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Relief is on the way

By Ken Herman | Thursday, October 26, 2006, 10:40 AM

Here’s the problem, personal though it may be:

While the White House Press Room is undergoing a massive remodeling scheduled for completion in the spring, the press corps is temporarily bivouaced in the nearby White House Conference Center. The accommodations are comfortable, save for some pesky temperature control issues that seem to have been solved.

In conjunction with the temporary move, a trailer has been set up on the White House grounds to house the pool reporters, photographers and TV technicians who have to be on hand for events open only to the pool.

The bathroom in the trailer is, shall we say, overtaxed and balky. At times, it’s a jiggle-the-handle deal. At times, jiggling was of no use because the little chain that connected lever and flapper was missing. There’s a White House souvenir for you.

So, with some urgency, the White House Correspondents Association has sought permission for the poolers to use nearby bathrooms within the complex. Help, it can now be announced, is on the way.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin has told WHCA President Steve Scully that pool denizens can use a unisex bathroom in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building when nature calls. The trailer is adjacent to the EEOB. And - the best news of all - poolers will not have to be escorted into the EEOB (as long as they behave).

“If we abuse the use of the bathroom, if folks begin roaming the halls of EEOB, Joe said he will end this immediately and we’re back in the trailer bathroom,” Scully told colleagues.

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