Josh Bolten's mojo-recovery programmay eliminate daily press briefings

The Associated Press (AP) is reporting recently-appointed White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten's stated raison d'être:

''What the change does provide is an opportunity for the White House to step back, refresh, re-energize at a time when we're 5 1/2 years into an administration -- normally a slow point, a low point, in many administrations -- and a chance for us to get our mojo back, to go back more on the offensive and to get people within the White House to look at our operations, re-energize them for the next six months up through the election, the next 1,000 days through the end of this president's term,'' Bolten said.

According to the AP, with his appointment of Fox News personality Tony Snow as the new White House Press Secretary, Bolten is considering the elimination of the daily White House press briefing, which has become ritualized in the era of the 24-hour news cycle. The article notes that the briefings throw light on reporters' notoriously antagonistic relationship with this administration, even if, in much of their reporting, they appear to take the assertions of the commander-in-chief at face value -- a practice that eased the president's path into Iraq.

In making that threat, perhaps Bolten seeks to convince members of the press corps to behave in a more genteel fashion during the briefings. Here's hoping that the result is just the opposite, and that the American people will take umbrage at the idea of further limiting media access to the president's men and women.

Another gem from the article is Bolten's admission that, in addition to the nickname "Yosh," the president has several others for him that are "unrepeatable." Yo, conservative base: You got anything to say about that?