The Redhunter

Raghubir Goyal is called on at every briefing by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, and yesterday was no exception. He is normally counted on to be the fly in the ointment, asking detailed questions about the intricacies of U.S.-Indian relations and the ongoing conflict between Pakistan and India over the disputed Kashmir region -- issues that are far off the minds of most Americans, let alone politics-obsessed White House reporters.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Goyal had good reason to bring up such topics because President Bush was hosting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for an official state visit, not exactly an everyday occurrence for the Indian people.

Yet with the leader of 1 billion people standing next to the president in the White House, the American press peppered Mr. Bush with questions only about contemporary politics -- in this case his impending Supreme Court nomination and the kerfuffle surrounding Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove. This follows a pattern of questions no matter which foreign leader Mr. Bush is hosting.

Yesterday, Mr. Goyal decided he'd had enough of this, and he let the White House press corps and viewers of C-SPAN know it.

"Scott first of all, I have a great respect for this White House press corps and they're very nice and kind to me," Mr. Goyal said. "When the leaders visit the White House, and they have press availability in the East Room -- not only the Indian [prime minister] today, but any prime minister or president -- I feel it's kind of insult to that leader; he's standing there, only two questions, but only his own people are asking about his visit or his nation.

"Other questions are always on different topics," he said. "I feel, personally, it's insult to that leader and that if it's the Indian leader visiting here, that press availability should be only on India."

"Your opinion is noted," Mr. McClellan replied, before taking a question from Mr. Goyal about -- what else? -- the Indian prime minister's visit.

And they wonder why we blog.