by Mark Silva

"Welcome back to the West Wing… We missed you,'' President Bush told the White House press corps, assembled this morning for the ribbon-cutting of the newly remodeled James S. Brady Press Briefing Room inside the West Wing.

It had been nearly a year since the press left these once rat-infested and seedy quarters, with a secure promise of returning to this hallowed hall once the gutting and rebuilding of two floors of briefing room and working areas was completed. And here we are today, back with the president, refusing to take questions today.

"Let me cut the ribbon, and then why don't you all yell simultaneously,'' Bush joked, as reporters prodded him to field a few questions on this opening morning. "I'll listen, internalize and play like I'm going to answer and you ask the question.''

There was no yelling, but there was a lot of laughing on this celebratory morning, on which the president really did take a pair of golden scissors to a red, white and blue ribbon strung across the front of the dais and tied with bows to two steel stanchions. With the first lady and press secretary looking on, Bush cut the ribbon.

"The relationship between the president and the press is a unique relationship,'' the president said with a few brief remarks. "Sometimes you don't like the decisions I make, and I don’t like the way you write about the decisions.''

Tony Snow, the press secretary, First Lady Laura Bush, President Bush, with the golden pair of scissors, and Steve Scully of C-SPAN, outgoing president of the White House Correspondents' Association, at the ribbon-cutting of the new press briefing room this morning. Photos by Mark Silva

That relationship sometimes plays out in this cramped press briefing room – yes it's new and modern and lighted with panels of light-emitting diodes on the ceiling which give it all a sterilized atmosphere, but yes it's still cramped – but more often at press conferences in the East Room or in the Rose Garden.

The White House this morning, shortly after dawn.

Today, the veteran reporter and columnist Helen Thomas held her traditional front row and center seat in widened rows of seating that allowed for one new addition to the front row: CNN.

Helen Thomas, front and center, asks some of the toughest questions, though there were none answered on this festive day. The photographers captured the day for the veteran columnist.

And today, the veteran CBS News reporter, Bill Plante, appeared as if he had shared memos with NBC's David Gregory this morning – for both were dressed in light gray suits, wearing violent-colored shirts and purple ties. The president, 61, made a passing reference to the seniority of the seasoned Mr. Plante.

Tony Fratto, a deputy press secretary, was only joking when asked later this morning about the features of the new podium where he appeared to deliver an off-camera "gaggle'' with reporters: "The best is the smoke screen that blows out the front.''

The last time the president appeared in this place, the president stood, sweating, through a press conference in which a photographer's remote-controlled camera dangling from a rafter nearly fell on the audience on hurt someone.

Bush, at the new podium. Sort of like a "shield,'' he said, for "verbal bullets.''

It was hot in here then, and he remembered that well. It wasn’t the questions that made him sweat, he said.

It was "the climate.''

Obviously pleased with the cool new condition of this room, the president called it "conditions where a fellow like me can come in here and answer a few questions without losing 20 pounds.''

There may have been no questions answered here today, but there were a few observations. Bush suggested that he would like to get out from behind the podium sometime and look around. The podium is "a shield,'' he said. "Not exactly bullet-proof'' – but then, these are "verbal bullets'' that are fired in this press room.

New room, same old press.

First Lady Laura Bush did make a personal tour of the working spaces after the ribbon-cutting, passing through the two floors where reporters, photographers and producers work.

"Welcome to Black America,'' said April Ryan, of American Urban Radio Networks, as the first lady stood at the door of her radio booth downstairs – next to the Tribune's desk here.

First Lady Laura Bush visits the Tribune's workspace.

Steve Scully of C-SPAN, outgoing president of the White House Correspondents' Association, remarked on the improvement that was on display here today.

"All of us here know what the working conditions were like'' before, he said. "Unless you had seen it in person, you had no idea how run down it had become.''

Bush and Scully at the opener.

He wasn't kidding. Rats once were spotted in the tangle of the television cables strewn along the floor of the briefing room.

Today, it is new and clean and high-tech, with Internet connections available at the seating of the briefing room, which is a dazzling, ready for TV-set composed of a blue backdrop and white column-framed proscenium.

"Nowhere else is the working press office this close to the head of state,'' said Scully, underscoring the relatively few steps which the president and his senior staff had taken from the Oval Office to reach this room this morning.

Yet today, there were no questions, and no answers.

But there were rules: One reporter allowed from each news organization with a seat in the briefing room.

Mark Knoller, a veteran of CBS News Radio, remarked: "These sound just like the rules for Assembly Day at Public School 152 in Brooklyn.''

So it's assembly day today at the White House, where Tony Snow, the press secretary, will break in the new briefing room with a noontime EDT televised briefing.

And Snow, we're told, will answer some questions.

Check out the set. It's beautiful.