As published on star-telegram.com on January 26, 2009:

In October 2006, things were not going well for George W. Bush or the Republicans. Iraq was a mess, and the fast-approaching midterm elections looked as though they would be a disaster. But the president was determined to give it his all, and that was how I found myself in suburban Detroit at a campaign rally for U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Bouchard.

I was a few months into my tenure as White House communications director — and a million miles removed from the press table at Reunion Arena, where I had been the Mavericks communications guy for almost two decades.

As the president concluded his remarks, I hustled for the motorcade. You see, just as the Mavericks team bus doesn’t wait for the PR guy, the presidential motorcade doesn’t wait for the communications director.

Just before the motorcade departed for Air Force One, a Secret Service agent stuck his head into the van. He told me that the president wanted me to ride with him in his limo (”stagecoach” in Secret Service parlance). I waited outside the president’s car and wondered why he sent for me. Soon he appeared, with Karl Rove at his side.

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