the-scenes or otherwise) in Washington, D.C. of impeachment charges being brought against President Bush?
Liz Hawkes

There’s discussion about everything in Washington. There are some staunch anti-Bush political groups that advocate impeachment.

Protestors at a Bush event in Denver on Tuesday carried signs calling for his impeachment alleging he deliberately misled American about going to war in Iraq.

A few liberal democrats in Congress, among them Charles Rangel and John Conyers, have raised the impeachment issue, but it’s not going anywhere.

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Why were the Clinton's hit so hard on White Water but G.B.'s selling of stocks in that company in L.A. (identified in Michael Moore's scathing documentary, "Fahrenheit 911") was not investigated by the Attorney General's office? The film alleges G.B. sold his stock in the company just prior to it filing Chapter 7, thereby dodging, allegedly, a loss of $800K?
Richard E. Dietz

Sorry. I have no idea what you’re talking about. But some might dispute your calling the Moore film a "documentary." Journalists produce documentaries. The Moore movie is a political film with an unmistakably partisan point of view.

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Does the White House feel more positive today? They appear to have won back the momentum on pro-Iraqi war policy thanks in large part to Joe Lieberman, the WSJ editorial page and The Economist cover story this week. Are they citing instant poll numbers to you today? (I can't find anything that's up to date.)
Pen Pendleton

Quite the opposite. The White House feels under siege. One senior White House advisor was indicted and had to resign. Another, Karl Rove, remains under investigation. The president’s approval ratings are still at the lowest point. And American support for the war has steeply declined. The President says leaders don't worry about polls, but clearly his top aides do.

Keep those questions coming.