This Week In Pool Reports

Visions of sugarplums dance though Bush's head as the FLOTUS gives the Christmas tour. Whatever you do, don't eat the gingerbread house. Meanwhile, Karl Rove is plotting his revenge (be afraid Dems, be very afraid) and the motorcade turns into a high speed chase. Anyone know how fast 120 KPH is anyway? Standing with Mesnier in the State Dining Room, Mrs. Bush pointed out the finer points of the gingerbread mansion including Barney and Miss Beazley sitting in Santa's sleigh, the cat nestled in the snow near the White House front steps, and 800 hand-piped icing snowflakes. 'Everything is edible, not that I would suggest anybody break off a piece,' the First Lady said." -- Linda Kramer, People Magazine "She said this year's theme takes its cues from the Red Room. 'This is a beautiful old house to decorate for Christmas,' she said (transcript to come). The buffet table down the center of the room was covered with a red on red polka dot tablecloth and featured faux evergreens ranged down the middle on a bed of faux moss and cotton puff snow." -- Kramer "In all, the President and First Lady will be greeting 10,000 guests at 24 parties spread over 20 days as they wrap up their sixth Christmas in the White House. Mrs. Bush introduced the key players behind all the festivities, including White House Social Secretary Lea Berman, Mesnier, White House Chief Cristeta Comerford, holiday pastry chef Bill Yosses, White House florist Nancy Clarke and the three artists responsible for the illustrations for the official holiday booklet, the holiday invitations and the White House Christmas cards. The First Lady laughed that 'we're probably one of the first American families' to get all their cards out." -- Kramer "The doors to the State Dining Room were then opened for the ravenous media to descend on the buffet, doing our part to consume some of the 4,000 pounds of shrimp and 20,000 Christmas cookies that will be on offer to the White House holiday guests." -- Kramer "Describing this year's buffet spreads, Mrs. Bush said they included a few less traditional items, such as Bush family favorites chicken fried steak and tamales. She joked that calorie watching was not a factor in the menu planning. Other items on the menu include ham, lollipop lamb chops, stuffed turkey breast, sweet potato souffle and asparagus." -- Kramer "A few other holiday stats: 4,638 red ornament balls, 17 Christmas trees, 269 wreaths, 1,089 feet of garland" -- Kramer "'Boy, you guys must be really worried about the Hadley memo,' your pooler ventured. 'You mean you bought that story about the phony memo?' Rove joked before scurrying toward the front of the plane. [Before boarding, when your pooler asked Rove about Republican losses in the midterms elections, he replied: 'It'll turn out all right -- we'll get 'em next time.']" -- Bill Sammon, Washington Examiner "Speedy 25-minute ride from Four Seasons to the airport. Other than the size (which was twice as big as usual) and given the landscape, this motorcade could have been through the southwestern United States -- traffic in our lanes blocked but traffic on bridges, underpasses and in the opposite direction still flowing -- but for the heavily armed soldiers and police stationed along the route. The Jordanian security seemed fascinated to be in the motorcade. As we pulled out of the hotel a Jordanian security SUV and van were jockeying for the position just behind your pooler's van, at speeds of 90 KPH through the city streets. Lots of gestures out the window. Later, another SUV sped past them to pull behind us and the man in the passenger seat took a snapshot of our van. Speeds hit up to 120 KPH." -- Stephen Dinan, Washington Times

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