Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed.
It turns out the Bush had already made the decision to end his vacation, but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph -- his aides actually had to have a meeting to discuss whom amongst them gets the shitty job of having to tell Bush that he has to end his vacation because of a national crisis.
It gets worse:
The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.
How this could be -- how the president of the United States could have even less "situational awareness," as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst natural disaster in a century -- is one of the more perplexing and troubling chapters in a story that, despite moments of heroism and acts of great generosity, ranks as a national disgrace.
Usually when I read a negative article about Bush, my response is: "My God -- what an idiot." This time, my response was: "My God, Bush has almost three-and-a-half years left in his term -- we are totally, unequivocally f**ked."
Now that the "Brownie" sideshow is finally out of the way, it is time for the country to focus on the real problem, namely: How in the hell do we isolate this clear and present danger to America before he does any more damage. Democrats can scream and yell about this Bush Moron all they want, but it will take some brave, patriotic Republicans in Congress to speak up about this profound national dilemma before any real solution is possible.
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