BUSH Tosses $600,000 Bash for ... Ghana ...! As East Texas and The Nation's Economy Lie In Ruins!
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same as West Virginia's (and also like W.Va., a 57-percent literacy
rate), is honored at Bushie's probable final state dinner.
Hey, with little else to do but cheer FEMA (from far afar), and duck
from reporters seeking economic answers, why not an expensive fete at
taxpayers' expense?
And Dick Cheney was there, joshing and jovial in his usual comedic
mode.
Probably the last time so many U.S. war criminals will be collected in
one location -- outside (hopefully) The Hague.
What's not to like?
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"An African Ally Is Well Served"
"Fete for Ghana's Leader May Be Final State Dinner on Bush Menu"
By Marissa Newhall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 16, 2008; C01
President John Kufuor of Ghana was the guest of honor last night at
what seems likely to be the last state dinner hosted by President Bush
-- and only the sixth he's held during nearly eight years in office.
But the lavish proceedings had an elegant air of business as usual.
The guest list was light on glitter -- with baseball Hall of Famer
Dave Winfield the closest thing to a star -- and weighted toward NGOs
and business executives. A jovial-looking Vice President Dick Cheney
was on hand, as was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, radiant in
blue and accompanied by trusty date Gene A. Washington, an NFL
executive. They and other guests filed into the State Dining Room
while the president and first lady -- in a long-sleeved collared dress
in shimmering purplish blue -- posed for photos with Kufuor and his
wife, Theresa.
In toasts before dinner (Maine lobster gratin, ginger-scented lamb,
banana-coconut pudding) Bush and Kufuor were brief but ebullient,
cheerfully mentioning their soon-to-end terms.
"John and I will be in the ex-presidents club in the next few months,"
Bush said. "I'm confident we've left behind an enduring relationship
between our two countries." He called the guests "compassionate
people" who care about Africa's future, and thanked Kufuor for helping
Ghana "build a thriving democracy."
Kufuor called Bush "a great man . . . a strong man" and the "most
supportive of American presidents toward Africa." He drew laughs by
pointing out that he and Bush took office the same year and will leave
in the same year, "so perhaps we are two of a kind."
After dinner, the guests moved to the Rose Garden for a performance by
the cast of "The Lion King."
This was the second such fete for an African leader during the current
Bush administration (the first being the dinner for Kenyan President
Mwai Kibaki and his wife, Lucy, in October 2003). Ghana's last leader,
Jerry Rawlings, was President Bill Clinton's guest at a state dinner
in February 1999.
Bush and Kufuor see eye to eye on many issues, including Kufuor's
commitment to improving education and combating malaria and HIV-AIDS.
Kufuor said yesterday that as part of the Millennium Challenge
Compact, Ghana will soon begin spending $547 million to renovate
schools, increase agricultural productivity, expand infrastructure and
support rural development. And Bush's trip to Ghana in February
solidified a partnership built on respect for ballot-box democracy:
Kufuor's election in December 2000 was considered a triumph for
Ghanaian voters, who had been under Rawlings's rule since he seized
power in 1979.
Earlier in the day, during joint remarks on the South Lawn and in the
Rose Garden, Kufuor engaged Bush on climate change, saying the United
States "must be in the vanguard" of addressing global warming. But he
was quick to add, "You have been good and I hope history will judge
you well."
"Laura and I are looking forward to having you to dinner tonight,"
Bush said. "I promise not to unleash the dance moves that I first
displayed in Ghana, in what was one of the most memorable trips of my
presidency." (As well as one of the most memorable YouTube records of
that presidency.)
It's quite possible that Kufuor's first state dinner will be Bush's
last. The mammoth events take a few months to plan . . . and, truth
is, the president doesn't really like these kinds of things.
Unlike his father -- whose first year in the White House saw three
formal "working" dinners for Mideast leaders, a state dinner for
Pakistan, four more black-tie White House dinners for leaders of
Australia, Mexico, Panama and the Philippines, and dozens of smaller
functions -- Bush has generally opted for smaller, more informal
fetes.
When he has chosen the state dinner route, political points have been
made. Then-President of Mexico Vicente Fox, whose dinner was held
Sept. 5, 2001, was lauded as a good neighbor and important ally.
Poland and the Philippines, honored in separate dinners after the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were both members of the "coalition of the
willing."
The dinner for Kibaki amounted to a diplomatic apology after Bush
skipped a planned trip to Kenya, citing security concerns, and the
last dinner -- for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in
May 2007 -- celebrated old alliances with glitz and glamour.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/15/AR2008091503207.html