People have to bitch about something. The latest gripe against President Obama comes courtesy of the Republican National Committee, an organization sure to find some reason to complain about the opposition even when the GOPs are grasping for straws. The complaint: Presidential Date Night.
This from CNN which sees all through the darkly tinted political glass:
Republicans have also questioned the cost to tax-payers for the brief excursion — which included three Gulfstream-size planes to transport the president’s security detail, staff, and White House reporters.
“If President Obama wants to go to the theater, isn’t the presidential box at the Kennedy Center good enough?” RNC Press Secretary Gail Gitcho said Saturday.
One must surely believe the RNC hasn’t yet scraped the bottom of the barrel to find complaints, but they have certainly come close.
How soon they forget the weekends that the last Republican president, one Gee Dubya Bush, spent in that glam of all glam places — Crawford, Texas.
CBS correspondent Mark Knoller, whom I always secretly cheered for when I’d see him in all his unkempt glory in Crawford, kept a running tally on the number of days Bush spent away in Crawford. The total number of days over an eight-year period: 490 days. Bush also spent 487 days at Camp David. Just those two places alone — not counting weekends at Kennebunkport with Poppy — amounted to about 1/3 of Bush’s time in office.
Although Camp David is a big closer to the White House than New York, New York, both are a far-sight nearer than Crawford. And since I spent a little time on the periphery of GW in Crawford and know a little about the geography, here is something else to consider.
The overwhelming majority of trips Bush made to Crawford meant Air Force One flying in to Texas State Technical College Airport on the northern edge of Waco. The airport is part of a former Air Force base and has a runway long enough to land anything flying including the Space Shuttle. Normally, the president would likewise fly in one of the helicopters of HMX-1, the Marine Corps helicopter squadron that operates Marine One, to the 20 or so miles by air from TSTC to “the ranch.”
Now you didn’t think that everyone would pack up at the ranch lock, stock and machine gun when GW returned to Washington did you? Not hardly. The military built a very roomy hangar out there, not in the line of sight from the ranch, although you could see a little of the president’s home on the way through the pastures en route to the hangar. The hangar was also used for press conferences in case of inclement weather, such as the cold day I went there for a newser with GW and then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar Lopez.
Now to lay out the case. Crawford, Texas, with no telling how many armed forces, Secret Service and not to mention overtime-drawing local yokel police officers around-the-clock (whether George W. was there or not), is not merely a hop, skip and a jump from D.C.compared to New York City. When weather was really poor, Bush would have to drive by motorcade from Crawford to TSTC, a good 30-some-odd miles by highway, give or take a few miles. I never stuck around that area to find out, but at one time it looked as if TSTC and the city of Waco might not be reimbursed for the money they laid out for presidential visits, mostly in police overtime. Some said it was a decent write-off in exchange for the bucks spent by reporters and others staying in hotels and visiting bars and restaurants in Waco. I’m sure someone made some money off all that just as some profited by the Obamas’ date night in the Big Apple.
But, I knew several folks who lost quite a bit of money when Gee Dubya came home, mostly when he had high-powered visitors like Aznar, the Chinese head of government and then-Russian President Putin. A couple of guys who operated air services at small airports near Crawford would inevitably be shut down due to no-fly restrictions during such instances. I don’t know if they ever got reimbursed either.
So if the RNC wants to bitch and moan about the president’s date night, let’s see if those folks would be willing to reimburse the federal government, the state of Texas, McLennan County, the city of Waco, as well as other local governments and private individuals who lost money on the almost 500 days Gee Dubya came to visit his beloved Crawford. I am sure some of those folks were never paid back for what was spent, at least in-kind. I wonder if now he has that fancy place in North Dallas if Shrub ever goes out to Crawford to chop mesquite? Well, probably not now that the cameras don’t follow him around.
Note: If you feel inclined to bitch at me about what I’ve just written, you are wasting your time. I don’t care. I could care less. But I don’t.
