Bush picks new spokesman

WASHINGTON — President Bush announced Friday that his new press secretary would be Scott McClellan, a 35-year-old Austin, Texas, native from a well-known Texas political family.

McClellan, who has served as the mostly cheerful, boyish-looking principal deputy in the White House press office, is to replace Ari Fleischer, who has been the mostly stern public face of the White House through a tumultuous two and a half years. Fleischer is departing his job next month to lecture, write and raise money for Republicans.

"I am, one, sad that Ari's leaving," Bush told reporters on the South Lawn Friday afternoon, with his incoming and outgoing spokesmen at his side. "He's done a fabulous job for my administration. I appreciate his friendship, his ability to handle a very tough job, and that is dealing with you."

Bush then turned his attention to his new spokesman. "Fortunately, I've got a good man to take his place in Scott McClellan," the president said.

McClellan responded that "I look forward to working with the press corps, at least most of you, anyway."

Although McClellan has a more agreeable manner behind the White House lectern than Fleischer, he does not have Fleischer's Washington experience or his comfort in handling questions on a wide variety of foreign policies. But like Fleischer, who turned the evasion of reporters' questions into an art form, McClellan also has the ability, much admired by the president, to stick ferociously to his talking points, no matter how hard he is badgered by reporters.

McClellan learned many of his skills from his mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the Texas state comptroller, now a Republican, who was the Democratic mayor of Austin when McClellan was growing up. The even-keeled McClellan was the youngest of four boys.

"When he was born, the nurses in the hospital said, 'This baby never cries,"' Strayhorn recalled in a telephone interview Friday, fresh from a just-resolved major Texas budget battle with her fellow Republicans. "I guess he came into the world knowing he was number four."

But McClellan, a graduate of the University of Texas, went on to manage three successful campaigns for his mother — her election and re-election as a Texas railroad commissioner, and her election as comptroller. "He knew the issues, he kept me on message, and when I would bounce off the walls, he would keep me focused on what was important," Strayhorn said. She added that "nobody cared like he did, and he would keep all the consultants in line."