WendellGee points out this coincidence.
One of Rice’s repeated excuses in her testimony before the 9/11 commission (emphasis added):
“The restructuring of the F.B.I. was not going to be done in the 233 days in which we were in office,” she said. Nor, she said, was the country about to make its aircraft cockpits more secure, or threaten to invade Afghanistan, or conduct any other kind of preemptive military strike in the name of counterterrorism.
And from Dana Milbank and Robin Wright’s column in the Washington Post:
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.
I wonder if Milbank and Wright slipped that in ironically.
A president may not be able to reconstruct the FBI in 233 days, but it sure makes for some great down time, eh?
Bush is working even when he’s away from the White House. Ever hear of telephones? In testimony yesterday, Condeleeza talked of meetings in Texas.
I mean… it’s not like he’s on the campaign trail and missed all of his Senate votes for the past year…
I don’t know why Kerry has missed all the votes he has. I hope his staff was at least able to continue mailing out the flags and whatever else a senator’s office does.
Yes, there’s nothing like a 5 minute phone call from the boss to replace heading back to D.C. to take charge over this serious crisis developing in Iraq…
I do recognize that dead Americans need not stand in the way of touring one’s ranch for the umteenth time.