Alex Rodriguez has decided he wants to play for the New York Yankees. The MVP has apparently realized that there's little glory in being a superstar if your team never wins.
The members of the White House press corps have shown signs they may be learning that same lesson.
Here's the most encouraging thing I've heard from that group of reporters, via a transcript of the gaggle posted by Josh Marshall:
"QUESTION: Can you answer Mark's question. Can you answer what Mark asked …"
I don't know who the reporter was who said this, and I'm not sure who "Mark" is, but that is exactly how a press "corps" should function. Call it solidarity, or teamwork, whatever. Unless the press corps works together like that, they are easily rendered irrelevant.
President Bush has criticized the White House press corps for their preening, strutting and posturing. And he's right. White House reporters often seem like their only goal is to be seen asking their question — regardless of whether they actually manage to get an answer, or whether that answer has anything to do with what they asked.
Ari Fleischer was a master at manipulating this aspect of reporters' vanity. He realized that as long as some of the peacocks in the press corps were granted their turn to ask their "tough" questions, they never seemed to mind if he didn't answer — or even acknowledge the substance of — those questions.
The press corps seems to be be waking up to the fact that getting to ask one's own question is less important than ensuring that the process is one in which questions are answered. If that means only one question gets asked — and none gets answered — on a given day, then so be it. Everybody goes back to their desk and writes a headline reading, "White House won't answer question."
If they do that, they'll be part of a winning press corps. As A-rod could tell them, that's a lot better than just being the highest paid player on a last place team.
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