Bush sorry for sunglasses comment
US President George Bush, who often teases members of the White House press corps, apologised after he poked fun at a reporter for wearing sunglasses without realising they were needed for vision loss.
The exchange occurred at a news conference yesterday in the Rose Garden.
Bush turned to Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten and asked if he was going to ask his question with his ”shades” on.
“For the viewers, there’s no sun,” Bush said to the television cameras.
But even though the sun was behind clouds, Wallsten still needs the sunglasses because he has Stargardt’s disease, a form of macular degeneration that causes progressive vision loss. The condition causes him to be sensitive to glare and even on a cloudy day, can cause pain and increase the loss of sight.
Wallsten said Bush called his mobile phone later to apologise and tell him that he did not know he had the disease.
The reporter said he interrupted and told the President no apology was necessary and that he did not feel offended since he had not let anyone at the White House know about his condition.
“He said: ‘I needle you guys out of affection’,” Wallsten said. “I said, ’I understand that, but I don’t want you to treat me any differently because of this’.”
Wallsten added that Bush said he would not treat him differently, so the reporter encouraged him to “needle away”.
“He said: ‘I will. Next time I’ll just use a different needle’,” Wallsten said.
Wallsten said he thought that was a pretty good line and his only complaint was that the President did not answer his question at the news conference.
Wallsten had asked about White House credibility in the aftermath of top aide Karl Rove having been cleared in the CIA leak investigation. But Bush said he would not comment with another top White House aide still facing prosecution in the case.
