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Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush (WaPo Slags Bush Vacation)
The Washington Post ^ | Saturday, December 31, 2005 | Lisa Rein

Posted on 12/31/2005 5:49:13 PM PST by kristinn

CRAWFORD, Tex., Dec. 30 -- On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch here, President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground.

SNIP

This might strike many Washingtonians as a curious pastime. It does burn a lot of calories. But brush clearing is dusty, it is exhausting (the president goes at it in 100 degree-plus heat), and it is earsplitting, requiring earplugs to dull the chain saw's buzz.

SNIP

Ronald Reagan chopped wood and rode horses, Bush's father sailed off the shore of Kennebunkport, Maine, and Bill Clinton jogged. For George W. Bush, clearing brush projects the image of a cowboy president, a tough rancher fighting the elements to survive. That is, of course, the White House's projection; the president's critics take a dimmer view.

"Most likely he's doing that to show the media he's got a chain saw," joked Larry Mattladge, who raises Black Angus cows three-quarters of a mile from the Bush ranch and built his fence rows out of cedar posts. "It's a man's thing. Brush clearing is not only for the young at heart, it's for the young. It's to show he's a Texan."

Presidential historian Robert Dallek said: "This is part of his macho image. Obviously this is nothing Bush has to do. He's the son of a rich man who doesn't have to spend his time cutting underbrush."

SNIP

"He shouldn't have time to be clearing brush," said Kay Lucas, a grandmother and antiwar activist who drives 25 miles a day to care for the Crawford Peace House, a gathering spot for Cindy Sheehan and her protest against the war.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: cityslickers; crawford; lisarein; nye; pettydems
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Leave it to The Post to politicize the President's R&R on the ranch.
1 posted on 12/31/2005 5:49:14 PM PST by kristinn
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To: kristinn
Down on the Ranch, President Wages War on the Underbrush

This from a paper who refuses to acknowledge that we are at war after 9-11.

May good ol' fashioned cedar fever infest these idiots from January to December.

2 posted on 12/31/2005 5:51:18 PM PST by dirtboy (u)
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To: kristinn

Congress is allowed a vacation, but not the President. HYPOCRITES!!!


3 posted on 12/31/2005 5:52:26 PM PST by Stayingawayfromthedarkside (The stink you smell are the liberals fuming after Ann speaks!!!)
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To: kristinn
On most of the 365 days he has enjoyed at his secluded ranch here, President Bush's idea of paradise is to hop in his white Ford pickup truck in jeans and work boots, drive to a stand of cedars, and whack the trees to the ground.

He probably pretends the trees are MSM reporters!

Did the WaPo ever criticize Clinton over his vacations? Vacations where he had to freeload on some rich FOB because the parasite and his wife never even owned a home of their own till leaving the White House?

4 posted on 12/31/2005 5:52:34 PM PST by Rummyfan
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To: kristinn

365 days on his secluded ranch? Is this number accurate? and, most of those days are not your traditional day off. Every day POTUS works.


5 posted on 12/31/2005 5:52:38 PM PST by misterrob
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To: kristinn
Oh FGS! It's good healthy work, someone needs to do it, why not leave him alone.

Hey, I wonder if that's Salt Cedar he's clearing?

6 posted on 12/31/2005 5:53:16 PM PST by McGavin999 (If Intelligence Agencies can't find leakers, how can we expect them to find terrorists?)
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To: kristinn

Further, the idea of a presidential vacation is a joke - he's never more than seconds form a phone and is constantly working while in Crawford.

Happy New Year kristinn! See you at CPAC!


7 posted on 12/31/2005 5:53:48 PM PST by Rummyfan
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To: kristinn

"He shouldn't have time to be clearing brush"

Of course he should, unless he's a pinhead micromanager like Bozo the peanut farmer. Besides, how can he think clearly if he's not rested and clear-headed? Exercise is great for the little grey cells.

Anybody remember any demonrats saying that Beelzebubba "shouldn't have time" to be committing adultery in the Oval Office?


8 posted on 12/31/2005 5:54:53 PM PST by dsc (Islamic sexual violence against women should be treated as the repressive epidemic it is.)
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To: dirtboy

They're faced with three more years of reporting from Crawford. They came so close to vacation at Martha's Vineyard and Jackson Hole and Paris.


9 posted on 12/31/2005 5:54:55 PM PST by kristinn
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To: kristinn
They're faced with three more years of reporting from Crawford.

Hell can be a righteous thing....

10 posted on 12/31/2005 5:55:43 PM PST by dirtboy (u)
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To: kristinn

The press should have to live in tents while in Crawford. I'd drive over just to see that.


11 posted on 12/31/2005 5:57:37 PM PST by kenth
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To: kristinn

Bush lied...trees died?


12 posted on 12/31/2005 5:58:25 PM PST by Normal4me
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To: kristinn

Maybe golf or tennis would be acceptable to these twits. Whose business is it how he spends his time off and gets exercise? I think this person has run out of anything meaningful to report.


13 posted on 12/31/2005 5:59:47 PM PST by Ditter
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To: kristinn
[This might strike many Washingtonians as a curious pastime. ]

More proof that a slimy Leftist "journalist" can't even recognize hard work when he sees it first hand. Just like he can't understand "heroism" when he sees it first hand. Secretly, these "journalists" are not at all that far removed from self-loathing suicide. I just wish they would spare us the fruits of their psychosis and just do it already.

14 posted on 12/31/2005 6:04:52 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie because he didn't bake one.)
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To: dsc
Of course he should, unless he's a pinhead micromanager like Bozo the peanut farmer.

Yeah. He was even involving himself in the scheduling of the White House tennis court. What a disaster that sweater-wearing, light-turning-offing, goober-raising dope was.

15 posted on 12/31/2005 6:04:55 PM PST by John Jorsett (scam never sleeps)
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To: kristinn
"He shouldn't have time to be clearing brush," said Kay Lucas, a grandmother and antiwar activist

Bill Clinton should not have enough time to have Monica give him blow jobs.

16 posted on 12/31/2005 6:06:59 PM PST by BunnySlippers (Happy Festivus!)
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To: kristinn
Leave it to The Post to politicize the President's R&R on the ranch.

They are making up for the fact that they never reported on Clinton's massive cocaine abuse and philandering during his "R&R's".

17 posted on 12/31/2005 6:10:05 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie because he didn't bake one.)
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To: kristinn

That presstitute is just an urban animal who has not the slightest clue of why taking a chainsaw or an axe to one's land to either improve the land or make someting from a tree would appeal.

Consdier this: for most of us the only opportunity to gazr on something unseen by any other man is when we open a log with a band milll, or a chainsaw.

I just cut off a Lysiloma about three feet thick, with a fork made of 2.5 foot thick prongs. The wood is simply beautiful and will make superlative tables.

Same with an even larger oak in Miami, alongside my friend's home.

A 40+ yeear old Stihl 070 still starts on the first pull and powers a 54" bar.

I do understand Bush's cutting with a chainsaw when he doesn't "have to." So does the rest of AMerica's non-Blue state urban Liberals.

But, like most Americans, I'm not a Liberal presstitute.


18 posted on 12/31/2005 6:11:02 PM PST by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon Liberty, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: GladesGuru

Sorry about forgetting the SPELL button. :-(


19 posted on 12/31/2005 6:12:34 PM PST by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon Liberty, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: Rummyfan

Happy New Year to you, too! See you at CPAC.


20 posted on 12/31/2005 6:12:34 PM PST by kristinn
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To: kristinn
There are so many things that bug me about this story, not the least of which was the "he's rich and doesn't have to do it" comment.

I love that my President goes out and does manly things. And if I had to deal with even half the nimrods Bush has to deal with, I'd want to work out some aggression with a chainsaw, too.

Good for him.

Oh, and the "he shouldn't have time" comment? Foolish for a million reasons. I want my President's head to be clear. Exercise and old fashioned hard work are excellent ways to accomplish that.

Of course the left isn't familiar with that concept.

21 posted on 12/31/2005 6:15:27 PM PST by teenyelliott (Soylent green should be made outta liberals...)
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To: dirtboy

They are already reaping their just rewards. Their stuck-on-stupid reporting and editorial staff just don't get it yet.

22 posted on 12/31/2005 6:16:02 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie because he didn't bake one.)
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To: GladesGuru

It's gardening, ranch style. These reporters do need to get out of their bubble and see how the rest of the country lives.


23 posted on 12/31/2005 6:17:19 PM PST by kristinn
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To: GladesGuru

"Sorry about forgetting the SPELL button."

Yeah, I thought everybody knew that "presstitute" is spelled, "treasonous tofu-chomping media scumbag."


24 posted on 12/31/2005 6:18:23 PM PST by dsc (Islamic sexual violence against women should be treated as the repressive epidemic it is.)
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To: GladesGuru
I do understand Bush's cutting with a chainsaw when he doesn't "have to."

I do lots of things I don't "have to". But I like hard work, I like getting my hands dirty, I like doing things myself, it's a great stress reliever, and it's great exercise. I'm sure the President feels that way, too.

Screw the press. Bunch a manicured soft bodies.

25 posted on 12/31/2005 6:19:22 PM PST by teenyelliott (Soylent green should be made outta liberals...)
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To: misterrob
365 days on his secluded ranch? Is this number accurate? and, most of those days are not your traditional day off. Every day POTUS works.

"The story is essentially true, even if the facts had to be made up due to lack of actual evidence"

26 posted on 12/31/2005 6:19:28 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie because he didn't bake one.)
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
They are making up for the fact that they never reported on Clinton's massive cocaine abuse and philandering during his "R&R's".

I thought Bill hurt his knee tripping on some stairs when he was on vacation :-)

27 posted on 12/31/2005 6:20:29 PM PST by kristinn
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To: kristinn

"He shouldn't have time to be clearing brush," said Kay Lucas, a grandmother and antiwar activist who drives 25 miles a day to care for the Crawford Peace House...

Kay Lucas should bicycle to work a Real Job.

28 posted on 12/31/2005 6:21:20 PM PST by elli1
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To: kristinn
They're faced with three more years of reporting from Crawford.

How true. I relish their misery, and wish it upon them ten-fold each of the next three years. President Bush ought to go one step further and open a conference center in Death Valley.

29 posted on 12/31/2005 6:23:38 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie because he didn't bake one.)
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To: kristinn

Lisa Rein must truly be one bitter, mean spirited and empty individual.


30 posted on 12/31/2005 6:27:12 PM PST by Liberty Valance ("Can't hide Freedom's song." ~ Starwise)
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To: kristinn

Drunk on a golf outing according to Buzz Paterson.


31 posted on 12/31/2005 6:30:07 PM PST by misterrob
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To: kristinn
Bush has been clearing Brush down there for years and years, and now someone notices this and thinks its a political stunt?

Have any of these idiots got a memory more then 5 minuits?

This is how he relaxes, its his version of R & R.

Then again, this is the same media that thinks its news that the President has an iPOD.

32 posted on 12/31/2005 6:31:37 PM PST by Sonny M ("oderint dum metuant")
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To: kristinn
Isn't there anything "newsworthy" that the Washington Post could report on page A3 on the last day of the year?

Like maybe some of the progress being made in Iraq? That our military is meeting its recruitment goals? Anything else?

Lisa Rein apparently doesn't know any people in her circle of liberal elite who do their own yard work.

33 posted on 12/31/2005 6:32:56 PM PST by tgslTakoma
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To: Liberty Valance

She doesn't hide it well, does she?


34 posted on 12/31/2005 6:33:32 PM PST by tgslTakoma
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To: kristinn

Mega Barf Alert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


35 posted on 12/31/2005 6:33:58 PM PST by SoCar (Rudy in 2008)
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To: dsc
["He shouldn't have time to be clearing brush," said Kay Lucas...]

Had Lucas spent more time exersizing and minding her eating habits (as President Bush has done), instead of spewing bile, she might not have become a hateful, fat, ugly, disgusting slob. But that seems to be what becomes of most Leftist cows.

36 posted on 12/31/2005 6:35:39 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie because he didn't bake one.)
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To: kristinn
I thought Bill hurt his knee tripping on some stairs when he was on vacation :-)

LOL! I do recall some reporting of this. Did this occur at the Lawford residence? Something about blowing out a knee carrying a "friend" down a flight of stairs? This could not have been Hilary, which would have required a half-ton crane.

37 posted on 12/31/2005 6:41:51 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham (A Liberal: One who demands half of your pie because he didn't bake one.)
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To: kristinn
What a bunch of pansies. Normal men enjoy an optimum level of physical labor, find it relaxing, and a good way to de-stress from intense cognitive work--like running the free world. Too bad the only people this fat little girl from the WaPo could find to interview were other girls and losers like the buttboy next door.
38 posted on 12/31/2005 6:43:41 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
If any of the male reporters were half the man the President is, they would bring along some tools and help out. Nothing like a hard day of work to make them sleep well at night. However, they would rather sit and watch someone else work and criticize. Every time they ask the President about something, he should ask them to explain how you refuel, tighten the chain or start a chainsaw. Doubt that anyone of them could. Now who is the dumb one?
39 posted on 12/31/2005 6:45:33 PM PST by jerry639
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
I thought Bill hurt his knee tripping on some stairs when he was on vacation :-)

My recollection is that he was visiting at the home of that Aussie golfer(Great White Shark guy) got drunk and stumbled down some stairs and tore up his knee. A real man's man, that Billyboy. Ptui.

40 posted on 12/31/2005 6:54:28 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: kristinn

I can understand why the President does this- brush clearing. Something like that can be really therapeutic. Me personally, I like beating the hell out of things with a hammer but you know- I can see where the chainsaw thing would relieve some tension too.


41 posted on 12/31/2005 7:05:40 PM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: kristinn
I like this part in particular.

This might strike many Washingtonians as a curious pastime. It does burn a lot of calories. But brush clearing is dusty, it is exhausting (the President goes at it in 100 degree-plus heat), and it is earsplitting, requiring earplugs to dull the chain saw's buzz.

I can feel their pain. ;-)

And I relish it.

42 posted on 12/31/2005 7:11:27 PM PST by Soul Seeker (Mr. President: It is now time to turn over the money changers' tables.)
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To: kristinn

There are some people like Bush who find hard physical labor a very good way to relieve stress.

Beleive me, chopping cedar is no picnic.


43 posted on 12/31/2005 7:17:51 PM PST by wildbill
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To: kristinn

They'd be happier if he was hob knobbing with the Hollywood elite on Martha's Vineyard.


44 posted on 12/31/2005 7:21:34 PM PST by Retired Chemist
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To: kristinn
I report. You decide.


45 posted on 12/31/2005 7:27:29 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: kristinn

Off topic but cedars in Texas?


46 posted on 12/31/2005 7:28:18 PM PST by beaver fever
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To: beaver fever
Off topic but cedars in Texas?

Hell yeah! You can sit on the porch and watch them grow! Amazing how they can fill up a perfectly good pasture in no time at all!

47 posted on 12/31/2005 8:06:22 PM PST by Americanchild (..and deliver us all from Islam!)
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To: beaver fever

Off topic but cedars in Texas?



Don't let the WP fool you..... there isn't a cedar tree within a 1,000 miles of Texas.... They hauled them in for a photo op don'tcha know?


48 posted on 12/31/2005 8:20:14 PM PST by deport
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To: Americanchild

OK, here's one for ya what is the market price for West Coast cedar log in Japan with clear grain and no knots?


49 posted on 12/31/2005 8:25:14 PM PST by beaver fever
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To: beaver fever
OK, here's one for ya what is the market price for West Coast cedar log in Japan with clear grain and no knots?

I haven't a clue, FRiend!

50 posted on 12/31/2005 9:06:06 PM PST by Americanchild (..and deliver us all from Islam!)
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