What do you really think of your new Boss, Mr. Snow?

The White House staff has been tripping over their feet ever since they raised the ill-advised “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the USS Lincoln off San Diego in 2003. But this week the staff, aka Larry, Moe and Curly, have surpassed themselves. Not only have they picked a man who is on the record saying that the president “doesn’t seem to mean what he says,” as the president’s spokesman, but they dropped every other ball that came their way as well.

On Tuesday the President used a 14 SUV convoy to take his party 2.4 miles to the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel where he delivered a speech on…Wait for it…saving fuel. The hotel is a four minute ride from the Farragut North Metro station, which is just up the block from the White House. I am not suggesting that the President take the Metro. But surely the people in at least seven of those SUVs could have without compromising presidential security. I mean, we are all safer than we were before the invasion of Iraq, aren’t we?

That blunder was merely a missed opportunity; a way of showing that the President meant what he was going to say at the Marriott.

The staff really blundered when it failed to secure for Mr. Bush a $6,500 a night suite at Vienna’s Hotel Imperial for a June Summit. Seems the staff was a few days late and the Rolling Stones had booked not only the Royal Suite, but every room on the floor. Since the United States has a foreign debt the size of Rumsfeld’s ego, why is the President’s staff even thinking about royal suites? Surely Mr. Bush could doss down in the Embassy. It can’t be any less comfortable than the family home in Midland.

Before accepting the administration spokesman gig, Tony Snow (you don’t suppose that the President confused him with his Treasury Secretary do you? John Snow has been rumored to be leaving the administration. Maybe the president thought this was a reassignment.) made a magnificent living bad mouthing the president.

Here is a sample (from Thinkprogress.org):
“George Bush has become something of an embarrassment.” (March 17, 2006)
“Bush, for all his personal appeal, ultimately bolstered his detractors’ claims that he didn’t have the drive and work ethic to succeed.” (November 16, 2000)
“Little in the character of demeanor of Al Gore or George Bush makes us say to ourselves: Now, this man is truly special.” (August 25, 2000)
Bush “has given the impression that (he) is more eager to please than lead.” (September 30, 2005)
“On the policy side, he has become a classical dime-store Democrat.” (August 25, 2000)
“President Bush distilled the essence of his presidency in this year’s State of the Union Address: brilliant foreign policy and listless domestic policy.” (February 3, 2006)

And you thought the Scott McClelland press briefings were fun.

Tom Gordon
Tsg0008@sbcglobal.net