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Home > Window on Washington > Archives > 2007 > February > 27 > Entry
Name That SAO
Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out who the “Senior Administration Official” is when the Bush administration says that’s the only way a senior administration official can be identified in print.
Sometimes it’s not so difficult.
See if the quotes below, gleaned from a transcript released this evening by the White House, help you identify the SAO in a document entitled “Interview of a Senior Administration Official by the Traveling Press.”
Hint: The transcript notes the interview took place en route to Oman aboard Air Force Two, which is the vice president’s plane. (FYI, the photo above is not a hint. It merely shows a Senior Administration Official):
“Let me just make one editorial comment here. I’ve seen some press reporting says, ‘Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them.’ That’s not the way I work. I don’t know who writes that, or maybe somebody gets it from some source who doesn’t know what I’m doing, or isn’t involved in it. But the idea that I’d go in and threaten someone is an invalid misreading of the way I do business.”
Hmmm…
And then this:
“I would describe my sessions both in Pakistan and Afghanistan as very productive. We’ve had notable successes in both places.”
Let the record show that Vice President Cheney just had sessions both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
But on the record, the comments came only from a Senior Administration Official.
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Roland S. Martin
March 1, 2007 9:06 AM | Link to this
Ken, that is absolutely hilarious! Yea, he blew the background deal. They might as well just name him. Too funny.
By Adam Clymer
March 1, 2007 9:53 AM | Link to this
On one famous occasion, the Washington Post printed a picture of Henry Kissinger alongside a story citing a “Senior Administration Official,” a term he may have invented. That’s a tactic worth reviving.