No Love for the 4th Estate

ABC News’ Karen Travers Reports: Grappling with a new Democratic majority and his own party on Iraq, President Bush seems to have forgotten about that other group that has been a thorn in his side over the last six years: the White House press corps.

A Notable omission on the President’s January calendar was a full press conference.

Bush did not have a press conference last month, his last full press conference coming on Dec. 20, 2006, a year ender before the holidays and his trip to Crawford, Tex.

He took questions from the travel pool on just two occasions (Jan. 4 and Jan 26) and it was only two questions each time.

President Bush did give two major addresses –- his Jan. 10 speech announcing a troop increase in Iraq and his Jan. 23 State of the Union address –- and interviews to ABC News, Fox News, NPR, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal as well as regional television stations.

But in terms of full press conferences, the absence of a January presser ends a 10 month streak; until last month, Bush had held a press conference every month since March 2006.

February was the only month in 2006 in which the President did not have a press conference, but he held two in October to reach a grand total of 12 last year (by far the most he has held in any of his six years in the White House).