Priorities

2001 - At his ranch in Crawford Texas Bush receives the PDB Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US. Doesn't cut the vacation short.

2003 - The first months of the Iraq occupation and critical decisions are being made whose repercussions are still being felt today. Doesn't cut the vacation short.

2005 - The Iraq war is going still worse, and it's not until days after Katrina floods New Orleans that Bush is forced by his aides to cut his vacation short.

What do these have in common? Why, they're all non-election years.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Forget the hot, dusty weeks relaxing at his Texas ranch. President Bush, still down in the polls and grappling with grave matters on the world stage, is breaking his summer routine this election year to travel the country and boost the standing of his presidency and the Republican Party.

With Republicans nervous about keeping control of Congress and worries about the future of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, White House officials have decided too much is at stake this year for Bush to spend so much time on vacation. He'll spend some time at the ranch, but it will be less than previous summers and interrupted by more time on the road.

See, there's "too much at stake" this year. It's Congress after all, not Iraq or New Orleans.

I really wish this White House had been making LBJ or Nixon-style tapes so that forty years from now, when I'm an old man, I could actually hear the detached bullshit that must fly in their internal discussions.