So when the President was here on July 4, I had the opportunity to shake

his hand. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not but I did it

anyway, and said to him, "Mr. President, I hope you only serve four

years. I'm very disappointed in your work so far."

He kept smiling and shaking my hand but answered, "Who cares what you

think?" His face stayed photo-op perfect but his eyes gave me a look

that said, if we'd been drinking in some frat house in Texas, he'd of

happily answered, "Let's take it outside." A nasty little gleam. But he

was (fortunately) constrained by Presidential propriety.

But that was the end of it, until I turned away and started scribbling

the quote down in my notepad, so as to remember "The Gift" forever. When

he saw me do that he got excited and craned his neck over the

rubberneckers to shout at me, "Who are you with? Who are you with?"

People started looking, so he made a joke: "Make sure you get it right."

But he kept at it: "Who do you write for?" I told him I wasn't "with"

anybody and pointed to one of his staff people, who knows me a little,

and said, "Ask him, he'll tell you." Then I split.

Half an hour later, my boss (who had helped organize the event we were

at) came up to me and said, "Did you really tell the President that he

was doing a 'lousy f*cking job'?" "No way," I said. "I was very polite,

I just told him what I thought." Fortunately, he believed me. He wasn't

happy with me, but he believed me.

But anyway, if you ever wondered if the Prez really is kind of a jerk,

I'm here to tell you, he is, and I got "The Gift" to prove it. I'm

thinking of

making up T-shirts so we can share "The Gift" with everyone:

"Who cares what you think?" --President George W. Bush, July 4, 2001

--bh

--

"Those who lead the country into the abyss

Call ruling too difficult

For ordinary men."..........Bertolt Brecht