Taking Heat: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House.

• Author: Fischer, Raymond L.
• Position: Book review

TAKING HEAT: The President, the Press, and My Years in the White House

BY ARI FLEISCHER WILLIAM MORROW, HARPER COLLINS 2005, 370 PAGES, $26.95

In the middle of the afternoon on Election Day 2000, George W. Bush confidently asked Ari Fleischer to be his press secretary "after the win." On July 12, 2003, some 2 1/2 years and 300 on-camera briefings later, Fleischer resigned from a position he dearly loved, a president he respected, and a love/hate relationship with the White House press corps. Although Fleischer never had conducted a TV briefing prior to joining the Bush Administration, he quickly built a reputation as one of the best-informed and highly respected press secretaries of modern times.

Fleischer reflects on the president's policies, decisions, and character; discusses his own background, preparation, and what he saw behind the scenes; and analyzes the White House press corps, "one of the toughest, sharpest, most skeptical groups anyone will ever encounter." Fleischer wrote his book to explain why he did his job the way he did, to point out the weaknesses of the press corps in covering a Republican Administration, and to give advice and challenges to the corps.

Fleischer believes a White House press secretary absolutely must believe in the president and his policies. Although Fleischer was reared by Democratic parents and, in 1978, proudly called himself a liberal when he entered Mid dlebury College, he did not endorse Pres. Jimmy Carter's foreign policies. Rather, he supported Ronald Reagan's idea of peace through strength. Six months after his 1982 graduation from Middlebury, Fleischer became a Republican and went to work for New York Assemblyman Jon Fossel. Although Fossel lost his election, Fleischer learned to love politics and found that Republicans were not as evil as he had been led to believe. Fleischer, who over 18 years served as press secretary to three congressmen and a senator, attributed being reared a Democrat an asset in preparation for his briefings with the press; in fact, many arguments the media used against him were the same his parents had employed.

Fleischer uses several chapters to explain and defend the President's policies and decisions. He describes a President who sticks to his proposals, leads with determination, and implements his decisions, both domestic and international. A "fast-paced" man, Bush is well informed and careful in his review process to allow time for deliberation, debate, and...