Last Tuesday was one for the presidential blooper reel.

At a speech in Bridgeport, Conn., President Bush declared that he wanted each American to volunteer for "4,000 years," a variation of his usual call for "4,000 hours" that produced guffaws in the audience. Later, at a fundraiser, Bush bestowed a new name on Connecticut's lieutenant governor, Jodi Rell. "I appreciate Lieutenant Governor Judi Kell for being here," he said. "Great to see you again, Judi."

Whatever, says Cathleen Hinsch, a spokeswoman for Rell. "You don't correct the president."

But the White House does. Both goofs, and accompanying laughter, were stricken from the record – deus ex machina – in the official White House transcripts.

A similar sanitizing occurred the day before, in Knoxville, Tenn., when Bush was interrupted by hecklers shouting about Enron and the counterterrorism campaign – an unusual occurrence noted in news accounts of the speech. Federal News Service, a private organization, transcribed the boos, shouts and cheers, along with the president's struggle to deliver his lines:

[PRESIDENT BUSH]: I've come to highlight what works, so others around the country, if they're interested in –

MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: – if you're interested –

MEMBERS OF THE AUDIENCE: (Chanting.) (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT BUSH: – if you're interested in doing what is right to encourage your citizens to become involved – (chanting continues from the audience) – and so I want to thank the city of Knoxville, Tennessee, for showing Americans – (chanting continues from the audience) – for showing Americans how best to help their communities. (Cheers, applause.)

The official White House transcript made no mention of the hecklers or Bush's false starts.

The opposition sees a Soviet-style move to airbrush infelicitous phrases. "These transcripts are done for near-term history as well as long-term history and it's a real problem if they start rewriting them," said Joe Lockhart, a former press secretary for President Bill Clinton. "The White House is rewriting history."

Lockhart said the Clinton administration never cleaned up transcripts except to correct spelling, but veteran correspondents recall the practice occurring in both Democratic and GOP administrations. Lockhart's predecessor, Mike McCurry, said he gave White House stenographers "some leeway" to repair verbal abuses, including the task of "restoring 'g' to the English language" when Clinton's accent deleted the sound.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers routinely "revise and extend" their remarks in the Congressional Record.

Still, lawmakers do not benefit from the sort of real-time foot-noting available to a president. In Missouri last month, Bush expressed his desire for "making the death tax permanent." The White House transcript placed an asterisk next to the blooper and a footnote saying "should read 'death tax repeal.' "

In February, Bush baffled some listeners when he said he had spoken with the Japanese prime minister about "the devaluation issue" and told Japan's parliament the United States and Japan had been allies "for a century and a half." Asterisks in the official transcript indicated Bush meant to say "deflation" and "half a century."

The most public allegation of transcript sanitizing was last September, when White House press secretary Ari Fleischer warned that Americans "need to watch what they say." The phrase did not at first appear in the White House transcript.

The White House stenographers are respected professionals employed by a private contractor. Marshall Jorpeland of the National Court Reporters Association said the stenographers would not independently veer from verbatim. "When people hire us they expect a word-for-word account," he said. "In terms of cleaning it up on their own, I don't think they'd do that without that being the guidance."

So are Bush aides providing "guidance"?

White House spokeswoman Anne Womack noted that the transcripts have at times included hecklers and Bush-coined words such as "misunderestimated." "We view the transcripts as a historical record of the presidency," she said. "We expect accuracy and commend the stenographers for their excellent work."

Cleaning quotes can be hazardous. Recently, a White House transcript had Bush talking about stock options that "earn the money," when in fact the president had correctly used the Wall Street jargon "in the money." The confusion prompted an incorrect news report that Bush was shifting policy. In this case, Bush was better left unscrubbed.