South Carolinians will have to wait at least another day for the
White House to announce S.C. House Speaker David Wilkins,
R-Greenville, is President Bush’s choice to be the next U.S.
ambassador to Canada.
Some thought an announcement would come during Bush’s visit
Monday to Columbia.
Word is, though, the White House didn’t want to do anything that
would upstage the president’s Social Security talk.
Bush and Wilkins were mum about their private meeting before the
speech, but The Buzz would bet a nice woolen parka that the Great
White North came up.
REAL (CONGRESS)MEN DO EAT QUICHE
What does Air Force One serve for breakfast?
Quiche. As in that fluffy, eggy concoction perfected by the
(sacre bleu!) French. Ham and cheese quiche, to be exact.
So reports U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, R-S.C., who — with three
other GOP members of the S.C. congressional delegation — enjoyed
breakfast with the commander in chief aboard Air Force One on Monday
morning.
Isn’t quiche a less-than-manly breakfast for our
cowboy-boot-wearing president?
“I cannot say that I actually saw the president eat the quiche,”
said Brown, a loyal Republican. “He ate grapes.”
As for the delegation, they partook in the quiche.
“Being from South Carolina, we like grits and eggs,” Brown added.
“But on Air Force One, you’re not going to say anything.”
YOU SAY PALMETTO, I SAY PIMENTO ...
The president lunched at Rockaway Athletic Club in Rosewood,
where, in the words of a member of the White House press corps, he
“bellied up to the bar” and said, “I gotta get me a burger.”
Bush then ordered what the White House pool reporters — the ones
who report to colleagues back on the bus — called “the pimento
cheeseburger.”
Pool reporters dutifully distributed their report to their
colleagues, but then sent a correction: “palmetto cheeseburger,” not
“pimento cheeseburger.”
After further deliberation, they sent out another correction:
pimento, not palmetto.
Sorry guys. The Buzz regrets to report you got it wrong all three
times. Although there is a ton of pimento cheese on it, it’s
technically a “Rockaway burger.”
NICE TOUCH, JOE
U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., took one of his precious
minutes aboard Air Force One to ask the president for an
autograph.
Not for himself — for Lance Cpl. Steve Diaz. The
20-year-old A.C. Flora High School graduate was badly wounded in
Iraq on March 25 when a bomb struck his Humvee.
Wilson told President Bush about Diaz, who is recovering
from shrapnel wounds to his legs, arm and left eye. He asked Bush to
sign a presidential postcard for the young Marine.
Wilson, who returned to Washington with Bush, then made his way
to the National Naval Medical Center, where Diaz is
recuperating.
The Marine smiled, Wilson reported, and held it to his chest.
——————————
“We left DeMint.”
— U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s tongue-in-cheek response when
asked about the flight to Columbia on Air Force One and one of his
fellow GOP passengers, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint
Lee Bandy, Lauren
Markoe
