It would have been confined to the vice-president. By not telling anyone for 24 hours, it made it a White House story. It becomes a story about the White House handling of it.

The press briefing today I believe has lost much of its usefulness.

The White House is a strange place.

If you wanted to tell stories, he could tell them into the night. I used to kid that every story he had ended in a near-death experience. He didn't brag, which was a big part of his charm. He was a man's man and an intellectual to boot.

I am appalled by the whole handling of this.

He always made me a little nervous, to know that there was this fly on the wall that we knew nothing about.