By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 15, 2009Gov. Mark Sanford headed out of state for personal time with his wife, as the two try to reconcile, and skipped a meeting with a top economic adviser ahead of what is expected to be more bad economic news, including rising unemployment. A spokesman for Mr. Sanford, Joel Sawyer, refused to say where the Sanfords were going or how they were getting there, but said they would not be traveling with their four sons. Mr. Sanford is in the midst of trying to reconcile with his wife, Jenny Sanford, after a tearful confession of an affair with an Argentine woman, MarÃa Belén Chapur. Mr. Sawyer said meetings skipped this week would be rescheduled.
A few weeks ago, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford needed to take some personal time. Seems like the job was getting to him. So he took off to visit his girlfriend/soulmate in Argentina, while Jenny and the boys managed hearth and home on Sullivan’s Island on the coast. Flash to the present, after a tough couple of weeks, Governor Sanford has decided to take some personal time. So he’s off to an undisclosed location. What’s different? This time he took a woman with him, his wife Jenny, while his soulmate in Argentina, MarÃa Belén Chapur, manages hearth and home [and groceries] in Buenos Aires.
I’m thinking that being one of the ‘chosen’ like King David, must be hard work. South Carolina is third hardest hit by the recession with 12% unemployment. I wonder what kind of shape Israel was in back in the days when King David was up on the roof watching the ladies bathe and first spied Bathsheba?
The book’s opening anecdote tells of an unnamed CIA briefer who flew to Bush’s Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, to call the president’s attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: "All right. You’ve covered your ass, now." Three months later, with bin Laden holed up in the Afghan mountain redoubt of Tora Bora, the CIA official managing the Afghanistan campaign, Henry A. Crumpton [now the State Department’s counterterrorism chief], brought a detailed map to Bush and Cheney. White House accounts have long insisted that Bush had every reason to believe that Pakistan’s army and pro-U.S. Afghan militias had bin Laden cornered and that there was no reason to commit large numbers of U.S. troops to get him. But Crumpton’s message in the Oval Office, as told through Suskind, was blunt: The surrogate forces were "definitely not" up to the job, and "we’re going to lose our prey if we’re not careful."
George W. Bush is today making his final visit to Camp David as president.
He will likely miss the place: According to CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller, today’s trip marks Mr. Bush’s 149th visit to the presidential retreat. The planned three-day stay, during which the president is being joined by family and former and current aides, will bring his total time spent at Camp David to all or part of 487 days.
Yes, that’s 487 days. And Camp David is not even where the president has spent the most time when not at the White House: Knoller reports that Mr. Bush has made 77 visits to his ranch in Crawford during his presidency, and spent all or part of 490 days there.
I don’t really begrudge President Bush or Governor Sanford having a lot of personal time. Public Office is a bit like being a sole practitioner Physician – always on call. Actually, it’s worse because there are so many evening functions. But I’ll hold my point. These people take their vacations when there’s desperate work to be done. Governor Sanford is staying in office as he says to "win back the trust of the people of South Carolina" and to work out his personal issues. Meanwhile, he fought to turn down the Stimulus money to remain true to his Conservative Principles. Using the Governorship of a floundering State as a Marital Therapy experience takes the cake for misguided thinking in office – right up there with a President looking at an urgent comminication of an impending terrorist attack as a C.Y.A. maneuver for an aide.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.