At least Blair has his priorities straight

August 4, 2006

Embarrassed by the length of previous years’ [tag]vacation[/tag]s, and the tragedies that have unfolded while the [tag]president[/tag] enjoys clearing some brush, [tag]Bush[/tag] will take an abbreviated August vacation this year, spending only 10 days at his Crawford retreat. The break began last night.

As Nico noted, the president’s British counterpart is taking a different approach.

[tag]Tony Blair[/tag] today decided to delay his summer holiday for a few days to help secure a United Nations resolution that would call for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Israel-Lebanon conflict. […]

No 10 said the prime minister, who had been expected to leave today, believed the next few days were “crucial” in the efforts to agree a United Nations security council resolution on a ceasefire.

It’s a shame the way reality keeps interfering with the president’s [tag]vacations[/tag], isn’t it?

In August 2001, Bush took a month off, even after receiving an intelligence briefing that told him, “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US.”

About a year later, over Easter week in 2002, an intense round of violence erupted in Israel. Though the developments were the focus of the world, they occurred during a Bush vacation — which he chose not to cut short.

In 2004, a tsunami in South Asia devastated a region and killed tens of thousands. World leaders were scrambling to see how they could best help. Bush, meanwhile, was on vacation — and stayed that way. Three days after the crisis began, the White House described the president’s schedule as including a bike ride and “clearing brush.”

In 2005, Bush was on a lengthy break when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. I think we all remember how that turned out.

And now this year, Blair is making Bush look bad by delaying his own vacation to show some leadership in dealing with the Israel-Lebanon conflict. The poor president can’t catch a break, can he? I mean really, that brush isn’t going to clear itself.

Well, it’s not like Bush getting involved ever actually HELPS the situation anyway.

  • If only his daddy could call a pal, maybe he could skip out without anyone knowing.

    CB, it fun to make fun, but I wish the motha-fucka would stay in Crawford until late 2008. No phone, no email, nothing, just keep the fricken kid away from the grown-up stuff. Let the guy clear brush for the next 2+ years.

  • He needs a vacation after all that hard work of decidering. Beside, Bolton’s on the job at the UN. He takes orders from Cheney as well as anyone.

  • Bush owes the American People—every last man, woman, and child—a vacation—from HIM.

    For “my” vacation from President Brush (and yes—I know about the extra “r” there), I want him to spend a day at the beach. It must be a beach that’s directly in the path of a major hurricane, and it must be the day on which the hurricane hits that beach.

    For every Marine in Baghdad, I’d like to see him spend one day outside the gren Zone. One day for every last Marine in Baghdad. One day being defined as twenty-four consecutive hours—and, since every one of those Marines has to go without adequate body armor, adequate armor for their vehicles, and no Secret Service protection, then let our illustrious simian-in-chief do the same.

    For every child in America who doesn’t get enough to eat—let the man skip a meal.

    For every American who lacks healthcare, let him go a day without any medicine, or doctors, or anything else in that area.

    For every American who is unemployed, let Herr Bush donate a day’s salary back to the treasury.

    Any other ideas?

  • Well said, Steve.

    Has anyone thought that if the Dems take control of congress that Bush might be energized. He seems to love to stick it to people like a teenager who didn’t get enough Daddy-love. He’ll enjoy battling the Dems I think. So he’ll really screw things up for everyone.

    When he called Sam Donaldson a has-been, I wish Sam had thought to say, “You are too.” Bush is a has-been that just won’t go away.

  • And yet, he’s more than willing to cut a vacation short to sign a bill aimed directly at his base.
    World in crisis? Clear brush.
    Partisan party politics? Let’s get this sucker signed, already!
    The Schiavo Bill should be trotted out everytime he goes on vacation.

  • When he’s done clearing brush we could use some help over here at Chief Osceola’s house. Specifically we need help with the laundry because we’ve soiled ourselves so many times when we’ve heard each new latest GOP-caused outrage. Also, my ass needs kissing.

  • You really ought to get your facts a little straighter. Bush is off this week, that is this weekend so that he can attend the Elitist party at Bohemian Grove, where they do what ever they want to do, in celebration of their power over our lives, including a “mock” worship and sacrifice ritual to Moloch (their god). Blair is here for that as well. Good Little CHristians, aren’t they

  • “When he called Sam Donaldson a has-been, I wish Sam had thought to say, “You are too.” Bush is a has-been that just won’t go away.” – Dale

    I read that Donaldson’s actual reply was, “Better a has-been than a never-was.” Imagine the laughter from that one.

    Priceless. 😉

  • You can bet there will be a lot more than 10 days off this month especially if you include all the fund raising trips that are bound to be on the schedule this time of year. I doubt if there will be many if any days that meet the “hard work” standard Bush described in the debate with Kerry. It is good to be king!

  • No matter, Olmert is on the job, madly connecting the dots between one moslem and another.

  • Don’t give Blair too much credit. His leadership would have likely suffered a mortal blow if photos of him sipping martinis in Barbados had been in the press while children were dying in the Middle East. Plus, when the PM leaves the country he effectively hands over control to his Deputy PM, who is hated even more than Blair. There is not the same kind of command and control facilities that travel with the PM as there are with the POTUS.

  • Our Sainted Lord-Regent in Downing Street put himself into a bit of a bind when he tightened his already white-knuckled grip on El Residente’s foreign-policy coattails over Lebanon. Did he expect that Israel would have achieved something that could plausibly be described as a ‘victory’ by now, allowing him to play the peacemaker at the UN and do the mucky diplomacy that your current regime of bubble-wrapped ideologs can’t/won’t do? Possibly. Then he could have scooted out of the Westminster bearpit for a holiday with his good friend Sir Cliff (“No more worries for a… week or two…”) to let the dust settle in advance of his ‘refreshed and refocused’ return to Britain.

    It’s not just pop-stars and Hollywood A-Listers who use their time out of the limelight to reinvent themselves, you know. Our Tone has used this tactic before: drop off the radar, let the news-cycle work its relentless magic, then surge back onto the national scene ready to “move on” and “address the issues people really care about”. The British Media, always eager to let bygones be bygones in return for ‘access’ (sound familiar?) falls slavishly into line behind yet another demonstration of Prime-Ministerial machismo, and a few months later it’s reported that ‘Teflon Tony’ seems to have won yet another argument with his critics, though no one can quite remember what it was all about, and so it was probably nothing important. “What a guy”, seems to be the prevailing attitude on Fleet Street.

    This time it’s different. Having already been forced to announce that he’ll step down before the next election (in order to avoid his toxic Iraq policy costing the Labour Party a majority in the last one) he’s as much of a lame duck as that failed wannabe in the White House. There’s no great appetite within the Parliamentary Labour party to suffer yet another PR enema on Blair’s behalf, so this time he’s had to stick around and deal with the shitstorm himself. Now we’ll see the question of where his true loyalties lie explored in the full glare of Media scrutiny.

    In all honesty, this should be the end of him. If he continues to run British foreign-policy as a fully-owned franchise of USA Inc, then I predict a riot and a leadership challenge before the Labour Party Conference.

    I would try and predict what might happen if he instead behaved like the leader of a sovereign and independent nation and put his full weight behind getting Israel to stop the slaughter, but really, that’s just so not going to happen.

    It’s going to be a riot, then. About time too.

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