Bush Bids Reporters Farewell in Final Press Conference

At his last planned White House news conference, President Bush this morning bade farewell to a press corps that has often sparred bitterly with his administration, telling reporters that "through it all I have respected you" even though "sometimes I didn't like the stories that you wrote."

"It just seems like yesterday that I was on the campaign trail and you were analyzing my speeches and my policies," said Bush, who wore a dark suit and indigo tie, and whose tone was quiet and relaxed.

"Sometimes you all have 'misunderestimated' me," Bush quipped, recalled one of his well-known verbal miscues. " . . . Always the relationship, I have felt, has been professional. And I appreciate it."

Bush said in answer to a question that he will ask Congress to release the second $350 billion in emergency relief funds for America's struggling financial system if President-elect Barck Obama requests that he do so.

"I don't intend to make the request unless he specifically asks me to make it," Bush said, adding that so far Obama had not made the request.

Obama said in interviews aired yesterday that his transition team is working to build support for the funds among members of Congress by convincing them "that this is not just money that is being given to banks without any strings attached, and no one knows what happens."

Bush, who will leave office at noon on Jan. 20 when Obama is sworn in, lunched with Obama at the White House last week, along with the three living former presidents, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He said this morning that the greatest challenge Obama and his successors will face will be "an attack on the homeland."

Bush also said he still considers North Korea and Iran to pose significant threats to America's well-being.

Asked about the Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip that began last month, Bush repeated his long-held position that the key to ending the violence is for the militant Islamist group Hamas to stop firing rockets into southern Israel.

"There will not be a sustainable cease-fire if they continue firing rockets," Bush said. "Israel has a right to defend herself." At the same time, he said, Israel should try to minimize civilian casualties.

Bush addressed several reporters personally even as he took their questions, asking ABC correspondent Jake Tapper, for example, whether he would remain on the White House beat after Obama is sworn in (he will). He checked with CNN correspondent Suzanne Malveaux as to whether he was pronouncing her name correctly after years of failing to do so. (It is Su-ZAHN, and he did).

The last time the president formally took questions from reporters was Dec. 14 in Baghdad, a session that quickly became infamous when Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush.

Bush said he would try to keep a low profile once Obama is inaugurated and he and First Lady Laura Bush return to Texas. "When I get out of here, I'm getting off the stage," Bush said. " . . . I've had my time in the klieg lights."