The Press: Roughing Up Ron

The query from the back of the White House briefing room cut through the clamor: "Do you still enjoy your job?" Presidential Press Secretary Ronald L. Ziegler, clutching the Styrofoam coffee cup that seems to serve him as a big worry bead, offered an uncharacteristically clear response: "I haven't enjoyed it as much over the past few months as I did in previous years. But I don't mind it. I understand the scope of what you're involved in."

That recent exchange was deceptively benign, an interlude in a harsh running confrontation that seems to be destroying Ziegler's usefulness. Ziegler, 34, has never...

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