Que$tioning the Pre$ident

As we reported yesterday, Democrats.com is offering a cash reward of up to $1,000 for anyone who questions President Bush on the Downing Street Memo–there’s more money in it if someone can actually get him to answer the question, although partial credit is possible simply for asking.

Reuters’ Steve Holland yesterday made a quick $250 yesterday for his question, although the word on the street is that he won’t accept the reward. (WP’s Dana Milbank appears to be incorrect that Holland was eligible for the full reward–Milbank probably didn’t read the fine print that required a specific “yes” or “no” for the cool grand.)

Nevertheless perhaps we’re seeing a new wave of pay-for-play journalism: If enough organizations start putting up money to see their points of view represented in the press briefing, being a White House reporter could become as lucrative as say, male prostitution. Oh. Wait….

Yesterday, the WP.com’s Jefferson Morley wrote in a chat that the Downing Street Memo has failed to gain traction because of breakdowns in the U.S. media: “I think some combination of cynicism, complacency and insulation has stifled the instincts of very good reporters. I also think there is also a failure of leadership at the senior editorial level. The issues raised by the Downing Street minutes are very serious. To pursue them is to invite confrontation. This means that ‘beat’ reporters cannot realistically pursue the story.”

Is that a challenge to Len Downie?

Full transcript of the exchange is after the jump.

STEVE HOLLAND: Thank you, sir. On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street memo from July 2002 says intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action. Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?

PRIME MINISTER BLAIR: Well, I can respond to that very easily. No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all. And let me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn’t do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action.

But all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look for a way of managing to resolve this without conflict. As it happened, we weren’t able to do that because — as I think was very clear — there was no way that Saddam Hussein was ever going to change the way that he worked, or the way that he acted.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, I — you know, I read kind of the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I’m not sure who “they dropped it out” is, but — I’m not suggesting that you all dropped it out there. (Laughter.) And somebody said, well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There’s nothing farther from the truth.

My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully, what could we do. And this meeting, evidently, that took place in London happened before we even went to the United Nations — or I went to the United Nations. And so it’s — look, both us of didn’t want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It’s the last option. The consequences of committing the military are — are very difficult. The hardest things I do as the President is to try to comfort families who’ve lost a loved one in combat. It’s the last option that the President must have — and it’s the last option I know my friend had, as well.

And so we worked hard to see if we could figure out how to do this peacefully, take a — put a united front up to Saddam Hussein, and say, the world speaks, and he ignored the world. Remember, 1441 passed the Security Council unanimously. He made the decision. And the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

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