It depends on what the meaning of ‘vacation’ is

August 24, 2005

This one, by way of our friends at Think Progress, would be hilarious if it weren’t so sad.

Apparently, the White House is a little sensitive about the fact that Bush routinely takes time off and recently broke the record for most vacation days for a president (Reagan took 335 days off; Bush sailed past that late last week). How sensitive? Bush aides are now denying that his vacation is really a vacation.

[White House Spokesman David] Almacy said the reason that Bush is in Crawford, Texas, is due to the renovation of the West Wing of the White House.

“He’s operating on a full schedule; he’s just doing it from the ranch instead of from the White House,” Almacy said. “The only week he had officially off was this last week.”

Let me get this straight. Almost immediately after Congress broke for August recess, the president packed his bags and made a bee line for Crawford. For nearly a full month now, we’ve seen him clearing brush, ignoring Cindy Sheehan, riding his bicycle, “improving the land,” and relaxing with friends and family. It is, to borrow a phrase, “hard work.”

But the new line is that Bush has only taken one week off. He’d love to be in DC, dealing with a bloody and costly war, but those darn West Wing renovations are keeping him from the White House.

How do they explain, then, why Bush has taken every August off since being sworn in five years ago? For that matter, if only last week was “official” time off, how does the White House explain the previous three weeks of leisure activity?

If Bush’s vaunted communications team is going to spin Bush’s unrestrained love for time off, even during a war, they’ll have to do better than this.

Excellent, CB.

  • It’s pretty clear that this president is nothing more than a figurehead anyway. He’s a talking head who is given his marching orders by the people making the decisions. That is why he is incapable of engaging in a discussion with someone of an opposing viewpoint.

    Speak of the devil, what has Cheney been up to this month? With all the attention on Crawford and Cindy Sheehan, the old Dickster has been a little too quiet. That worries me.

  • What’s to be expected from the most underqualified and lazy president in the history of the US?

  • And why are they just now telling us that renovations were going on? Why didn’t they say that when Bush took off? Do you think that maybe they’re just spinning again? Nah, that couldn’t be it.

  • Drew,

    Cheney has been busy running to the bank. You know, there’s a lot of money in oil wells these days. And when this crisis pushes Congress to drill in ANWAR, there will be all those bids to sort thru for drilling rights. And of course, there will be all of the rig construction and maintenance of said rigs. (I wonder who’ll benefit from those?)
    And don’t forget…Dick has all those assassinations of dictators in oil producing countries to plan for. Not to mention the planning for the overthrow of governments in oil producing countries that are transitioning to nuclear energy. Who do you think plans all this stuff? Plans like that just don’t FALL from the sky or walk THEMSELVES down mountainsides.
    And of course Dick has gotten an early jump on preparing his wheelchair for the Christmas “Mr. Potter look-a-like” contest…
    so much to do, so much to do…

  • Good post, C.B., but I think there is more here than meets the eye.

    Remember the old punch line that in Washington a faux pas is when someone accidentally tells the truth? Well maybe, just maybe, this (previously unknown to me) White House spokesperson accidentally told us the truth that we all suspected: that in fact, every day for Bush while at the White House is no different than his days at the Crawford “Lazy W” Ranch!

    Think about this quote: “[Bush]’s operating on a full schedule; he’s just doing it from the ranch instead of from the White House,” Almacy said.

    Yup, definitely a Washington-style faux pas if ever there was one!!

  • The thing I don’t get is that Bush was said to have found this renewed purpose after 9/11, almost as if he had been chosen by God to do this. Is this how unseriously he takes God’s missions? By breaking records for laziness?

  • I wonder if this vacation might be a big cause of the accelerated plummet in his polls. He’s like a very expensive employee who barely bothers to show up and leaves early and spends the whole day goofing off. Sounds like they’re getting defensive about it.

  • Is this how unseriously he takes God’s missions? By breaking records for laziness?

    Martin:

    Great point. Here’s a couple PR headlines for anyone to pass along to any Dem leades who have any determination to take on the Bu$hCo machine (that last part was a sad, sad joke):

    “Bush gets mission from God, say’s ‘hold on a minute while I clear some brush’”

    “Bush to God: no time to protect America, too much brush”

    “If this is how Bush treats a mission from God, I’m not sure how he manages to do a damn simple thing like get out of bed in the morning”

    “Bush, get back to work you lazy lying SOB”

  • You are correct john. When Bush left for vacation his boys went to great lengths to tell us tha whys and wherefores. What happened? Did someone forget page 10?

  • No, no, don’t you see? He’s such a great president that even when he’s doing all this hard, hard work, it looks like a vacation. This is the Protestant work ethic…born again!

  • So when I take a week off of work, I can come back and say I was actually “operating on a full schedule” but I was doing it from my house instead of the office so I shouldn’t get dinged for any vacation time.

    His Shrubness is breaking new ground conceptualizing the work/vacation interface.

    Like a Zen master, Dear Nitwit struggles to keep that balanced life.

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