Here's the WaPo's "makeup call" for Bush for nailing Hot Tub Tom

[stevedeshazer]

This is downright hysterical.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/30/AR2005123001326.html

Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush

Bush Conscripts Aides in Tireless Pursuit of Clearing Ground

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2005; Page A03

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 -- On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch here, President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground.

If the soil is moist enough, he will light a match and burn the wood. If it is parched, as it is across Texas now, the wood will sit in piles scattered over the 1,600-acre spread until it is safe for a ranch hand to torch -- or until the president can come home and do the honors himself.

<snip>

Aides are corralled to help, although Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a frequent guest, has escaped brush duty. "The tradecraft she uses to get out of it is highly confidential, and I can't discuss it," said national security adviser Steven J. Hadley. To date, no visiting foreign leaders have been conscripted.

The president "clears brush like he rides his bike," said deputy press secretary Trent Duffy, who has sawed beside Bush. "He goes at it."


=====================================================================================================================================

This whole piece is ridiculous. Total suckup to Bush.

[Erika]

1. W was born and educated in New England

His life is nothing but one big photo-op to pretend he's not what he really is.

[NightOwwl]

2. Actually, I think the article makes him out to be quite insane. n/t

[northzax]

13. yeah, how is this complimentary in any way?

anyone read up on Sisyphus lately? This is not normal behaviour, by any stretch of the imagination.

[stevedeshazer]

14. It is Sisyphean

I get that.

To me, it seemed the article was meant to show Bush in a positive light, even though most sane readers would see it as uncomplimentary.

[northzax]

16. I don't agree

although I can see why some people would think this is a positive light. At the end of the day, the Post is an urban paper, second only to the pair of Timeses (NY and LA). the people who read the Post are wealthy, urban and suburban and well educated, and this is not normal behaviour. It's escapist behaviour, and a meme that really is getting old.

Trust me, this doesn't play well among the readers of the Post. Why the hell would someone be so fucking obsessed with brush? and why would someone so obsessed with brush buy a ranch filled with brush? We may think this is something ranchers do, but we don't really understand why you would want to.

the man's the President, for the love of Pete, can't he hire a couple of day labourers to do this?

[stevedeshazer]

17. Fair enough

:toast:

[Cleita]

3. I dunno. When I lived in the Texas Hill Country, the juniper aka

as cedar were considered part of the landscape and native to the area, alongside the oak. The cedar though was responsible for a lot of respiratory ailments like allergies and asthma. The cattle, goats, horses and other grazers kept other weeds mowed down. I think this brush clearing crap is just that. Just MHO.

[0007]

7. After reading this I'm clearly not myself.

"clears brush like he fucks his wife," Trent Duffy, who has fucked Bush, says "He goes at it."

[SoCalDem]

4. That's even an old picture..

Karl must have submitted the "article" for them to run..:puke:

[C_U_L8R]

11. Good Catch... I bet he's not there at all

Lets see if he comes back to Washington with
an unexplained suntan....as he often does....
cause it means he's been off fishing.

His dad used to do that all the time....
every time they said "Camp David"
it really meant Florida Keys with some cronies.

[SillyGoose]

5. One full year of vacation time in the last five years.

One full year of vacation time for the Kennebunkport Kowboy. On our dime. Who says Jr. is soft in the noodle?

This part is priceless. I think this is the same guy who let Camp Casey set up on his property.

"Most likely he's doing that to show the media he's got a chain saw," joked Larry Mattladge, who raises Black Angus cows three-quarters of a mile from the Bush ranch and built his fence rows out of cedar posts. "It's a man's thing. Brush clearing is not only for the young at heart, it's for the young. It's to show he's a Texan."

[stevedeshazer]

9. That was his cousin, Fred.

Larry is the one who popped off a couple shots over Camp Casey.

[SillyGoose]

10. Oh, that's even better.

The gun-toting nutcase neighbor admits Jr. is doing all this just to prove he's got a chainsaw. I guess Jr. is not a well-liked neighbor around those parts.


:rofl:

[Catherine Vincent]

6. "He goes at it".

About as much as he does with the presidency. :eyes:

[Gato Moteado]

8. here's the best line in the article

White House counselor Dan Bartlett explained it this way: "It's therapeutic for him, I guess. There's very few things he gets to do hands on."

bartlett is basically admitting bush is a hands off president. he's out of the loop completely. he just reads the scripts they give him.

that is awesome!

[stevedeshazer]

12. *ding*

Yeah, that jumped out at me, too.

[opihimoimoi]

15. not too much brains to clear brush, apologies to those who do...

But Bush cannot handle a hammer without looking gurly mon.

Bush does not have skills to operate a computer as I have never seen pics of him operating one.

The stories I have seen reveal they took the chainsaw away from him as too dangerous...

Thus, this is the Photo of him carrying rubbish from point A to point B....that is his base skill.

He is a pretend hard worker...his total annual time spent clearing brush is .5 hours...30m minutes...then its beer thirty.

[NanceGreggs]

18. And here I thought he could do ONE thing well ...

"The president clears brush like he rides his bike ..."

And we've all seen what he looks like after Bush -v- Bike ...

[driver8]

19. Too bad that he doesn't put as much effort into being president as

he does clearing brush. He certainly doesn't "go at it."

My contempt for this man knows no limits. I despise him and the system that "allowed him to happen."

What a fucking phony. Phony president, phony soldier, phony Texan and phony christian. Clearing brush...give me a fucking break.