New York Times: For Queen And First Lady, Bush Will Try White Tie
D. Spencer Hines
The New York Times does their best to make President Bush out as an IGNORANT
TEXAN RUBE DKE FRAT BOY -- whereas he is a graduate of Andover, Yale and
Harvard and quite sophisticated in his tastes....
But he's a politician who knows how to downplay and hide those antecedents
and tastes.
DSH
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
---------------------------------------
May 5, 2007
For Queen and First Lady, Bush Will Try White Tie
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON, May 4 — How does George W. Bush, a towel-snapping Texan who puts
his feet on the coffee table, drinks water straight from the bottle and was
once caught on tape talking with food in his mouth prepare for a state
dinner with the queen?
With tips from an etiquette guide, of course — and a little gentle prodding
from his wife.
The White House is atwitter over the visit on Monday by Queen Elizabeth II
and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. This is the first visit by the
queen since 1991, when Mr. Bush’s father was president. White House aides
say the state dinner in her honor is not only the social event of the year,
but also of the entire Bush presidency.
It will be closely watched by the social elite for its collision of
cultures — Texas swagger meets British prim. Dinner attire is white tie and
tails, the first and, perhaps, only white-tie affair of the Bush
administration. The president was said to be none too keen on that, but
bowed to a higher power, his wife.
“I think Mrs. Bush is thrilled to have a white-tie dinner, and we’ll leave
it at that,” Amy Zantzinger, the new White House social secretary, said on
Friday as she arranged seating for 134 on a computerized screen behind her
desk in the East Wing.
Ms. Zantzinger was not swamped with requests. Anybody who had not already
received one of the elegant gold-rimmed invitations (hand-penned by a
calligrapher and then engraved) apparently knew that it would be gauche to
ask. Still, the exclusivity has created some awkward moments, as when the
social secretary bumped into former President Bush, who was not on her list,
in the West Wing.
“He was making jokes, and then he said, ‘You know what, that is the hottest
ticket in town,’ ” she said, adding, “If he wanted to come, he could have.”
At that, the first lady’s press secretary, Sally McDonough, apparently
fearing an international incident coming on, interrupted.
“It’s not that he didn’t want to come,” Ms. McDonough explained, adding that
the elder Bushes would be guests at the “reciprocal dinner” that the royal
couple was having on Tuesday at the British Embassy.
A MUCH more elite invitation. -- DSH
“It’s very strategic in the coordination between the two dinners,” Ms.
McDonough said. So strategic, in fact, that the color of the women’s attire
is also coordinated, to avoid the horror of the first lady and queen
clashing — or, worse, matching.
Mr. Bush’s moniker for his father, 41, is well known, and he will surely
need no etiquette guide to warn him away from referring to the queen as II.
Even so, as it does for every official state visit, the White House has been
consulting with the State Department chief of protocol.
The resulting booklet of tips is not exactly classified, but it is
definitely not public.
Aides to Mrs. Bush shared a few dos and don’ts. The queen shall be addressed
as “Your Majesty.” The prince is “Your Royal Highness.”
For women, curtseying is acceptable, but not required. One does not shake
the queen’s hand unless the queen offers hers first.
And after Her Majesty finishes her meal, everyone’s meal is finished. (Not
to worry, a senior official said of Mr. Bush: “He’s a really fast eater.”)
The guidebook includes the queen’s dietary restrictions. “She doesn’t like
spicy food,” said Anita McBride, Mrs. Bush’s chief of staff.
The visit has brought a sense of giddiness to a White House worn down by the
Iraq war and fights with Democrats in Congress, as well as distracted by a
sex scandal that brought the resignation of a top State Department official.
Hilarious! That incident has been merely a minor spit-kit blip on the
Washington radar screen. -- DSH
In the West Wing on Friday, the talk was of negotiations with Syria, but in
the East Wing, it was all about china — and not the country. The meal of
five courses instead of the customary four will be served on gold-trimmed
Lenox bought in the Clinton years.
And the Clintons didn't make off with it in January 2001? Remarkable! --
DSH
The floral shop was frantic, with seven florists arranging centerpieces for
every public room in the house. Cream-colored roses and white lilacs for the
State Dining Room, pale pink roses for the Green Room, pale yellow roses in
the Diplomatic Room and classic red roses for the Red Room.
“Wet Paint” signs were everywhere, and workers were washing the windows in
the Colonnade that runs past the Rose Garden. Inside, at Mrs. Bush’s
direction, a panel of photographs of earlier royal visits was on display,
including one of President Gerald R. Ford dancing with the queen in 1976.
Even Vice President Dick Cheney got into the act as the official White House
representative at the welcoming on Friday in Jamestown, Va. He proclaimed
the visit an affirmation of “the ties of trust and warm friendship between
our two countries.”
Even some bipartisanship was in the air. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the
California Democrat known for her elegance, will attend the dinner. The
Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, decidedly less elegant,
declined.
Good! -- DSH
“Senator Reid isn’t much of a white-tail-at-dinner kind of a guy,” his
spokesman, Jim Manley, said.
But dinner only goes so far toward bipartisanship. “He’s issued three veto
threats this week,” Ms. Pelosi’s spokesman, Brendan Daly, said about Mr.
Bush.
Sounds as if she's frightened. -- DSH
On the Republican side, Representative David Dreier of California understood
the white-tie anxiety. “Just the idea of tails — it’s not comfortable,” Mr.
Dreier grumbled.
This is all chatter by politicos who want to retain their faux "common-man"
image. -- DSH
But he will happily wear his own on Monday, he said, to escort Leonore
Annenberg, chief of protocol for President Ronald Reagan.
This is the queen’s fourth state visit to the United States. Aside from the
1991 and 1976 visits, she was here in 1957 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was
president.
Remarkable that she was here for the 350th Anniversary of the founding of
Jamestown and now is here again for the 400th Anniversary. -- DSH
And Washington has mingled with British royalty on the other side of the
Atlantic, as well.
In July 2001, the Bushes had lunch with the queen at Buckingham Palace.
“He didn’t drink water out of his bottle,” said Ari Fleischer, the former
White House press secretary, who was there.
By Mr. Fleischer’s telling, Mr. Bush once did drink water out of his bottle
at a United Nations lunch, prompting Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to
give the president a gentle hint by pouring water in his glass.
On their official visit to Britain in November 2003, the Bushes were
feted at a state banquet, also white tie. Two years later, Prince Charles
and the Duchess of Cornwall were here. And, as Ms. McBride pointed out, the
president and the first lady were guests in 1991 at the last state dinner
for the queen, with Mr. Bush’s parents as hosts.
The president made no social miscues at those events, but last year he was
spotted eating a dinner roll while talking to Prime Minister Tony Blair of
Britain. At that meeting of world leaders, Mr. Bush also gave Chancellor
Angela Merkel of Germany an impromptu shoulder rub.
Bush the Sexual Harasser? - Perhaps the NYT will try to lay that one on him
too. -- DSH
Ms. McBride was not concerned. “I wouldn’t worry at all about his table
manners,” she said, adding, “The president, frankly, is quite comfortable in
every setting, no matter who it is.
---------------------------------------------
RIGHT!
He's a Politician.
DSH
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
Baldoni XXV REX ROMANORUM
D. Spencer Hines <pan...@excelsior.com> typed:
| Deeeeelightful!
|
| The New York Times does their best to make President Bush out as an
| IGNORANT TEXAN RUBE DKE FRAT BOY -- whereas he is a graduate of
| Andover, Yale and Harvard and quite sophisticated in his tastes....
|
| But he's a politician who knows how to downplay and hide those
| antecedents and tastes.
|
| DSH
|
| Lux et Veritas et Libertas
| ---------------------------------------
|
| May 5, 2007
|
| For Queen and First Lady, Bush Will Try White Tie
|
Is Raymond Burr in town ?
--
Count Baldoni
Ray O'Hara
"D. Spencer Hines" <pan...@excelsior.com> wrote in message
news:Pi3%h.188$OR3...@eagle.america.net...
> Deeeeelightful!
>
> The New York Times does their best to make President Bush out as an
IGNORANT
> TEXAN RUBE DKE FRAT BOY -- whereas he is a graduate of Andover, Yale and
> Harvard and quite sophisticated in his tastes....
actually the chimpler is the one who "cultivated" the drunken frat boy
image. and if you go to youtube and search bush and drunk you will find
videos of him drunk.
he affects the texas drawl walks like he somesort of western gunfighter and
generally has embarrassed the country, sold us out to the chinese and done
damage to the economy. history will judge dubya harshly.
Conway Caine
"Baldoni XXV REX ROMANORUM" <anth...@amalfi.org> wrote in message
news:463cd120$0$9190$8826...@news.teranews.com...
Oh good Lord, it IS Spring Break.
Baldoni XXV REX ROMANORUM
Conway Twitty <cca...@worldnet.att.net> typed:
Tis the holiday's boy and I be the tutor.
--
Count Baldoni
Conway Caine
Cancun this year?
Baldoni XXV REX ROMANORUM
Conway Caine <cca...@worldnet.att.net> typed:
Bronx Park !
--
Count Baldoni
Conway Caine
Mind the dog doo.