The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> HARD BAYLOR br> The White House was disappointed by the brutal treatment President Bush's economic summit at Baylor University received in the press Wednesday. Almost to a paper, from the New York Times and Washington Post to the L.A. Times and the San Francisco Chronicle , Bush's event was hammered for its heavily managed aura. /p>

"What event like this isn't?" wonders a White House staffer who didn't make the trip to Waco. "It's days like this that make you wonder if those media guys are just looking to do the Democrats' business. They complain we didn't have any opposing voices there, but I've seen how the Clinton people did their so-called summits and they never had them either. No one complained then."

Bush's people were criticized for inviting speakers to Waco who presented testimony prepared by special interest groups, and for having obvious friends, like U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue, sitting on panels.

"The frustrating thing," says the White House staffer, "is that the press knows that's how these things work. They know what it takes to pull off one of these events. There's a double standard here."

topics:
Business, Iran, NATO