WH Pool Report: Way to Go Karl Edition

Extremely little of Wonkette interest in this pool report, save for one sartorial detail:

Aboard were Joe Hagin and Karl Rove, who came back to show the press cabin that he had absolutely no holes in his dark, impeccable socks.

Guess he finally got those special ones for cloven hooves.

UPDATE: Wonkette's fluid dynamics operative writes that he thought for sure we could get something Wonkette appropriate out of this detail:

In one interesting development on the tarmac in St. Louis, Karl was summoned by [personal assistant] Blake Gottesman into the president's limousine for the brief ride to the fundraising site. Karl usually rides in the staff van.

Hmmm. Yes. "Brief ride." Well, when there's three of you, sometimes it's hard not to get excited.

Full report after the jump.

Air Force One from Andrews to St. Louis

Scott gaggled, not much news, but here are highlights:

*President met briefly with G8 foreign ministers this morning; in response to a question about Bush's reaction to the comments by the new French foreign minister that France would never send troops to Iraq, Scott said that "countries have to make their own decisions.'' I'm not sure this will be in the transcript -- Scott stuck his head in the press cabin to say it after the formal gaggle was over. He has less direct responses in the transcript.

*President's radio address will be an update on Iraq

*Focus of his remarks at Concordia will be on compassion

*In reaction to the comments by the father of Nicholas Berg that his son died for Bush's sins, Scott said "this is a very difficult period.'' There's a little more in the transcript

*The FEC ruling, Scott said, "failed to address a loophole'' in the campaign finance law

*The $25 billion that the administration is asking of Congress for Iraq is "an insurance policy'' to meet the continuing needs of the troops

*On president's mid-40s approval rating in recent polls, Scott said "there will be a lot of polls between now and November'.'

*Asked what was driving the numbers down, Scott said "you always have to take into account current events.''

*Week ahead has travel on Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is a family dinner in Austin for Jenna's UT graduation; Sunday is a family dinner in New Haven for Barbara's Yale graduation.

Air Force One took off as part of the Andrews AFB Air Show in what people aboard described as a "max take-off,'' meaning it lifted off quickly, after less than 20 seconds of rolling down the runway, so more people watching could see it. It didn't feel all that different, just slightly faster than usual.

Aboard were Joe Hagin and Karl Rove, who came back to show the press cabin that he had absolutely no holes in his dark, impeccable socks.

In one interesting development on the tarmac in St. Louis, Karl was summoned by Blake Gottesman into the president's limousine for the brief ride to the fundraising site. Karl usually rides in the staff van.

Here at the fundraiser, where we are holding while the president greets the bigwigs, the take is $2.2 million for the Republican party, $25,000 per couple (although some gave more), with 90 people in attendance. Figures come from Scott Stanzel. We're at Hunter Engineering, a concern owned by Stephen Brauer; the Bush family is said to be close to the Brauers.

Overseeing the event is William H.T. "Bucky'' Bush, the president's uncle (and 41s youngest brother) who lives in St. Louis. There's a car museum on the premises, but we haven't seen it yet.

Pancakes, sausage, yogurt and watermelon for breaksfast aboard Air Force One.

We asked for Karl to come back and talk to us about the poll numbers on thenext leg, but Scott indicated that the chances of that were remote.

Elisabeth Bumiller

NYT