Gossip Roundup: First Daughter Sexy Chic

• Reliable Source: Patron rides Segway into Bistro Bis… Bush and the Belgian prime minister talked for nearly an hour about biking… For the inauguration of Liberia’s first female president, Barbara Bush was “‘Sex and the City’ chic in a skintight turquoise dress and open-toe snakeskin high-heels.” [WP]
• Under the Dome: Larry David is tickled to no end over sandwich coincidence… Rep. Roy Blunt’s (R-Mo.) campaign bought roybluntsucks.com and other variations… The Federal City Club is closing. [The Hill]
• Inside the Beltway: White House pool report notes African “women balancing baskets on their heads.” [WT]

READ MORE: Personalities, White House, barbara bush, federal city club, george w. bush, larry david, roy blunt, segway

WH Pool Report: The President Rides Scooter

In this White House pool report, the President conquers his demons, and gets another scooter out of the White House:

The Leader of the Free World did, indeed, hop onto a Segway scooter and cruised for an undetermined distance at the Guest House under the no-doubt admiring gaze of his Japanese host. Duffy, through Carroll, said the new Segway was a gift from the president to the prime minister. One has to use one’s imagination as to how fast the President-guided the Segway or whether he managed a more graceful dismount than the last time he was seen on one of these scooters.

Full report after the jump.

From: Press.Releases@WhiteHouse.Gov Subject: POOL REPORT #2, 11/16/05 Date: November 16, 2005 1:53:17 AM EST

Pool Report #2
November 16, 2005
Scooter One, a Motorcade to shrine and meetings at Guest House
 
Very little first-hand color, but a confirmation of a tidbit carried, we are told, in a Japanese pool report. This is a second-hand confirmation of an incident your pooler did not witness. But Trent Duffy through the ever-helpful Carlton Carroll came to the rescue, stating that, yes, the Leader of the Free World did, indeed, hop onto a Segway scooter and cruised for an undetermined distance at the Guest House under the no-doubt admiring gaze of his Japanese host. Duffy, through Carroll, said the new Segway was a gift from the president to the prime minister. One has to use one’s imagination as to how fast the President-guided the Segway or whether he managed a more graceful dismount than the last time he was seen on one of these scooters. But Carroll said the president rode it for at least part of the drive in front of the Guest House as he presented it to his host. So he did, at least briefly, trade in his limousines, Marine One and Air Force One for Scooter One. For the record, the scooters can go as fast as 12 mph, according to their website. You’ll recall that in June 2003 there were pictures of the President trying out a Segway at Kennebunkport. The Segway went down in that test, but the president did not fall, managing to land on his two feet.
 
Unfortunately, nothing that your pool saw was as interesting as that. Basically, the pool followed the visiting president’s motorcade to the shrine and back to the Guest House and then saw the top of the meeting with the Prime Minister and watched the two leaders watch fish swim under a bridge as the two leaders walked to their press availability. Both men seemed very impressed by the fish and stopped and pointed. The fish were brightly colored and various sized Koi, prompting the ever-clever steno Ellen Eckert, to dub the structure, “the Bridge over the River Koi.”
 
If you look up “uneventful” in the dictionary, you get the morning motorcade. All it confirmed is that many Japanese own cell cameras and many of them use them when visiting presidents drive by.  For those keeping score, the motorcade left the Guest House at 8:07 a.m. arriving at the shrine at 8:17 after a drive through town and past small clusters of townspeople. This pool did not see the shrine or the tour. The motorcade left for the return to the Guest House at 8:45.
 
At the Guest House, the pool was oh so briefly at the bilat, long enough to hear no words but to see a handshake. There were four flags arranged, two on each side of the large window behind the chairs there for the leaders.
 
George Condon, Copley News Service
 

READ MORE: White House, george w. bush, japan, pool report, press corps, segway, top