I’m a little late to this one, but I can’t let it go by. Nicolle Devenish, the new White House communications director, offered this bon mot to the New York Times a couple of weeks ago:

Whether [improving relations between the administration and the media] can happen is an open question, since the relationship between any White House and the press corps is contentious. The current “don’t ask us we won’t tell you” press policy is in any case set by Bush, who distrusts the press and still blames it for his father’s defeat.

Devenish, who was the communications director for Bush’s re-election campaign, begs to differ about his attitude toward the press. “I don’t think the president keeps the press at arm’s length, and I think the president has a healthy respect for the press that covers him,” she said.

Let’s go to the tape (well, All the President’s Spin). Here’s White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card speaking to the New Yorker in a classic expression of the administration’s view of the press:

They [the media] don’t represent the public any more than other people do. In our democracy, the people who represent the public stood for election… I don’t believe [the press has] a check-and-balance function.”

And Bush has demonstrated his disdain for the media by holding very few press conferences. As of January 1, 2004, the grand total was 11, significantly fewer than his modern predecessors at the same point in their term, including Reagan (21), Clinton (38) and his father (71).

See the book for lots more on this subject. But one thing is clear — with disingenuous statements like these, it looks like Devenish is ready to follow in Ari Fleischer’s footsteps.