Who's hugging now?

Andrew Rosenthal has a moving editorial about the way the Bush administration is trying to keep any concrete reminders of just how many of our young men and women have for Bush's Folly. The administration, however, apparently views the idea of having someone of appropriate stature greet the families coming to claim the bodies of their loved ones as a matter of convenience.

Some Republicans say it would take up too much of the president's time to attend military funerals or meet the coffins returning from Iraq. "They're coming back continually," the conservative commentator Bay Buchanan said on CNN on Tuesday. "The president cannot be flying up there every single week."

Why not? Except for when he's out of the country, he seems to be able to fly anywhere else he wants to in order to hold fund-raisers, and he had enough time to take the entire month of August as a vacation. Why, then, can't he squeeze in time to take even a few minutes to meet with the families of the soldiers he's killed?

Back in December, Bush didn't seem to think he'd have a problem with this part of the job. Speaking in Washington DC on December 13, he made a statement that was quickly added to the catalogue of his oddly mangled quotes - but the point of the comment was that he has a serious responsibility when it comes to the commitment of troops:

"And there's only one person who hugs the mothers and the widows, the wives and the kids on the death of their loved ones. Others hug, but having committed the troops, I've got an additional responsibility to hug, and that's me, and I know what it's like."

Now that he's faced with those mothers, widows and kids he said he knew he'd have to hug, he turns his tail and runs. Not surprising for someone who went AWOL from a National Guard unit.

Posted by thorswitch at November 14, 2003 08:59 AM | TrackBack