"The good news is…"

For the next few days, just try to keep track of the number of times Bush and his designees use the phrase "the good new is…."


From the Whitehouse.gov transcript of Bush's comments in Mobile, Alabama.

We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)

A 'GOOD" UPDATE: President Tours Biloxi, Mississippi Hurricane Damaged Neighborhoods [link]

BUSH: I got some good news on the pipeline, the Colonial Pipeline. We thought it would be at 47 percent, at least I was briefed that yesterday. I'm told it's going to be significantly more than that, which is good news.

BUSH: Trent [Lott] was telling me that we got to get that port of Pascagoula open so we can get ships of foreign crude oil to the refinery. And we're -- we just got a lot of work to do. The good news is we know what we're going to do, and we're going to get it done.

BUSH: They started pulling people off roofs immediately. They started rallying -- we started rallying choppers to get people off rooftops, started savings lives. I mean, thousands of peoples' lives have been saved immediately, and that's good news.

Other uses of "good" by Bush at press briefing:

We're going to clean all this mess up. The federal government is going to -- will spend money to clean it up. The first down payment will be signed tonight by me as a result of the good work of the Senate and the House, $10.5 billion.

I got a good report today about food and medicine getting to people that weren't getting it, but we'll find out if it's true when we get to New Orleans.

And, listen, we're going to have a problem this weekend when it comes to gasoline, just like they've got a problem here. But we're addressing it. We're -- the EPA suspended rules so that we could use -- which attracted -- suspended rules for types of gasoline which attracted fuel from overseas. That's good.

Update: Now an unusually animated Laura Bush is out on the disaster tour. And Condi Rice, last seen getting heckled while shoe shopping in NYC yesterday, is now back in DC giving press briefings; no confirmation if she was wearing her new Ferragamos. Still no Cheney sightings yet.