Vacation? What vacation? That's the White House message

 

One way or another, every presidential administration must face it once a year: August.

Washington quiets down. Congress leaves town. The president goes on vacation. He just can't quite let it look that way.

August, after all, is the month of Saddam Hussein's assault on Kuwait in 1990, Katrina's assault on the Gulf Coast in 2005, and, now, depending on whether you are in Sochi or Crawford, Georgia's assault on South Ossetia or Russia's assault on Georgia.

It was in August from a Kennebunkport, Maine, golf course that President Bush memorably delivered --after a suicide bomb attack in Israel--a nearly-one-breath-no-nonsense message:

"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers thank you now watch this drive."

That  gaffe was one of the few slip-ups in a concerted White House effort to make the point that the president is never fully on vacation. Never mind what Mike Allen, writing in the Washington Post in 2002, called "golf-cart diplomacy."

Now, with Bush's ratings hovering around 30% month after month, it certainly wouldn't do to suggest that the president was just  "on vacation," as reasonable as it might seem for any president to need to take some time off, specially in his eighth war-torn year in office.

Regardless of popularity, the staffs of all recent presidents have gone to some length to present him as hard at work--even as he clears brush and rides his bike (President Bush); clears brush and rides his horse (President Reagan); plays aerobic golf and rides on his speedboat (the first President Bush); plays slow golf and schmoozes aerobically with friends (President Clinton); or plays softball and swats gnats (President Carter).

So, along comes ...

Palestinians have gotten 'very little justice,' former diplomat says

In his 25 years as a U.S. diplomat, Nicholas Burns proved it is possible to serve as a senior official in both Democratic and Republican administrations while almost never uttering a word that could cause trouble.

But since he gave up his job in March as No. 3 at the State Department and confidant to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, he’s been loosening his tie a bit. Just look at what he said about the Middle East.

In an appearance at the Woodrow Wilson International Center this week, where he is now a scholar, Burns casually remarked that Palestinians “have received very little justice” for the last 60 years.

While he was in pinstripes, that kind of language could have brought a strong reaction, because it may have been taken to suggest an official Bush administration view that Palestinians have a right to reclaim former lands in Israel, or, more broadly, that our allies the Israelis are guilty of injustice. Neither is U.S. policy.

But life as a former diplomat is so much quieter. So far, his comments have passed without raising eyebrows -- let alone prompting the firestorm they might have a few months back.

-- Paul Richter

Photo: Mikhail Metzel / AFP-Getty Images