Bush's Crawford vacation delayed

During Hurricane Katrina, President Bush was criticized for not responding quickly enough. He seemed not to want to leave his vacation home in Crawford, Texas, to deal with a devastating hurricane on the Gulf Coast and the resulting inept response by his administration. The public watched in horror as fellow Americans clung to rooftops and listened to reports of refugee centers without water or working toilets. Bush holidayed on.

Now, with the U.S. ally Georgia in turmoil and the Bush administration facing criticism for being slow to respond to Russia's aggression (see Countdown to Crawford's earlier post about how some foreign policy experts now see Georgia as the Katrina of Bush's foreign policy) the White House announced that Bush is delaying his departure -- planned for tomorrow -- to Crawford.

Bush, pictured here in Crawford last year with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has declared his "solidarity" with the people of Georgia in their attempts to ward off continued attacks from Russia, as our colleagues at the Swamp noted. So, the White House said, vacation delayed until further notice.

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Sal B]

"Bush ... has declared his "solidarity" with the people of Georgia in their attempts to ward off continued attacks from Russia..."

That's because he thinks it's the State where Atlanta is.