Milbank: "Ceremony to Commemorate Foreign Policy Achievements"???

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: A Plaque on All Their Houses
By Dana Milbank
Friday, January 16, 2009; Page A03

It seemed at first as if a prankster had hacked his way into the White House e-mail system. "Ceremony to Commemorate Foreign Policy Achievements," said the advisory from the White House Office of Presidential Advance. Two wars, the brink of global depression, and violence from Mumbai to Gaza? Par-tee!

With fanfare, they walked into the gilded Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department yesterday: President Bush, the first lady, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Rice's deputy, John Negroponte. They had come to praise great people. Namely, themselves.

Rice presented Laura Bush with a framed "Certificate of Appreciation." Then she presented Bush with a "commemorative plaque." And another commemorative plaque, which, like the first, was sheathed in a gold curtain. Finally, she had an honor guard present her boss with five flags in nifty triangular boxes.

"Mr. President, we've been through a lot together," Rice told Bush. "We've been through a lot together," Bush told Rice. "Mr. President, history's judgment is rarely the same as today's headlines," Rice assured Bush. "History will say that Condi Rice was one of the great secretaries of state our country has ever had," Bush assured Rice.

Bush hung a Presidential Medal of Freedom around the neck of Ryan Crocker, his ambassador to Iraq. Everybody stood to applaud, and the president left to a Sousa march. As one might expect of a Ceremony to Commemorate Foreign Policy Achievements of the Bush Administration, it did not last very long....

***

(N)obody has been dishing out -- and seeking -- as much adulation as the current president. On Monday, he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to three world leaders, including former Australian prime minister John Howard (who had taken up residence at Blair House, across the street from the White House, and prevented the Obama family from moving in). To highlight his own praiseworthiness, Bush has released two legacy-burnishing booklets, the 40-page "100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration Record" and the 50-page "Highlights of Accomplishments and Results of the Administration of George W. Bush."

Laudatory though they are, pamphlets can't touch the grandeur of a ceremony at the State Department -- and Rice put on a show for her boss yesterday with all the fixings: the crystal light fixtures, the presentation of the colors, the framed medals and flags. With a flourish, the military aide pulled back curtain No. 1 to reveal the first plaque, and curtain No. 2 to reveal the second plaque. "This one shows what you have done to expand the circle of human freedom in the world," Rice announced.

Bush had no awards for Rice, but he did come with praise for her ("She's like my sister") and for himself. "In short, we've made our alliances stronger, we've made our nation safer, and we have made the world freer," he said.

And now he has proof: two commemorative plaques, a handsome boxed flag set, and a certificate for the wife.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR2009011503512_pf.html

[Old and In the Way]

1. How pathetic.

I wonder if he told Condi to put this dog and pony show on? Wouldn't surprise me in the least. He's really grasping for praise.

[Gabi Hayes]

2. Milbank, always has been, always will be....one of the worst:

http://lots-o-thoughts.blogspot.com/2008/12/dana-milbank-sucks-at-journalism.html



well worth the read