It Was Too Sunny
Bush's Crisis Itinerary at Mercy of Weather, Even Nice Weather
President Bush was supposed to land here on Friday afternoon on the first stop of a tour intended to make clear that he was personally overseeing the federal government's preparations for Hurricane Rita's landfall. But the weather did not cooperate.
It was too sunny.
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Maureen Dowd had this to say about Dub's Itinerary
Stormy was testy.
He had put aside the guitar and packed his slicker.
The First Weatherman was working hard, man, harder than he had in years, even spending nights away from home - and Barney - in strange places.
And still the pesky press was painting him as a storm groupie, racing Rita to Texas just to score a windswept backdrop to recapture his image as protector.
Stormy preened for the cameras at FEEBLE FEMA headquarters in Washington yesterday. On CNN, a bilious image of a hurricane spun next to his head. You could imagine the little hurricane trailing him through the rest of his presidency, like the storm cloud with a lightning bolt that always trailed Joe Btfsplk in "Li'l Abner."
He said he was jetting to San Antonio to check out "the prepositioned assets" and then riding out the storm watching "the interface" between the military and state and local authorities at Northcom in Colorado.
But David Gregory at NBC quizzed W. on what good he could really do in Texas: "Might you get in the way, Mr. President?"
Stormy didn't like that. "One thing I won't do is get in the way," he snipped. Mr. Gregory, part of a newly amped-up press corps, followed up: "Isn't there a risk of you and your entourage getting in the way?"
Now Stormy let off a little high pressure. "There will be no risk of me getting in the way, I promise you," he said dismissively.
The smart aleck reporters didn't understand how crucial it was for the president to intertwine, inter alia, with the interfacers. So W. explained it again: "See, Northcom is the main entity that interfaces - that uses federal assets, federal troops, to interface with local and state government. I want to watch that relationship."
But soon the San Antonio leg of the trip was scotched amid fears that Stormy would really be interfering more than interfacing. And besides, the weather was too sunny there for poses in foul-weather gear.
Stormy is like his dad, Desert Stormy. They both love wardrobe calls: cool costumes, sports outfits, presidential windbreakers, "Top Gun" get-ups, weather gear.
Comments
God love David Gregory.
I scratched my head all weekend wondering why Stormy, who has residence in TX (let's call it what it is ... the true White House) was bunkering in CO. Oh right! Because during times like these, Stormy has to be dry while the tax paying citizens of this fine country are left to truly ride out the storm then fend for themselves (unless you live in a Republican governed state).
There's no chance he was heading out to CO to, say, avoid Cindy Sheehan's big rally in D.C. on Sat. -- could there have been?
Dur-byur deserves nothing more, nothing less than to eat my shit.
Did i miss something?... what happened to the Rove "thing", did we forget about him in all this hurricane jive? Is he getting fired, or was he "cleared"...no mention of him as of late.
Is it just me or did Bush seem a little short on breath?
lol mrs. dowd is great.
Amazing that it's his fifth year in the Presidency and he freely admits to needing to understand how the federal government works with the state and locals. Wow.
And David Gregory has been the journalist of the year thus far.
it looked like the guy behind him was really worried about what Bush was going to say when he started improvising.
I virtually never defend Bushhole. Honest. See, I just called the Nazi a name? See-- I did it again.
That said, I don't think the reporters comments disguised as questions were fair. If Bush were wittier and faster on his clubfeet, he'd have said, "A few weeks ago you were asking where I was. Now that I'm here on time, you're asking why. Make up your mind moron."
Again, I hope that Bushhole and his gang of thieves are removed under a treason act, I really do, but this isn't a good example of W doing something wrong. A better example occurs every morning, when he decides to take in a deep breath and start his day as Haliburton's President.
Watching the interview it seemed to me that Bush is much more of an expert on snow than rain
Watching Bush ad-lib like that, it really is clear that the man is as dumb as dog shit.
Anybody who voted for this man should be tried for treason. You wouldn't let him run a junior high let alone a country.
I agree that the question is a bit unfair in that he is now being critisized for doing what he didn't do the last time. The fact that he doesn't understand how his job works and needs to learn his role in government is scary.
The real question should be "Why was Rove attending fund raisers when he's supposed to be over-seeing reconstruction efforts?"
It'd be much more fun to see Bush improvise on that one.
Can you hear it? I can. In Bush's words, I can already hear the spin. I can hear administration positioning themselves and deflecting guilt from the Katrina debacle. Bush repeatedly states that "FEMA is there to assist state and local governments". No. FEMA is supposed to provide aid and save lives. Once the state of emergency was declared, they should have moved in and taken charge. To imply that they needed to stand by and wait to be told what to do by state and local governments is shirking their responsibility to save lives during crisis.
Why is Karl Rove running hurricane relief efforts? That seems really strange.
how long do you think it took to rehearse bush so he could say, "prepositioned assets"??
Why can't he just prepare o n e other word than "folks", for heaven's sake!!?? "I appreciate the fawks for helping the fawks..." He should get an electric shock by that remote control in his neck for every "fawks" he utters!
Jerome, I think the question was meant to address the fact that Bush is still not acting properly. He bailed on Katrina. Now he is overreaching - still not the correct response. He would be in the way, as he requires extra security, etc., etc. He is not supposed to get down and dirty, but be the Great Deligator. The correct people should be in position. His being in CO does nothing but give him photo ops. Isn't this what the reporter was probably hoping the People watching would see?