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Everybody Deserves Some Time Off

Bush has spent 233 days at his Texas ranch since stealing the White House. He's spent a total of "500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency."

As an example of one of those days, he spent today watching Condoleeza Rice try to cover up his ignorance for three hours on live television in the morning. In the afternoon he gave a tour of his ranch to the chief executive of the National Rifle Association and an interview to Ladies' Home Journal. In the meantime, we've seen the most deadly week in Iraq since Bush declared the war a victory last March, and things are only getting worse.

On August 6, 2001, he was given a presidential daily brief with the title "Bin Laden Determined To Attack Within the United States." On August 7, he left for vacation at his ranch in Crawford, where he stayed until a few days before September 11th. By this time in office, 8 months or so, he had only spent 54 days (i.e. less than 2 months) in Washington.

While everybody else in the country is either looking for work, struggling to keep the job they have, or suffering at a manufacturing job on the McDonalds hamburger assembly line, Bush has sure taken his job lightly. You might think that the man who was so concerned with an impending al qaeda attack that he found time to vacation more than any president in history might be a bit more concerned over the state of things since that attack.

It almost makes you wonder if he got another PDB just before he left this week. You know, one of those briefs that says there's going to be a terrible attack--but sorry, we can't tell you the exact time or place, so why don't you just blow the whole thing off.

Frankly I think that would be giving him too much credit. Despite the fictions being put forth by Rice and others, we all know that Bush doesn't read these briefs, and if he did, he could care less. He doesn't direct policy--he at best approves it. If its not Iraq, tax cuts, or campaign paybacks, he has little use for petty distractions like protecting the country or telling the truth.

I do agree with Mr. Bush that everybody deserves time off from their job from time to time. In fact, he's so deserving that he should take a permanent vacation.

(Most of the vacation info comes from the Post. Thanks to TPM for the tip.)

Posted on April 9, 2004 01:02 AM

Comments

Posted by Lisa B-K on April 9, 2004 09:09 AM

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