Wait Until He Finds Out He Was On Vacation

from Talkings Points Memo: Bush to lead investigation into his own failure ...


from truth: I can see the interview next year with Diane Sawyer, Diane leaning forward, lips parted, vaseline on the camera lens, breathlessly asking, "What do you say to the American people, what went wrong, Mr. President?"

And he'll lean forward and give her that faux-earnest empty-headed grin, and say "Diane, nobody knew enough to call me and tell me a hurricane was comin! Nobody knew me taking a month of vacation would affect the government response to a catastrophe! Nobody knew I was on vacation!

"And then when I came back on Wednesday, cuttin my vacation back by two days I might add, heh heh, lot to ask of a sitting president, president needs balance in his life to lead effectively, well when I come back folks expected I would take charge! And that's not what this President does, Diane! I sit back and let the good folks I appointed do their jobs! My job is to get the right people in the right places and let 'em do their jobs. So my good friends Brownie and Mikey C were handling this crisis, and they were doin' a wonderful job. Great job. We had all kinds of aid lined up to go in to New Orleans at that point.

"So I took all that aid with me on Friday when I went to the Gulf Coast. Regular convoy, you saw the pictures on TV, right? I mean, this was only 5 days after the hurricane! Only 4 days after the levee filled New Orleans with water! It was hard work getting all those supplies together, hard work! Brownie and Mikey did an excellent job, excellent job.

"And you know the result of the investigation I headed, you know I announced the investigation only 8 days after the hurricane! 8 days! It was a bipartisan investigation I might add, got those good ol' boys Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson, good ol'boys both, helped me put John Roberts on the Supreme Court, good men, both of them, well, they said that nothing better could have been done! We got those good folks supplies as soon as humanly possible. Only thing they could find wrong was all those folks in my administration who didn't know I was on vacation. Those good folks shoulda been informed.

"So we're gonna fix that. Next time I go on vacation, I'm gonna send out a memo to all my cabinet secretaries, you know, so something like this never happens again. Because that's what this administration is about, responding to the needs of the people.

"Hey, it's time for 4 hour mountain bike ride, wanna come along Diane! It'll be fun."