Tipsheet

The Good Friday White House Pizza Party

The President is flying a chef from St. Louis to Washington -- just to prepare pizza for him and his staff, according to this piece.  Apparently, there is going to be something like a Good Friday Pizza Party for 140 at The White House this evening. 

It's not clear whether this is being privately subsidized by the Obamas, or whether the taxpayers are ponying up for the cost.  But there is something about this that screams a bit of wretched excess, is there not?  For people who have made much of their humble roots, the Obamas have apparently slipped quite easily into the high life.

I grew up in St. Louis, and I have lived in Washington, D.C.  I looove St. Louis pizza, but frankly, one can find a pretty adequate pie in the District.

Can you imagine the screaming about corporate excess if a CEO -- with a strapped company, dependent on the taxpayers (as President Obama's "organization" is) -- had behaved this way, even on his own dime?  No doubt the President would simply conclude that the CEO was being paid too much, and that it denoted a profoundly unhealthy "culture."

Apparently, the rules are different if you're the leader of the federal government.  In the Obama era, accountability is only for the private sector.