It won't be long before President Bush is a typical American again, sitting at home on his La-Z-Boy recliner, munching on snacks in front of the TV.
Or so Mr. Bush, a former Texas governor, observed during the annual state dinner he hosted for the nation's governors at the White House on Sunday night.
"You know, I've developed a unique perspective on this event," he said. "For six years, I sat and watched the president speak. For eight years, I was the president and spoke. And next year, I'll be watching on C-SPAN."
Longing for home
The Safeway in Georgetown had better stock its shelves, because the king is coming to town.
His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan will begin a working visit to the United States next week, during which time he will hold talks at the White House with President Bush on ways to advance Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations.
Practically every time he visits Washington, the casually dressed king is spotted at the Wisconsin Avenue Safeway filling up his shopping cart with food and treats.
By the way, there are Safeways in Jordan: six full-service stores, one wholesale center, and two Safeway Express convenience stores. All the stores, we read yesterday, are open seven days a week and offer a range of supermarket items, perishables and general merchandise.
Loan counselors
Amount that President Bush's new 2009 federal budget requests for so-called "housing counseling": $65 million.
As Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson put it in a recent speech, the current onslaught of failed home loans — the secretary refers to them as "suicide loans" — and foreclosures could have been avoided if the homeowner had only "read the fine print" and understood the contract, which can now be accomplished with HUD-approved "housing counselors."
Winning the slots
Consider it a privilege to fly into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Meaning, it's one of the few airports in the nation where strict flight limitations are imposed, given the few short runways and close proximity to downtown Washington.
Not long ago, however, we reported that Congress created exemptions to the airport's slot limits (landings and takeoffs) in order to promote airline competition and enhance air service to the nation's capital.
Even then, the Department of Transportation had only four exemptions (one exemption permits one daily takeoff or landing; thus, two slot exemptions are required for a single daily round trip) to award, with five airlines in contention for the prizes.
Now we learn that the department has selected AirTran Airways and Spirit Airlines over the other three carriers, citing their records of competitive pricing and offering more seats.
"These new services will mean lower fares and more choices for thousands of passengers flying to Washington," noted Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters.
Spirit says it plans to fly to and from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and AirTran will decide on one of two routes: to and from Jacksonville, Fla., or Milwaukee.
True love
We had reason to drop into former White House Cabinet member-turned-radio talk-show host Bill Bennett's "Morning in America" Web site yesterday and discovered this intriguing submission from American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Michael Ledeen, titled "True Love."
It was written, Mr. Ledeen says, by a "great warrior," the now-deceased Gen. Louis H. Wilson Jr., a Mississippi native who won the Medal of Honor for his heroics in World War II and went on to become the 26th commandant of the Marine Corps. The general died in 2005 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Without further ado:
The wonderful love of a beautiful maid,
The love of a staunch true man,
The love of a baby, unafraid,
Have existed since time began.
But the greatest of loves,
The quintessence of loves,
Even greater than that of a mother,
Is the tender, passionate, infinite love,
Of one drunken Marine for another.