Raghubir "The Foil" Goyal
"When
Goyal starts speaking, the press corps knows, their real work is over.
The rest of the briefing is going to just be play."
Raghubir Goyal, or simply "Goyal" as
he is known in Washington, is the White House correspondent for Asia
Today &
the India Globe. A regular at the daily White House press conferences
for years, he has always served as a lifeline for press
secretaries from both the Clinton and the Bush administrations. This
earned him his nickname "The Foil." Regardless of
what the main news of the day is, be it Monica Lewinsky, the Enron
Scandal, or the Rove leak investigation, Goyal's question
will invariably be about India or Pakistan. Thus, he can always be
relied on for a break in an otherwise stressful briefing.
Here
is an excellent Washington
Post article explaining the "foil" concept
"Go ahead, Goyal" is McClellan's
signal that the real inquiries have ended and it's time to field a
question about Kashmir or India.
Fleischer, Lockhart, McCurry, and
McLellan have all taken advantage of the Goyal Foil
Notable Goyal Quotes:
"...again, the President is doing a
great job as far as fighting against terrorism is concerned."
"First of all, I am really
thankful to the President for inviting me to the grand State Dinner for
the Prime Minister of India last week; it was great."
"What I'm saying, Scott, that
why do you have problems that I should ask
the same questions that everybody asked, because when the Prime
Minister
of India
is here, I should not ask the same questions everybody is asking. I did
the same thing during President Clinton. Why should I ask about Monica
Lewinsky when Prime
Minister of India--"
"Second
question is on the — now again, most of Indian-American
community thankful to the President for initiating — or did initiate
the
Diwali Festival of Lights at the White House".
"First, quick
correction -- the Festival of Lights in the White House will be on Tuesday, not Wednesday."
"-- Scott, I'm' sorry to interrupt you -- that there is plenty of bad
publicity against the White House in India and in the -- among Indian
Americans,
at least those in the U.S. But I am still thanking the White
House and the President for giving a (inaudible) to these people, to
come into the
White House, and even if it were not a Diwali
celebration, but it was just a briefing --"
"Scott, so much has been
written and said about torture. And I've been
talking with Prime Minister of India and -- in the U.S."
"Scott, first of all, I
have a great respect for this White House press
corps and they're very nice and kind to me."
"What I'm -- my question
-- comment, also, about when the leaders visit
the White House, and they have press availability in the East Room, not
only the
India 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, but other
questions are always on different topics. I feel, personally, it's
insult
to that leader and --"
"if it's the Indian
leader visiting here, that press
availability should be only on India."
"I have two questions,
one on the goodwill visit of the First Lady. It
looked like from the visit that she's representing well the United
States and the President.
She's very charming and friendly and
outgoing. My question is here that there's an old saying there's always
a great woman behind a successful man.
How the President take this?"
Goyal's MySpace page
Goyal on the Internet
1 This article,
also from the Washington Post, delves into some of the other
interesting members of the press corps.
2 Transcipt of NPR program disussing Goyal
as Ari's foil!
3 This is where I
got my picture of Goyal from!
4 Scroll down to July 25th, 2005 on this page; the author does a statistical
analysis of Goyal's questions!
5 Goyal's media address and phone are
listed on this site
6 Article about McLellan's "momentum killes", including Les Kinsolving
and Goyal
7 Blog mentioning Goyal and his exchange with McLellan after
the Indian Prime Minister's visit
8 Yahoo
group talking about the Goyal Foil
9 A copy of a New
York Times article talking about the Goyal foil.
10 Blog
mentioning how Goyal is the "go to guy"
11 Blogger
claims Goyal has replaced Gannon (which is not true, Goyal has been
around for years!)
12 Goyal's question about the first lady makes this author want
to puke
13 Blogger thinks, "Go ahead, goyal" should be changed to "You go,
Goyal!"
14 Article
mentions how president didn't call on Goyal.
15
Blogger doubts
Goyal cares about earthquake victims.
16 Article discusses who's
who in the press corps
17 Article discusses
Goyal's popularity with the White House
18 Site of White House press conference
transcripts
19 Goyal participates in a state
department press conference
20 Goyal participates in another state department press
conference
21 Guess what.... another state
department press conference with Goyal
22 Even
Rumsfeld has to face questions from Goyal!
23 White
House guest list for the state dinner with the Prime Minister of
India. Includes "Dr.
Jai Narain Gupta, Guest of Mr. Raghubir Goyal"
24
Goyal's Wikipedia
article
Got more links or notable quotes? E-mail ctmikolaj@yahoo.com