Ending a white-knuckle tour of duty as White House spokesman, Michael McCurry bid a bitter-sweet adieu to the press corps which has alternately adored and antagonised him through Bill Clinton's scandal-plagued presidency. ``It's been fun,'' was how McCurry summed up his three-and-a-half years in what is arguably the toughest job in town.But in his swan song briefing to the White House press corps, McCurry acknowledged: ``This is a contentious environment and it is by design an adversarial relationship,'' adding modestly, however, that he tried to inject a ``measure of amicability in the proceedings''.McCurry has been dubbed the `spinmaster' par excellence by the press, the pundits and the public, which has seen more of him than any other spokesman thanks to his decision to allow cameras in the briefing room.But the White House podium became an excruciatingly hot seat in January when the story broke that Clinton had an affair and sought to cover it up. While McCurry adroitly dodged difficult questionswithout appearing to stonewall excessively, he lamented that Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky forced him to do what he'd vowed never to do: lie.``The one thing I was determined when that story broke back in January was never to come here and do what some of my predecessors unfortunately did, which was to lie to you,'' McCurry said. But he added: ``Frankly, the President misled me too so I came here and misled you too on occasion.''``That was grievously wrong of him and he's acknowledged that,'' McCurry said. McCurry, who began at the White House in January 1995, often referred reporters' questions about the scandal to Clinton's lawyers, keeping purposely ignorant of the details to avoid being subpoenaed. ``Of the millions of pieces of information that I stuffed in this pathetic brain of mine every day, I segmented out on matters related to Monica Lewinsky,'' he said.But the spokesman, whose antics entertained the elite press corps as much as his deft doubletalk, stressed that he always tried toplay it straight. ``Did I ever knowingly come here and send you folks in the wrong direction? I did not,'' he said.And indeed, it is the reservoir of goodwill and trust that make McCurry so valuable to Clinton, who needs him more than ever as he faces possible impeachment hearings into the Lewinsky affair.But McCurry, a 43-year-old father of three, said he wants to spend more time with his family, ``play a little golf, make a little money, do a lot of Little League coaching and volunteering in my schools''. The spokesman ruled out plans to do as his predecessor George Stephanapolous did to the horror of White House aides and to write a tell-all book.Media critic Howard Kurtz joined McCurry's many fans in praising him for a tough job well done. ``With the exception of Watergate, the past eight months have been the biggest press secretary's nightmare that one could imagine,'' he said. ``And the remarkable thing is that McCurry managed to be part of the White House stonewall and yet all the reportersstill love him,'' he added.A good sense of humour always helps.McCurry has disarmed his critics with stunts such as wearing a bag over his head at the podium to speak as an ``unnamed source''. He once jumped fully clothed into a swimming pool while travelling with Clinton on a $100 bet and candidly joked that his first step after the Lewinsky scandal broke would be ``off the podium''. Kurtz said he most appreciated McCurry's references to his own answers as ``diplobabble'' and his ``clever ways of dressing up the fact that he is saying no comment in every conceivable variety''.
