White House Gaggle

By Ellen Ratner
Schedule:

The President had his usual round of briefings. He also attended his Security Council meeting. He will attend the swearing in of Education Secretary Spellings. Later today he will welcome the NBA’s Detroit Pistons. This morning he spoke with Tony Blair, President Chirac and Chancellor Schroeder. They discussed the election in Iraq and how it is a victory for the Iraqi people. They also discussed maintaining this momentum in the region. They discussed the Mid-East peace process and their support for it. The President is looking forward to his dinner on February 21st with President Chirac and to his trip to Germany on February 23rd. He will have two sessions in the family theater to work on his State of the Union Speech. He also talked with the President and Prime Minster of Iraq and the President said it was a significant blow to terrorists and commended their leadership. PM Alawi said that the Iraqi security forces were brave. Scott also announced that there was going to be a meeting on February 16th of the bipartisan tax advisory panel. Scott announced that Ambassador Crouch (to Romania) was going to be appointed to the National Security Council. Scott did not say if the topic of Iran came up in the phone calls.

Troops:

Scott said that in terms of the timetable that the decision would be based on circumstances on the ground and that the White House would listen to commanders and their recommendations of troop levels. He reiterated what Secretary Rice said on the Sunday shows about discussing the force with the newly elected Iraqi government. He said that both the State Department and DOD were very involved.

State of the Union:

The President is on his 13th draft of The State of the Union speech. In terms of the Democratic Party’s pre-buttal, Scott said that the President believes that he and members of Congress were elected to solve problems and that the President has an optimistic vision of the future.

Elections:

Scott reiterated that yesterday’s election is a victory for the Iraqi people and a "turning point in Iraq’s history and a body blow to the terrorists." Asked about the view of Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria on the elections, he would only state that "This was a significant step forward for freedom and a significant blow to the terrorists." He also said that the peace is secured by advocacy of freedom and that it is a generational commitment.

Republican Retreat:

The President worked the rope line with individual members and their spouses at the retreat. The issue of immigration reform was discussed that the President made it clear that he will work with Chairman Sensenbrenner. He would like to move on the temporary worker program for the eight million undocumented workers. Asked by this Talk Radio News Service reporter about Americans not wanting to do some jobs because they did not pay a living wage, he would only say that the "President had a message of sustained economic growth." On Social Security he said the usual about helping to build an ownership society and how the President wants to empower people to have a greater rate of return, stressing that this is a voluntary program to "allow our children and grandchildren to put a portion of their savings in retirement accounts."