White house press corps kicked out of West Wing.

We'll see if it really is only temporary.

"The briefing room and accompanying press offices are to be torn down starting next week to make way for a complete renovation, with high-tech accessories that may take seven to nine months or more to complete."

"Amid paranoia among some reporters that this is Bush's chance to fulfill the dream of many of his predecessors and toss out the press from prime office space, Bush said he looked forward to "having you back here."

Snow pledged the press corps will return to new, spiffy digs.

"There will indeed be a new press room. It will be right here. It is not going to be in a distant part of town. It will be right here in this very spot," Snow said."

"Joe Lockhart, who as a Clinton press secretary dealt with questions about the impeachment proceedings rooted in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, said the briefing room is where the public holds the presidency accountable.

"While some days it looks like a third-grade food fight, there's something really important that goes on and the public's right to know is protected right here in this room," he said. "

Bush says farewell to press corps.

"While journalists have complained for years about the crowded, dirty conditions and the absence -- until actor Tom Hanks stepped in -- of a proper coffee machine, their chief fear is of not being allowed to return nine months from now."

"Snow declined to say when reporters would be able to return from their exile in a nearby government building to the White House itself, saying: "The only thing worse than making predictions about diplomacy is construction."

The renovation is expected to take nine months."

"...actor Tom Hanks, horrified after a tour of the facility, bought the reporters a top-notch espresso machine."

"CBS radio reporter Mark Knoller, a White House veteran and the closest thing the press corps has to an official record keeper, recently joked about those anxieties in an e-mail to fellow correspondents.

"Now taking bets," he wrote. "We'll be back in the press room by: a) the mid-term elections, B) 'mission accomplished' in
Iraq, c) the 2008 elections, d) the next millennium or e) never.""

White House press evicted....temporarily?