Animal House Summit: By Maureen Dowd

[kpete]

Animal House Summit
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: July 19, 2006

.........................

The president has enshrined his immaturity and insularity, turning every environment he inhabits — no matter how decorous or serious — into a comfortable frat house.

No matter what the trappings or the ceremonies require of the leader of the free world, he brings the same DKE bearing and cadences, the same insouciance and smart-alecky attitude, the same simplistic approach — swearing, swaggering, talking to Tony Blair with his mouth full of buttered roll, and giving a startled Angela Merkel an impromptu shoulder rub. He can make even a global summit meeting seem like a kegger.

Catching W. off-guard, the really weird thing is his sense of victimization. He’s strangely resentful about the actual core of his job. Even after the debacles of Iraq and Katrina, he continues to treat the presidency as a colossal interference with his desire to mountain bike and clear brush.

In snippets of overheard conversation, Mr. Bush says he has not bothered to prepare any closing remarks and grouses about having to listen to other world leaders talk too long. What did he think being president was about?

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/opinion/19dowd.html?hp

[msongs]

1. his jocularity = attempts to cover his inadequacies he is out of his

league and he knows it, that is why he clowns around.

sad to say his behavior just magnifies his incompetence cuz these other diplomats are the real thing and they know a loser when they see one.

would love to hear how they talk about him behind his back.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/demfest1.htm

[fearthem]

5. You've hit it!!!

[madinmaryland]

2. For those of you without NYSelect...

http://nevadathunder.com/?p=2232#more-2232

[wicket]

4. Thank-you!

:toast:

[kpete]

6. thanks, so much!

[fearthem]

7. A BIG THANK YOU :)

[partylessinOhio]

9. Thank you!

Maureen has him pegged.
:eyes:

[PA Democrat]

11. Thanks. Well worth reading.

I agree with Dowd's assessment.

[senseandsensibility]

12. Yes, thanks!

I was just starting to gnash my teeth because I don't want to register with the Times, and there was your link!:)

[madinmaryland]

14. For all of you without NYSelect, bookmark this site:

www.nevadathunder.com

They also carry Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, and Frank Rich. An interesting set of articals and opinions at that site.

:hi:

[renate]

16. woo-hoo!!

Thank you thank you thank you! I've missed these editorials so much!

:yourock:

[Spazito]

17. Thank you!

Good column, she is sure right in this one.

[acmavm]

3. His parents deserve a major ass kicking for not only breeding

this flawed individual but also because of the absolutely horrible job the did of raising him.

[grasswire]

8. I will never understand this

Was he kept in a closet? What was dinner time like in that household? And how did Andover and Yale fail to teach him to be a gentleman? How can Mother Bush not be deeply ashamed? She could at least have taught him to carry a handkerchief and not talk with a full mouth.

[Arugula Latte]

15. As I just posted in another thread, rules, laws, and appropriateness

don't apply to Bushes. Tsk, tsk. You should know that, dear. *pats condescendingly on head*

[Gidney N Cloyd]

10. I sometimes wonder if he actually dials up his bad manners rather than

dial down. Would everything being said now about his behavior be easier on his ego than if he tried to act mannerly and failed?

[Bandit]

13. That is what passes for "Honor and Dignity"

Aren't we all so glad that it has been restored in the Whitehouse?

[renate]

18. what a great article

It's funny to see how the talking-with-a-full-mouth thing is lasting a lot longer than his saying "shit." Jay Leno showed a clip of him chewing last night, and CNN's website had a headline yesterday for a video clip that was something along the lines of "The swearing, spitting, and lip-smacking Bush."

He's so bad in so many other ways that laughing about his full mouth seems petty, but there must be millions of Americans who have never felt that kind of "ewwwww" about him before. And sometimes the littlest things are the most eye-opening.