The Denver Post is frowning on the egregious excess of George&Co's second inaugural round of festivities. I know the Bushies and friends paid their money and expect a glorious week of heady festivities as a partial reward much like a designer bag filled with extravagant goodies before more substantial recompense appears, but the "let them eat cake" attitude is not being totally missed by large segments of the American public.
Hubris is not a true friend.
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~417~2647523,00.html...
"The planned glitz and glamour of the three-day affair already has an air of being overdone, if not outdated, when contrasted with the American servicemembers who are in harm's way on the streets of Iraq and in the hills of Afghanistan.
And with the Indian Ocean still churning up bodies from last month's devastating tsunami, ice sculptures and black tie dinner dances seem slightly off chord.
The website of the Presidential Inaugural Committee says inaugurations "set the tone for a new administration and reflect a president's personality." What do the organizers want us to see about President Bush in next week's $40 million celebration?
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That said, we would have favored a toned-down inaugural even before the tsunami hit. Not only is it Bush's second inauguration - even Bill Clinton scaled back his second one - but Americans also are in danger in foreign lands. Certainly the inaugural programmers will sketch in the requisite salutes to the armed forces, and those who have sacrificed their very lives for this country, but we would have preferred something modest, such as what President Franklin Roosevelt had during wartime: a short speech at the White House and a nice luncheon.
Instead, the fashion flackery has begun in earnest. We hear that First Lady Laura Bush will don an "ice blue and silver embroidered tulle V-neck dress with a matching duchess satin coat by Seventh Avenue designer Oscar de la Renta" for the inaugural balls."
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