Smoke without fire
You have to hand it to the nation's press corps. Jenna Bush's wedding is a private as private can be, and they're doing the public job of reporting on something that there's nothing to report about. "There will be absolutely no readout, whatsoever," a White House spokesman told reporters. But they're still trying and trying and trying.
Bloomberg News gives us 708 words on how they can't get into the wedding. The Associated Press cranks it up to 987 words! Wow, almost a thousand words observing things like, "Few if any Crawford residents have been invited, but they say they don't feel snubbed." I bet the AP does! And on CBS, a reporter was actually inane enough to have this exchange in the morning:
CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports that press is not allowed onto the ranch this morning, at least not without an invite to the wedding. "I keep asking and, darn it, can't get an invitation," Cobiella said on CBS' Early Show.
However, CBS also seems to be implying that Bush would have no trouble making political hay out of the event, quoting another correspondent as saying that, "if it was up to President Bush, he'd blab the whole thing. He keeps giving up more and more details while his staffers keep stonewalling."
To boot, they say that some woman's wedding has been preempted by Jenna's nuptials because her husband was called on duty by the sheriff's department for which he works. "Jenna," CBS News says, "you ignorant slut."
Agence France Presse editorializes for, well, I guess, the French, that the wedding is "a welcome break from two wars, terrorism, soaring oil prices and other woes" for the president. And before it gets into some navel-gazing about how much the press hates the Bush family, the Washington Times spins in the other direction, stating that, "Jenna Bush becomes America's quiet sweetheart today — a bride wrapped in delicate organza, bound for a new destiny as wife, honeymooner, teacher, author and occasional first daughter, at least for a few more months."
The Times also notes that there is a 30% chance of thunderstorms in Crawford. Well, let's just say that the President's approval rating is around 30% too, and that doesn't seem to matter too much to him.
People says that some Texans in Salado where a wedding-related party was held Friday night were holding up signs that read, "W '08." A republic, if you can keep it that way.
But don't worry - the New York Times uses the wedding as an occasion to begin the eulogies and soliloquies for the end of Bush's 8 years. Doris Kearns Goodwin, the presidential historian/biographer, is quoted as saying, "“For previous presidents, leaving the White House felt like a terrible loss...This wedding reinforces the feeling that going to Texas will be a welcome relief to him.”
And, finally, if you really want to see how much blood you can squeeze from a stone, here's the Austin American-Statesman's Live from Crawford wedding blog:
“Who’s she marrying?,” the tattooed man asked the woman. “
“Umm…Henry Hager,” she slowly read from a photo in the gift shop’s window.
“It might be Sammy Hagar’s son,” the man replied back.
The woman shrugged her shoulders.
