TNR, 1999: Karen Hughes mouthing W's answers a half-beat BEFORE he spoke

I've been intrigued, but nowhere near convinced, by all the speculation about Bush wearing an earpiece. After reading the thread about Karen Hughes at http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1024807 , I used Google to do some checking, and turned up not only the 5/13/2004 Salon article cited in that thread, with its mention of Hughes mouthing Bush's words as he speaks, but another Salon article from 9/16/99 mentioning the same thing (but with the information from another source), plus some web pages written by people who'd noticed on C-SPAN that Hughes was mouthing the words of Bush's speech at the convention last month.

But most interesting was a Michelle Cottle article from The New Republic, 11/29/1999, "The Woman behind George W.'s iron bubble: The Enforcer." It's a long article about Hughes's relationship with W, but it opens and closes with a description of her behavior at a campaign stop at a school in Wilmington, Delaware, where Bush participated in a roundtable with local educators. The first paragraph describes Hughes working the room except while Bush was taking questions -- first from teachers and PTA moms, and later from a 6th grader interviewing him. Both times Hughes made sure she was in front of the media, crouched low and directly in Bush's line of sight. Then (concluding the article):

"At the brief 'press availability' following Bush's tour of Bancroft Academy, Hughes stands silently, chewing her nails and fidgeting like an anxious parent at her son's first piano recital. At this particular event, the questioning never gets heated and Hughes--standing off to the governor's right, in his direct line of vision--never bothers to enter the fray. It's another easy, sweet, shallow stop on the Bush juggernaut.

"They won't all be like this. In fact, they probably won't be like this for much longer. But for Karen Hughes--who is staring intently at her candidate, periodically mouthing his answers, word for word, a half-beat before he speaks them--that is a matter for another day."

Now, I can easily understand Hughes synchronously mouthing the words of a speech. And I imagine she'd have a pretty good idea what he'd say in response to most questions (most of us could make fairly good guesses). But having Bush's answers word for word, a half-beat before he speaks, when he's taking questions from the press?

Anyway, I thought it was interesting.

Intriguing, to say the very least.


Cher

the person who is feding the lines to say something like oh shit I broke my nail and bush to repeat it. nyah ha ha