Burnt Orange Report


News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas







Support the TDP!





April 10, 2004

George Goes Fishing

By Byron LaMasters

Much is made of the left's hatred of President Bush. What is it that makes it hatred as opposed to mere disagreement or dislike? I think much of the Clinton and Bush hatred is derived not so much from policy disagreement, but rather from presidential symbolism. Many conservatives hated Bill Clinton because they believed that his moral character denigrated the institution of the presidency. They saw him as a playboy who did not respect the dignity of his office. Why do liberals hate George W. Bush? Sure, we disagree with his politics, but there are many people who I disagree with that I still respect. What I can't stand about President Bush is that he does not seem to grasp the seriousness of the office. The precidency is not a vacation. Yet President Bush treats it as such. The Washington Post reports:

Democrats criticized Bush for taking the Easter-week vacation while U.S. forces are struggling to put down an uprising in Iraq. Campaigning in Milwaukee, Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, said: "I notice President Bush is taking some days off down at Crawford, Texas, and I'm told that when he takes days off, you know, he totally relaxes: He doesn't watch television, he doesn't read the newspapers, he doesn't make long-term plans, doesn't worry about the economy. I thought about that for a moment. I said, sounds to me like it's just like life in Washington, doesn't it?"

[...]

This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.


George W. Bush is a part-time president. While Americans died in Iraq yesterday our president was having a nice relaxing day fishing:


President Bush skipped a third round of fishing on his ranch pond Saturday with a crew from an outdoors show, though his performance the day before was something to brag about.

"He took the biggest one of the day," a bass nearly four pounds, said Roland Martin, host of the Outdoor Life Network program, "Fishing with Roland Martin."

The president and Martin released several big fish they caught Friday but kept the smaller ones for eating.

[...]

The president was very relaxed," Martin said.


How can the president be "relaxed" when men and women he sent into battle are being killed every day? Does President Bush feel anything about the deaths of our soldiers in Iraq? If he does, then why hasn't he attended a single funeral? Why is he on vacation forty percent of the time? Stories like these are what makes it so difficult for me to have any respect for the man.

Posted by Byron LaMasters at April 10, 2004 02:51 PM | TrackBack

Comments

If the press would latch on this this -- Bush fishing on his ranch while Americans and hundreds of others die in his Iraq folly -- it would be Junior's supermarket scanner moment writ large. When will the mainstream press finally focus on Bush's total lack of maturity and character?

Posted by: Bassfish at April 10, 2004 04:10 PM

I doubt the press is going to do anything about it...but I do think it would be a great subject for a Moveon commercial. Pictures of Bush fishing juxtaposed with reports of fighting.

I'm not sure you can say he doesn't care about the soldiers at all (supposedly, he has visited those injured several times). However, its clear that he doesn't think that soldiers dying should interrupt his vacation. Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

Posted by: Josh A at April 10, 2004 06:52 PM

Okay, I don't hate Bush.

I just "hold him in extremely low regard."

Posted by: melior at April 10, 2004 09:10 PM

Bubble Boy Bush goes fishing, eh? I thought he said that the human and the fish can coexist peacefully.

Then again, he said the same thing about Americans and Iraqis...

I get the feeling that the folks in the White House are so detached from reality, that they're gonna need a twelve-step program once they lose their jobs after election day.

Posted by: Jim D at April 11, 2004 01:27 AM

Didn't his daddy spend a lot of time on his powerboat in the run up to the first Iraq War? Guess this is another way that they're alike.

Posted by: Incertus at April 11, 2004 05:05 AM

Much is made of the left's hatred of President Bush.

It's WAY overstated when compared to the way Bill Clinton was demonized by the Republicans, ultraconservatives, and fundamentalists. Rush Limbaugh went so far as to say tasteless things about Chelsea Clinton.

Say what you will about Bill Clinton as a person. However, he liberated two countries (Bosnia and Kosovo) with almost no American casualties. He also left the economy in much better shape than he found it. And he contributed to the huge reduction in the nation's crime rate by making it possible for local governments to hire over 100,000 additional police officers.

If it were possible for Clinton to run this year, he would kick Dubya's ignorant ass back to Crawford, Texas faster than you could say WMD.
:P

Posted by: Tim Z at April 11, 2004 09:35 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?








June 2005
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30    


About Us
About/Contact
Advertising Policies

Donate

Tip Jar!



Archives
Recent Entries
Categories
BOR Edu.
University of Texas
University Democrats

BOR News
The Daily Texan
The Statesman
The Chronicle

BOR Politics
DNC
DNC Blog: Kicking Ass
DSCC
DSCC Blog: From the Roots
DCCC
DCCC Blog: The Stakeholder
Texas Dems
Travis County Dems

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett
State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos
State Rep. Dawnna Dukes
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat
State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez
State Rep. Mark Strama
Linked to BOR!
Alexa Rating
Truth Laid Bear Ecosystem
Technoranti Link Cosmos
Blogstreet Blogback
Polling
American Research Group
Annenberg Election Survey
Gallup
Polling Report
Rasmussen Reports
Survey USA
Zogby
Texas Stuff
A Little Pollyana
Austin Bloggers
DFW Bogs
DMN Blog
In the Pink Texas
Inside the Texas Capitol
The Lasso
Pol State TX Archives
Quorum Report Daily Buzz
George Strong Political Analysis
Texas Law Blog
Texas Monthly
Texas Observer
TX Dem Blogs
100 Monkeys Typing
Alandwilliams.com
Alt 7
Annatopia
Appalachia Alumni Association
Barefoot and Naked
BAN News
Betamax Guillotine
Blue Texas
Border Ass News
The Daily DeLay
The Daily Texican
Dos Centavos
Drive Democracy Easter Lemming
Esoterically
Get Donkey
Greg's Opinion
Half the Sins of Mankind
Jim Hightower
Houtopia
Hugo Zoom
Latinos for Texas
Off the Kuff
Ones and Zeros
Panhandle Truth Squad
Aaron Peña's Blog
People's Republic of Seabrook
Pink Dome
The Red State
Rhetoric & Rhythm
Rio Grande Valley Politics
Save Texas Reps
Skeptical Notion
Something's Got to Break
Southpaw
Stout Dem Blog
The Scarlet Left
Tex Prodigy
ToT
View From the Left
Yellow Doggeral Democrat
TX GOP Blogs
Beldar Blog
Blogs of War
Boots and Sabers
Dallas Arena
Jessica's Well
Lone Star Times
Publius TX
Safety for Dummies
The Sake of Arguement
Slightly Rough
Daily Reads
&c.
ABC's The Note
Atrios
BOP News
Daily Kos
Media Matters
MyDD
NBC's First Read
Political State Report
Political Animal
Political Wire
Talking Points Memo
CBS Washington Wrap
Wonkette
Matthew Yglesias
College Blogs
CDA Blog
Get More Ass (Brown)
Dem Apples (Harvard)
KU Dems
U-Delaware Dems
UNO Dems
Stanford Dems
GLBT Blogs
American Blog
BlogActive
Boi From Troy
Margaret Cho
Downtown Lad
Gay Patriot
Raw Story
Stonewall Dems
Andrew Sullivan
More Reads
Living Indefinitely
Blogroll Burnt Orange!
BOR Webrings
< ? Texas Blogs # >
<< ? austinbloggers # >>
« ? MT blog # »
« ? MT # »
« ? Verbosity # »
Election Returns
CNN 1998 Returns
CNN 2000 Returns
CNN 2002 Returns
CNN 2004 Returns

state elections 1992-2005

bexar county elections
collin county elections
dallas county elections
denton county elections
el paso county elections
fort bend county elections
galveston county elections
harris county elections
jefferson county elections
tarrant county elections
travis county elections


Texas Media
abilene
abilene reporter news

alpine
alpine avalanche

amarillo
amarillo globe news

austin
austin american statesman
austin chronicle
daily texan online
keye news (cbs)
kut (npr)
kvue news (abc)
kxan news (nbc)
news 8 austin

beaumont
beaumont enterprise

brownsville
brownsville herald

college station
the battalion (texas a&m)

corpus christi
corpus christi caller times
kris news (fox)
kztv news (cbs)

crawford
crawford lone star iconoclast

dallas-fort worth
dallas morning news
dallas observer
dallas voice
fort worth star-telegram
kdfw news (fox)
kera (npr)
ktvt news (cbs)
nbc5 news
wfaa news (abc)

del rio
del rio news herald

el paso
el paso times
kdbc news (cbs)
kfox news (fox)
ktsm (nbc)
kvia news (abc)

galveston
galveston county daily news

harlingen
valley morning star

houston
houston chronicle
houston press
khou news (cbs)
kprc news (nbc)
ktrk news (abc)

laredo
laredo morning times

lockhart
lockhart post-register

lubbock
lubbock avalanche journal

lufkin
lufkin daily news

marshall
marshall news messenger

mcallen
the monitor

midland - odessa
midland reporter telegram
odessa american

san antonio
san antonio express-news

seguin
seguin gazette-enterprise

texarkana
texarkana gazette

tyler
tyler morning telegraph

victoria
victoria advocate

waco
kxxv news (abc)
kwtx news (cbs)
waco tribune-herald

weslaco
krgv news (nbc)

statewide
texas cable news
texas triangle


World News
ABC News
All Africa News
Arab News
Atlanta Constitution-Journal
News.com Australia
BBC News
Bloomberg
Boston Globe
CBS News
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
CNN
Denver Post
FOX News
Google News
The Guardian
Inside China Today
International Herald Tribune
Japan Times
LA Times
Mexico Daily
Miami Herald
MSNBC
New Orleans Times-Picayune
New York Times
El Pais (Spanish)
Salon
San Francisco Chronicle
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Slate
Times of India
Toronto Star
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post



Powered by
Movable Type 3.15