Wonkette

Ah, the power of the blogosphere. We were the first to report on President Bush teasing reporter Peter Wallsten for wearing “shades” at a Rose Garden press conference — sunglasses that Wallsten wears because he’s legally blind. Wallsten suffers from Stargardt’s disease, which causes vision loss.

And now, news of a presidential apology:

Wallsten said Bush called his cell phone later in the day to apologize and tell him that he didn’t know he had [Stargardt's] disease. Wallsten said he interrupted and told the president that no apology was necessary and that he didn’t feel offended since he hadn’t told anyone at the White House about his condition.

More details, after the jump.

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Earlier today, we broke the story of how President Bush poked fun at reporter Peter Wallsten for wearing sunglasses while asking a question. Wallsten, it turns out, is legally blind.

The crew over at Think Progress has followed up on our scoop; check out their work here. They interviewed Wallsten, obtained the transcript of the exchange, and grabbed a video clip of it, too.

We also reprint the transcript here, after the jump.

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Earlier today, we described an exchange at this morning’s press conference between President Bush and Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times. President Bush joked about Wallsten’s wearing sunglasses while asking his question. MORE »

A visibly tired President Bush, back from his surprise visit to Iraq, just concluded an hour-long press conference. It took place in the Rose Garden, and most of the questions focused on Iraq. MORE »

BREAKING! BREAKING! MCKINNEY PRESSER AT 5:30 AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY… WILL THE S1W BE THERE? MORE TK… MORE »

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Hey look, the President made a surprise trip to Afghanistan — seems there’s some sort of war on over there? — to give a little press conference and help open their new Target Superstore. The conference provided a perfect opportunity for the President to explain just how we’re measuring success at a time when suicide attacks are stepping up, much of the country is returning to Taliban and warlord control, and the central government seems to have authority only in Kabul. MORE »

In his nationally televised news conference this morning, President Bush told the press corps that it hurts his feelings whenever he hears that he doesn’t care about black people. MORE »

The definite highlight of this morning’s news conference is the little Freudian slip: “Saddamosama.” That’s good stuff. Worth a chuckle. It calls to mind a Skull Island beastie that would terrify the daylights out of Jack Black as it stoned Naomi Watts to death in a disused soccer stadium. MORE »

I can appreciate Patrick Fitzgerald’s by-the-book, just-the-facts approach to this press conference. But the thought occurs — what would it be like to have this guy as a dad? MORE »

President Bush reads from the script:

THE PRESIDENT: Bianca. Nobody named Bianca? Well, sorry Bianca’s not here. I’ll be glad to answer her question. MORE »

The wires are playing Bush’s statement today as a remarkable first: Bush admits mistake. Egads, that would be a big deal. But let’s take a look at what he actually said: “To the extent that the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility.” We’ve heard that kind of admission before, mostly from boyfriends: “I’m sorry if what I said made you mad.” But, lucky him: Liberals are going to spend the next two weeks arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of “fully do its job right,” while Bush goes and gives a speech promising truckloads of cash. MORE »