Thursday March 29 1:35 PM ET

Bush Shows Humorous Side to Media

WASHINGTON (AP) - For a few minutes Thursday, President Bush (news - web sites) turned into the Good Humor Man.

Bush offered up more than a few funny lines - some of them unintentional - during the second news conference of his presidency, an event announced and staged on less than an hour's notice in the White House briefing room.

When one chagrined person's pager began chirping, a known Bush irritant, the president deadpanned, ``Don't worry about the beeper violation.'' He recently chastised an aide for not making sure reporters turned off their cell phones and beepers in his presence.

Bush dispensed with using nicknames to call on reporters, but answered those who asked for follow-up questions with a terse, joking ``No.''

``There's gas in our hemisphere. ... I'd like it to be American gas,'' Bush said in response to a question about possible oil drilling on an Arctic preserve.

He caught himself in the middle of a mispronunciation. The word? ``Misunderstimate.''

``Excuse me. Underestimate,'' Bush said as reporters tittered. ``Just making sure you were paying attention. You were.''

When a correspondent prefaced his question with ``Mr. President, you're no longer negotiating with yourself on tax cuts,'' Bush replied, ``By the way, I'm still negotiating with myself.''

``Let me just bring up another suggestion,'' the reporter continued.

``Another chance to negotiate with myself?'' Bush asked.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001