Senate Republican leaders complained Friday that the news media ignore good economic developments that they say stem from policies of President Bush and the GOP Congress.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the No. 2 Senate Republican, took a few jabs at the press, telling reporters at a news conference:

"I know they teach all of you in journalism school that only bad news is news, and certainly the Democrats haven't been talking much about the economy lately because it's been almost entirely good news," McConnell said.

"It will be interesting to see if any of your editors will allow you to even write anything related to the good news that we're hearing today."

He was referring to a government report showing that 215,000 jobs were created in November and that the unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent.

McConnell and the other GOP senators, having just returned from a House-Senate leadership retreat, sounded similar themes.

Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah griped that the media won't give Republicans any credit for the economy.

"It's just too bad, once again, that this is the Rodney Dangerfield recovery that's not getting any respect because of the political overlay of people who like to say 'Gee, if we admit that the economy is strong, we have to admit that maybe President Bush knew what he was doing.' "

Bennett said Republicans deserve recognition for "going through a tremendous exercise here in the Congress to somehow squeeze $50 billion out of the deficit."

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