By: E&P Staff For probably the first time ever, a "blogger" was admitted to the informal White House press "gaggle" on Monday morning, and then the afternoon briefing.
In a report this morning on the gaggle, Garrett M. Graff of FishbowlDC presented it as perfectly routine, and revealed that he offered cookies to the press staff who helped get him past the front gate.
He did not file a report on the afternoon briefing for more than 90 minutes--very unbloglike--because of other pressing issues (he was being interviewed about the historic day). Of course, anyone really interested could have watched it live on C-SPAN or at least followed a very funny blow-by-blow at the Wonkette blog.
After all this, Graff did not ask Scott McClellan a question, although he said he had one ready: about the Internet, naturally.
After the White House let reporter/escort James Guckert in for two years, under the alias "Jeff Gannon," it seemed just about time for a blog arrival.
Graff had to make multiple attempts over several days last week before finally securing the promise of a day pass for today.
A White House spokesman told The New York Times that he believed Graff was the first blogger to be given credentials.
Graff has said that the Guckert/Gannon controversy inspired him to try for the day pass, but he was stymied until mainstream outlets like USA Today, and Ron Hutcheson, president of the White House Correspondents Association, made a few calls.
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