Q Noting in the past couple of days you've declined to join the fray in the debate between Speaker Pelosi and the CIA, and then noting today that she was so pointedly at the President's side as he walked out of the Oval Office into the Rose Garden, I'm wondering if you know what they were discussing as they made that short walk that was very publicly seen.
MR. GIBBS: I don't. You can't do much in the Rose Garden that's not publicly seen, but I will -- I have no idea what they were talking about.
Q She was the only one on the side talking to him as he walked out. Was that a signal --MR. GIBBS: I watched in my office, so I don't know -- I can see what they may have been talking about. I don't --
Q Was that a public praising of hers? Is that a sense of he wanted to buck her up a little bit?
MR. GIBBS: No, I think the President talked glowingly about a number of people that were involved in today's announcement. I think the Speaker has always been a proponent of greater fuel mileage standards, and my hunch is that, like many of the people that were at today's ceremony, that they probably didn't think that a ceremony is usually had at the White House that brings together so many differing viewpoints in agreement for a change in our fuel economy standards. So I don't think that's the case.
Of course, a symbolic show of support is like a joke--you should never have to explain it.
--Michael Crowley