Is it just me or does this seem a little over the top for a country at war, no matter who won? Discretion is not in these people's vocabulary as long as Babs can tie on a fancy gown, evidently.
===
WASHINGTON - When President Bush takes his second oath of office Jan. 20 it will be his family’s fifth inauguration ceremony,
a day of pomp and pageantry set amid the icons of democracy only this city can provide: the U.S. Capitol, the White House, Pennsylvania Avenue.
Security will be extraordinary — it’s the first presidential inauguration since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, and the nation is under a continuing threat by Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida organization.
But that is not expected to alter the
elaborate rituals by which the nation installs its president. For Bush’s second inauguration,
those rituals provide a regal subtext, the crown jewel in the Bush political dynasty: His father, George H. W. Bush, was inaugurated twice as vice president, in 1981 and 1985, and once as president, in 1989.
With
21-gun salutes, fancy-dress balls and tighter-than-ever security,
the day will resemble nothing so much as a coronation.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6459974/