At last Friday’s White House press briefing, a reporter asked Tony Snow about who will be with the president when he visited New York to honor the 5th anniversary of 9/11. Snow responded, “Staff, wife.” The reporter followed up by asking, “Was any thought ever given to a bipartisan delegation being with him?” Snow said he didn’t know for sure, but told the press corps, “Get back to us. We’ll talk about it.”
Assuming Snow was being sincere, the Bush gang did talk about it and apparently decided against a bipartisan delegation.
Both the Times and the Post note this morning that Bush laid two wreaths at ground zero last night in the company of George Pataki, Mike Bloomberg, and Rudy Giuliani. The Post goes well out of its way to remark that the event “left aside the partisan rancor” that…well, that Bush & Co. have enforced on the country since about 9-14.
If this event was so nonpartisan, where were Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton? Neither paper makes any mention of their having been there. I’m told that in fact they were not invited (they were at St. Paul’s church, where Bush went after laying the wreaths — and where there were apparently no photographers!!). In what sense does an event that features four Republicans but excludes the two senators who were representing New York at the time of the event, but who happen to be Democrats, leave aside partisan rancor?
I would add that New York is not only represented by two Democratic senators, but Ground Zero is represented by a Democratic House member (Jerold Nadler). Apparently, none of them was invited to participate.
Indeed, making a ceremony like this one bi-partisan could have been incredibly easy. The White House chose a different path.
To all of our detriment, it’s the same path Bush has chosen for the last five years.