Proving yet again that some people just can’t let the recent presidential election go, former Bush Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who used to be known for his public discretion and reticence to say anything controversial within earshot of a reporter or television camera, recently went out of his way to criticize Barack Obama for going without a coat and tie in the Oval Office. Saying that being properly clothed was in keeping with the idea there should be a White House “dress code of respect,” Card went on to prove what a clueless little rodent he’d become since being broomed out of a job at the end of Bush’s first term.
Card’s public criticism also showed how stuffy the Republican power elite can be when they get themselves into high dudgeon, and that’s another reason why Democrats tend to win one of these so-called “transformational elections” on occasion: They bring a set of brass knuckles and some Bruce Lee nunchucks to the fight while Republicans tie themselves up in knots trying to figure out the proper school tie to wear to the soiree.
Leaving aside the puerile nature of the remark itself, Card seems to have forgotten at least one occasion when Bush fils was caught by the cameras sans jacket, back on January 22, 2001. I mean, on a scale of 1 to 10 (with one being the least embarrassing and 10 being the most), I’d say forgetting to put on the old regimental neckwear ranks right up there with neglecting to shut off the living room light after you’ve gone upstairs for the evening. Unlike failing to find weapons of mass destruction over in Eye-Rack. That’s about a TEN in my book.
Maybe Card took the younger Bush aside and told him going without a jacket was something only the “little people” back home in that provincial backwater known as Texas did, gosh darn it, but here in the Oval Office, it was like participating in the rape of the Sabine women, as portrayed by the ancient Romans Livy and Plutarch (rape back then was another word for “kidnapping,” by the way). Whatever.
Call me crazy, but I kinda like the idea of a President who’s willing to go to work, throw off the power suit and tie and get down to the serious business of ordering the Predator drone rocketing of some Al Qaeda goatherd over in South What-The-Hella-Stan (very cool) and then later have a few of the boys from the House of Representatives over for a discussion on how best to spend 700 or 800 billion dollars on us working stiffs over the next few months (very, VERY cool). Now THAT’S “strategery.”
How about we get off the Catholic school dress code obsession still circulating out there in some circles and come to the realization that maybe the sight of a President of the United States actually doing some work in his office, instead of making a show at it, is just what we need to see?
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