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Wednesday, December 13, 2006

The Spokesman Speaks

By Ken Herman | Wednesday, December 13, 2006, 10:46 AM

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Some comments from Gordon Johndroe, the new spokesman for the National Security Council, during a recent interview with Cox Newspapers:

On learning his job:

“There are days when I still wake up in the middle of the night thinking, ‘Oh no, what did I say?’ It usually turns out OK. I’ve made a few comments that didn’t turn out quite right but the republic hasn’t fallen yet.”

“You also get a lot of this by osmosis. The more time you spend with (National Security Adviser) Steve Hadley the more you learn.”

On negative attitudes about the United States:

“You are always going to have issues with the guy who’s got the biggest house on the block.”

“It’s very easy for people to blame America for things because they don’t want to look in their own backyard. Let’s not talk about the Arab and Muslim world. Let’s take a look at Europe, where they are so concerned that we maintain a prison at Guantanamo Bay. Yet every time we go to them and say, ‘OK, will you please take your people back?’” (They say) ‘Oh no, no, no, no. You need to keep them.’ … It’s very frustrating.”

“Europe was basically on fire when these rendition flights (taking terror suspects to secret prisons) became public. ‘We would never have anything to do with this.’ Yet I think information has come out since then that perhaps some people were aware.”

On his one-time job as wrangler of the White House press pool:

“The White House press corps is this continuous organism that has to be helped, handled, taken care of.”

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