Hold on, Mr. President!

• Author: Powell, Jody

Hold On, Mr. President!

Let's get this out up front: I like SamDonaldson. More to the point, I even liked the guy when we were hurling insults and accusations at each other in the White House briefing room some years back. Unlike some of his colleagues, he always came straight at you. If he had a story he knew you'd hate--and he often did--he'd make sure you got a chance to have your say. And when you talked to Donaldson about a story, you were dealing with the man who makes the decision. No ninny in New York was going to call in at the last minute to tell him how to cover the White House.

Well, now there is a Donaldson book*, and itcomes right at you, too. It's vintage Sam. He says he rejected the idea of hiring a ghostwriter, and it's clear that he's telling the truth. Read a few paragraphs aloud and your eyebrows begin to arch upwards in that inimitable Donaldson style. It's him alright.

* Hold On, Mr. President! Sam Donaldson. Random House,$17.95. To be published at the end of March.

The Donaldson ego is there, too. Toward thebeginning of his chapter on television news reporting he unabashedly observes: "Call me a braggart, call me arrogant. People at ABC (and elsewhere) have called me worse. But when you need the job done on deadline, you'll call me.'

Still, there is more than the usual ration of self-deprecatingstories and admissions of error. The latter are rare enough in Washington books of any description and particularly scarce in those by journalists.

Hold On, Mr. President! does not claim to bea scholarly dissertation on the last quarter century of Washington journalism, and it's not. Mostly it is a collection of stories, anecdotes, and observations. At that level it is the best such collection to come along in quite a while. In at least two areas, however, his book has serious things to say about business immediately at hand.

The first has to do with the nature of areporter's job, particularly at the White House. Appropriately, his first chapter is entitled "Challenging Presidents.' What he has to say is hardly new, and it might not have seemed terribly important three months ago. Now, with most journalists pumping out lame defenses for their six-year failure to challenge much of anything about the present administration, Donaldson's dogged approach deserves more than casual consideration.

Most of the journalists now squirming in thewake of the Iran scandal wouldn't be caught dead shouting a question at a president from behind...