Dinner with the Queen

NYT reported 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?

Probably the same things he did four years ago when she invited him to a formal dinner. How does a figurehead queen of a former worldwide empire prepare for a state dinner with the first of many countries to seek independence from the British Empire.

CQ blogged I suppose ... by not doing those things. He certainly managed it in Britain four years ago when the queen hosted him and Laura Bush at a white-tie dinner in London. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Jim Rutenberg never put their feet up on a coffee table, and never drank water from a bottle?

Anchoress blogged You know, I am not one of those people who carries on about Bill Clinton’s sexual peccadillos. If you look through my archives you’ll see little-to-no mention of that behavior…but this article all but DARES me to ask it…were Bill Clinton about to meet with Queen Elizabeth II, would we be reading the following in the NY Times?

“How does William Jefferson Clinton - a pizza-box strewing Arkansas boy who puts his penis into interns mouths, invites “trailer park trash” to “kiss it,” and was once caught on tape laughing as he exited a funeral, only to quickly turn on the tears when he saw the press, prepare for a state dinner with the queen?”

That would be a very tacky, very snide, useless, pointless and unfair sort of lede to write about Bill Clinton. It’s also a very tacky, very snide, useless, pointless, unfair and yes, just plain childish sort of lede to write about George W. Bush, whom the press has clearly stopped viewing even as a human being.

All of this says a great deal more about the press - particularly the spiteful adolescents now in charge of “the paper of record” - than it does about George W. Bush.