Complaints ofman's worlddog Obama

By Mark Leibovich - New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON — Does the White House feel like a frat house?

The suspicion flared in recent weeks — and not for the first time — after President Barack Obama was criticized by women's advocates and liberal bloggers for hosting a high-level basketball game with no female players.

The president, after all, is an unabashed First Guy's Guy. Since being elected, he has demonstrated an encyclopedic knowledge of college hoops on ESPN, indulged a craving for weekend golf, expressed a preference for adopting a "big rambunctious dog" over a "girlie dog" and hoisted beer in a peacemaking effort.

He presides over a White House rife with fist-bumping young men who call each other "dude" and testosterone-brimming personalities like Rahm Emanuel, the often-profane chief of staff; Lawrence Summers, the brash economic adviser; and Robert Gibbs, the press secretary, who habitually speaks in sports metaphors.

The technical foul over the all-male game has become a nagging concern for a White House that has battled an impression dating to the presidential campaign that Obama's closest advisers form a boys' club and that he is too frequently in the company of only men — not just when playing sports, but also when making big decisions.

While the senior adviser Valerie Jarrett is undeniably one of the president's closest White House confidants, some women inside or close to the administration complain that Obama's female advisers are not as visible as their male colleagues or, they suspect, as influential.

"Women are Obama's base, and they don't seem to have enough people who look like the base inside of their own inner circle," said Dee Dee Myers, a former press secretary in the Clinton administration whose sister, Betsy, served as the Obama campaign's chief operating officer.

Pointing out that women were crucial to Obama's election, Myers said they had high expectations of him. "Obama has a personal style that appeals to women," she said. "He is seen as a consensus builder; he is not a towel snapper and does not tell crude jokes."

Obama, in an interview with NBC on Wednesday, called the beef over basketball "bunk," saying the players were largely picked from a regular congressional game and the list of invitees was reviewed by women on his staff.