The White House lashed out against the media Saturday, arguing that those who deride US President George W. Bush's most recent verbal gaffes were "discordant with the American people."
"They don't care what you think about his grammar, they care about what he's going to do that affects their lives," White House counselor Mary Matalin told CNN.
She went on to upbraid journalists for emphasizing style over substance in their analysis of Bush's remarks during his first press conference as president last Thursday.
"And to parse it and pick it apart in the way that it is discordant with the American people, not your ears, but the American people," said Matalin, a former co-host on CNN's political debate show Crossfire, noting that US citizens would not warm to media criticism of Bush's grammatical style.
The new president drew muted chuckles and guffaws from the Washington press corps when he delivered a couple more of his trademark blunders during Thursday's event.
He said he was concerned about how much land was used in Colombia for "the growth of cocoa leaves." Far from being a foe of the popular beverage, the Colombian government is trying to eradicate illegal plantations of coca, a raw material used to produce cocaine.
With British Prime Minister Tony Blair due in the US capital later that day, Bush mangled English grammar when he proceeded to announce that he was "looking forward to having a private dinner with he and Mrs. Blair Friday night," rather than using the correct pronoun: him.
Conservative columnist Bob Novak, a long-time member of the Washington establishment, deplored what he called "a third-grade grammatical error" by Bush.
* "They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program." St Charles, Missouri, Nov. 2, 2000
* "I'm not sure 80 percent of the people get the death tax. I know this: 100 percent will get it if I'm the president." St Louis, Missouri, Oct. 18, 2000
* "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream." LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Oct. 18, 2000
* "More and more of our imports come from overseas." Beaverton, Oregon, Sept. 25, 2000
* "States should have the right to enact reasonable laws and restrictions particularly to end the inhumane practice of ending a life that otherwise could live." Cleveland, Ohio, June 29, 2000
* "It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it." Reuters, May 5, 2000
Source: AFP
But Matalin, who works for Vice President Richard Cheney, dismissed the criticism, saying attacks over style would not deter Bush from directly communicating with the American people.
"It was designed from the beginning to show and telegraph we'll be giving many and frequent press conferences, so the American people can understand what it is we're doing, not so the grammarians in the press can have a field day," she said.
Bush is no stranger to grammatical flops. During the election campaign, he provided a steady supply of fodder to stand-up comedians -- much to the dismay of his aides.
He was quoted as portraying himself as a "compassionated" conservative anxious to "get to the bottom of the answer."
At a rally in Iowa last August, he vowed to "end terrors -- tariffs and barriers -- everywhere across the world" and not to allow "rogue nations hold this nation hostile and hold our allies hostile." He apparently meant to say "hostage."
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