Who Are You Calling A Lobbyist?

White House Correspondent Mark Knoller had an interesting, and surely rare, exchange with White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card yesterday. We'll let him explain the details:

About 45 minutes before Pres. Bush's press conference on Thursday morning, I answered the phone in the CBS News booth at the White House.

It was a most unexpected caller - Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

He said he was phoning to "eat crow" about a statement he made to me in a CBS News radio interview a week earlier.

I was asking him about the White House policy on dealing with lobbyists - and he wanted to challenge the "bad connotation" associated with lobbyists these days.

"Where I'm coming from you're no different from a lobbyist," he told me.

Me? A lobbyist? No Way!

"You're asking me to give you time - government time, taxpayers' time - to talk to CBS Radio and CBS benefits by talking to me."

Perhaps, but that doesn't turn a reporter into a lobbyist, does it?

He said it did. "Under the law, you're lobbying me. That's what the law says. You're asking me to take action with government time to someone's benefit who is not part of the government."

I've been interviewing government officials for 30 years, and no one had ever called me a lobbyist. But Card did.

"You are not part of the government. You've asked me to talk to you. You're a lobbyist."

I challenged his assertion, but he was adamant.

So it was something of a surprise when he called Thursday morning to say he was wrong. He cited federal law that specifically exempts reporters from classification as lobbyists. He apologized and said he would be eating an ample helping of crow.

It was a rare admission from anyone in government, much less the White House Chief of Staff.

It's worth noting that Card is a former lobbyist himself. After he left government service in 1992, he was a Washington representative of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association. He also served as a board member at General Motors - representing the company's government affairs activities.

In that same interview last week, Card said he respects lobbyists.

"Lobbyists are people who educate people who serve in government to concerns that might be in America," he said.

But he was quick to add: "I don't respect lobbyists who ask people to do illegal or inappropriate things."

And he said he was aware of "no impropriety" involving convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the White House.