White House Spins The Boy Who Yawned
By Lisa de Moraes
Friday, April 2, 2004; Page C01
The White House, trying to get out in front of the Yawning Boy story, is now in charge of media access to the young man who was seen on David Letterman's show this week yawning his way through one of President Bush's less robust speeches.
Letterman's Worldwide Pants television production company has booked 13-year-old Tyler Crotty -- son of Orange County, Fla., chairman and major Bush fundraiser Richard Crotty -- as a guest on tonight's CBS late-night show.
"He's a young person who strongly supports the president and is excited about getting a chance to talk about it," White House assistant press secretary Reed Dickens told The TV Column yesterday.
Dickens has been named go-to guy for anyone wanting to interview Tyler, who gained national prominence when Letterman introduced a new segment on his show Monday called "George W. Bush Invigorates America's Youth."
What followed was a videotape of clips from a recent speech Bush gave at the Orange County Convention Center in which the then-12-year-old Tyler can be seen yawning uncontrollably, stretching, fidgeting and checking his watch while standing behind the president.
Tyler's father told The TV Column that his son was very tired because he had stayed up late the night before and then got up at 6:30 a.m. to accompany him to the convention center, where Crotty was also scheduled to speak that day. "Tyler was escorted onstage and was up there at least a total of three hours," Crotty says; Bush didn't speak until about 12:30 p.m.
Crotty says his son was eager to meet the president. Tyler did get to shake hands with Bush for all of his trouble, but, Crotty reports, the scene had a "rock star atmosphere," with Bush high- and low-fiving many people, so Tyler did not get to speak with the man he had inadvertently upstaged.
Turns out that Tyler has a history of upstaging speakers.
Two years ago, he introduced his dad before his annual state-of-the-county speech. Tyler ended by jamming his fist up into the air, which earned him a standing ovation.
"Tyler's peppy introduction earned louder applause than most of what his father said," recalls Orlando Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell, who blew the lid off this week's story of the video kid's identity.
When asked how he landed the scoop, Maxwell told The TV Column, "We had some sources close to the Crottys who knew who the kid was and who thought it was too funny to keep to themselves." The elder Crotty, Maxwell says, "was anxious when I first talked to him; he was deadly serious about this, saying, 'I accept full responsibility; I should have prepared him better.'
"Maybe he thought the wrath of the Bushes was going to come down on him. . . . Then he started to loosen up."
"I think whatever problems the Bushes might have had with the [Crotty] son they got over with pretty quick as soon as Dad reached 'Pioneer status,' " Maxwell says. That's the hokey title given to anyone who raises more than $100,000 for the president's reelection effort.
"Crotty goes way back with the Bushes; he worked on the dad's campaign in the '80s," Maxwell says. And according to the Orange County government Web site, Richard Crotty was appointed county chairman by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2001.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
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