Boy, you guys need to toughen up!!! *LOL*
Invade a country, go to war..BUT snow? *LOL*
— Associated Press
Storm paralyzes D.C., but this time Obama stays mum on capital's lack of toughness
Mar 03, 2009 04:30 AM
Mitch Potter
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON – The last time the Obamas watched Washington go into sub-Arctic panic over a mere dusting of snow, the president was forthright: this capital, he said, needs to toughen up.
It was a battle he hardly needed to pick, but his surprise at the city's overreaction to late January weather that would barely raise an eyebrow in Chicago (or Toronto) moved Barack Obama to speak out.
"Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy, very quickly? It has to do with Washington. My children's school was cancelled today because of what ... some ice?"
Yesterday, when a similar sprinkling triggered the same public response – a run on bread and milk, an official call for workers to "telecommute, if you can" and the requisite closing of the Obama girls' classrooms, along with most others – the president held his tongue.
Perhaps it had something to do with this announcement from the White House early yesterday: "Monday, March 2, 2009 – The First Lady's `Read Across America' event, previously scheduled for today at the Library of Congress with the NEA and Secretary Arne Duncan – has been cancelled due to inclement weather."
Yesterday's crippling east coast storm mostly bypassed the capital. But the lightly sprinkled city nevertheless was reduced to skeletal staff in anticipation of much worse.
"It's embarrassing. Just eight out of 45 staff made it in today," a telephone representative at Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission told the Star.
"In our defence, we really did think we'd get more snow than we got," said the rep at the water and sewer utility.
"But let's face it: We already have a reputation for overreacting. This doesn't help."
James Dixon, a soda truck driver from Rosslyn, Va., was among the unlucky few who found themselves on the job despite the semi-shutdown.
"I thought I'd have an easy day. Everyone else is," he said, rolling a dolly of Cokes through a shoe-high snowdrift. "But I called in and the boss said we have to be like the mail. Neither sleet nor snow ... "
White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs pre-empted weather questions at the top of his news conference.
"How are you guys? How was your commute?" he asked . "This might be what the president considers a serious snowstorm. So if I wanted to get ahead of any potential question ... my son is exceedingly excited that his school is closed.
Invade a country, go to war..BUT snow? *LOL*
— Associated Press
Storm paralyzes D.C., but this time Obama stays mum on capital's lack of toughness
Mar 03, 2009 04:30 AM
Mitch Potter
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON – The last time the Obamas watched Washington go into sub-Arctic panic over a mere dusting of snow, the president was forthright: this capital, he said, needs to toughen up.
It was a battle he hardly needed to pick, but his surprise at the city's overreaction to late January weather that would barely raise an eyebrow in Chicago (or Toronto) moved Barack Obama to speak out.
"Can I make a comment that is unrelated to the economy, very quickly? It has to do with Washington. My children's school was cancelled today because of what ... some ice?"
Yesterday, when a similar sprinkling triggered the same public response – a run on bread and milk, an official call for workers to "telecommute, if you can" and the requisite closing of the Obama girls' classrooms, along with most others – the president held his tongue.
Perhaps it had something to do with this announcement from the White House early yesterday: "Monday, March 2, 2009 – The First Lady's `Read Across America' event, previously scheduled for today at the Library of Congress with the NEA and Secretary Arne Duncan – has been cancelled due to inclement weather."
Yesterday's crippling east coast storm mostly bypassed the capital. But the lightly sprinkled city nevertheless was reduced to skeletal staff in anticipation of much worse.
"It's embarrassing. Just eight out of 45 staff made it in today," a telephone representative at Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission told the Star.
"In our defence, we really did think we'd get more snow than we got," said the rep at the water and sewer utility.
"But let's face it: We already have a reputation for overreacting. This doesn't help."
James Dixon, a soda truck driver from Rosslyn, Va., was among the unlucky few who found themselves on the job despite the semi-shutdown.
"I thought I'd have an easy day. Everyone else is," he said, rolling a dolly of Cokes through a shoe-high snowdrift. "But I called in and the boss said we have to be like the mail. Neither sleet nor snow ... "
White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs pre-empted weather questions at the top of his news conference.
"How are you guys? How was your commute?" he asked . "This might be what the president considers a serious snowstorm. So if I wanted to get ahead of any potential question ... my son is exceedingly excited that his school is closed.
